Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bioderma Sensibio H2O Review

On a trip to Singapore last year I went to a Guardian Pharmacy specifically to pick up a bottle or two of Bioderma. It is a product from France and I had seen many positive mentions of this on YouTube as well as around the net and wanted to see whether for me, this product will be a star.

Bioderma Sensibio H2O is a gentle cleanser and makeup remover which is suitable for sensitive skin. It is fragrance and alcohol free and the first item on its ingredients list is Aqua or water.

Here are the ingredients:
Aqua, PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides, Propylene Glycol, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Fructooligosaccharides, Mannitol, Xylitol, Rhamnose, Disodium EDTA, Cetrimonium Bromide.

It is a clear liquid not unlike water but if you give the bottle a little shake, you will be able to see that the liquid bubbles up a little. When you first see this product, the packaging is simple and quite straightforward I must say. No frills about this at all. I almost missed it at the pharmacy because it didn't quite stand out, but I was determined not to walk out of that place without at least one bottle of this in my hands!!

I was curious as to how a product that looked like water would be able to lift away all my layers of makeup? So I tried it out for myself. The way to use this product is to pour out a little onto some cotton pads and then skim it over your face to remove your makeup. I take two cotton pads, pour out some liquid and the take the pads and place them over my eyelids for about 3 seconds before I swipe it all around my eyes to remove eye makeup, then I used the cotton all over my face to remove make up there. Lastly,I turn the cotton over and use the other side to take off the residue.






















The hubs watched me do this one day as I was cleansing and chatting about something (important I am sure!) and as we were talking I saw his eyes grow bigger and bigger and thought that there might be a giant spider on the wall behind me! Before I could scream (I cannot stand the sight of spiders!! EEEK!) he said "Wow, what is that? It seems to be taking everything off so easily!" Well, let's just say he was immediately schooled on all things Bioderma!

If you don't mind the ickyness of removed makeup, I have a picture of how much one swipe around the whole face turned up! Foundation, eyeshadow and eyeliner all gone.

The first thing I notice is that my eye makeup which includes, eyelid primer, cream shadow as a base, eyeshadow, eyeliner and mascara (sometimes waterproof) will 'melt' upon contact with the product. This is the reason I leave the soaked cotton pads over my eyelids for a few seconds. It cleans the area quite well as I wipe it around my eyes. To remove the last stubborn makeup which is usually waterproof eyeliner (usually at the base of the eyelid) and mascara, I need to turn the cotton over and wipe again. And the picture below shows the other side of the cotton after cleansing the second time. I concentrated on the hairline too especially for this step of cleansing.

Amazingly, because of its ingredients, this solution does not hurt the eyes at all. I was initially conscious when wiping makeup under my eyes that this will sting and cause my eyes to go cloudy but it did not at all. This product does not irritate sensitive eyes like mine so no red eye! This is especially good because undereye makeup is at the lashline and if you want to really get liner off properly, you cannot help but sometimes get into the eye. Well, with this product, there is no need to worry because there is no stinging even. Thats how gentle it is.

Even though this is a cleanser, I still follow up with a face wash with my regular cleanser, just to ensure that the last bits of grime are washed off and nothing clogs my pores. However, I sometimes skip this step and still feel comfortable enough to come back and wash my face later.
  
I have also used some of this on a q-tip to clean off some makeup mistakes....while I was doing my eyeliner one day, there was a loud thunder that scared me so much I got waterproof eyeliner all over the side of my eye and this was great in removing that. There was no greasy residue to deal with and after the area had dried off completely, I applied a little powder over the area which restored it to looking like new.
Overall, this is a great product and I have been using this everyday since I started about 4 months ago. As you can see from the pictures, I am halfway through already!

The downside to this great find is that it is not available in Malaysia. In Singapore, it retails for around $39 for 250ml which is steep. However, since I enjoy using this, and it is convenient, I can overlook that. You can find these sold online or if you have relatives or friends in Singapore, you could enlist their help in getting this.

Bioderma also claims to be fragrance free but I still detected a faint smell probably from the cucumber extract that is in this product.

Although Bioderma is called a cleanser, for me, this was not the last step in my cleansing process. I still needed to cleanse using a regular facial wash to really clean my face. On one occassion, I cleansed with Bioderma several times until my cotton was not stained with foundation and other makeup anymore....this to me felt like a waste especially since this is not the cheapest cleanser around.

This product will be a godsend to those who happen to have a long day and just want to climb into bed as quickly as possible. You will be able to reasonably clean your face with this and off you go!

I would recommend this product because it is waterbased and is very gentle on skin.