Are y’all ready to get up close and personal with my face today? I’m reviewing two products, the Sugar Strawberry Exfoliating Face Wash and Soy Face Cleanser by fresh that Influenster was kind enough to send me!
I get really nervous trying new facial cleansers. I didn’t have any acne problems through high school, but as soon as I went to college, my face absolutely freaked out. I ended up on Minocycline and birth control for my acne, and I made a monthly trip to the dermatologist (an hour away) for microdermabrasion. I was also using Proactiv to no avail. I don’t even want to know how much money we wasted on that.
Things got better and I was on Minocycline off and on, but then during my Ph.D. program, back it came! I went to a new dermatologist since I was in a new city who said all the salicylic acid I was using in cleansers and topical medication was actually causing some of the breakouts. She recommended that I use CeraVe products, and things have been great ever since!
All of that is to say trying new cleansers on my face makes me fidgety. But I was really curious about the strawberry scrub, and since it’s summer, if I did have a reaction, at least I wouldn’t have to go stand in front of a classroom with a bunch of college students judging my breakouts.
I had been working in the yard all day (which is why my hair is so beautiful), so I poured myself a glass of lemonade and got ready to pamper my face with some strawberry goodness!
I was really impressed with the sizes of these products! The strawberry scrub was in a 4.2 oz tube and the soy cleanser was 5 oz.
I didn’t see any instructions in the box, so I used the sugar strawberry exfoliating cleanser first. Even though it’s a scrub, it didn’t feel too rough on my face, and it says that it can be used daily.
Taking recommendations for an under-eye cream…dang, girl.
The scrub claims to use actual strawberries in it, and I think the color and the fact that there was a strawberry seed on my face supports that claim! It didn’t really smell like strawberries, though – I noticed more of a mint smell, but it wasn’t anything I’d complain about. I rubbed the scrub in with some warm water and then wiped the rest off with a warm washcloth.
Next up is the soy face cleanser. Again, since there weren’t any instructions, I really don’t know if I was supposed to use both of these one after the other. There were no catastrophic after-effects, so I guess I wasn’t not supposed to use them together…
This cleanser claims to be extra-gentle and that it will take of makeup, even mascara, without taking out all your skin’s moisture. The instructions say to massage over the face and eyes, but I wear contacts and never like risking getting something in my eye, so I skipped the eye part. But it did feel relatively gentle.
I wasn’t super pumped about the smell of this one. It kind of smelled to me like a mixture of cucumber and chemicals…but it wasn’t super strong and unbearable.
Usually right after using my normal cleansers, I feel like I desperately need to put on moisturizer. My skin didn’t feel tight or dried out after using these products, and so far my skin has handled both cleansers really well with no sensitivity or breaking out. Success!
Have you ever tried this brand or either of these cleansers? Have you ever had issues with facial cleansers? What’s your go-to, everyday product(s) and what do you like to use when you’re treating yourself and your skin?
Biscotti and a Ph.D. 