Today we will be looking at my second try with the L'Occitane Shea facial skincare line, many of you will remember the disaster that I had last year with one of the skin creams and may be surprised that I have decided to give this line a second go around. I had very high hopes for the hydrating face cream that I tried from this line and still have very clear memories of the redness and swelling that it caused my face and neck and I went back to using all Clinique products for a few weeks after this issue. At this time, I decided that I would never use any other product from this line even though I have loved many of the body products for years beforehand. Obviously, I have decided to give a product from this line a second try and the results are much better this time around.
I decided several weeks ago that I really wanted to give the Shea face line another try and starting thinking about what product I would like to try this time and how I was going to go about it. My initial thoughts were to chose a product that I do not leave on my face this time around and I settled on a face cleanser from the line and obtained several samples from the L'Occitane store before I decided to order the full size. We will look at the product that I chose and then we will get into how I patch-tested it and a full review.
The product that I decided to try out is the Face Cleansing Milk from the Shea line, I had used a cream cleanser from another line produced by this company when I was in college and I loved it. I think my love of that product and the matching face lotion and cream are the reasons that I bought the L'Occitane face cream and never properly tested it before rubbing it all over my face. "This cleansing milk, with its creamy texture, gently cleanses and removes makeup. Enriched with softening shea and soothing licorice extract, it preserves skin's natural hydration and leaves it clean, supple, and comfortable.", states the company's website.
The manager at my local L'Occitane store was very generous with the samples of this product while I was deciding if I could use this all over my face. I started with testing it on my forearm; the skin in this area is much less sensitive than my face, neck, or hands. I tested this face wash in the shower for three days on my forearm area and experienced no irritation. I then moved on to testing it on my hands, my hands are much more sensitive than my forearm and irritation develops easily on them. Obviously, I had no irritation after three days worth of testing in this area and then I repeated the test on the back of my neck. After three days of testing on my neck with no irritation, I decided that I would use my last sample to wash my face and then purchase the full size bottle.
I am very happy that this face wash worked out for me, I have been using it for about three weeks now and I have been very much enjoying it. I use one and a half pumps of this product to cleanse my entire face, I do not use this product to take my eye makeup off and always go in with a separate remover in this area. I have tried quite a few milk cleansers over the years and I have found that they often need a separate toner to remove every trace of makeup that I put on my face in the morning, this holds true for this product and I have been purchasing the huge bottles of the Clinique Toner designed for dry to very dry skin to use every other day.
This cleanser does not foam up and rinses cleanly with water. I like that this product doesn't dry my skin out or leave it with the "tight" feeling that most gel cleansers would at this time of the year. I would recommend this cleanser to anyone with skin that is dry and I could not see anyone with normal or oily skin liking this product. The Shea Cleansing Face Milk is a very good choice for my dry winter skin and I will continue to use it throughout the spring months. I do not yet know if this might be too heavy for my skin once the warm weather hits.
I have had one hit and one huge miss from the L'Occitane Shea face line, I am still trying to decide if I will be trying any other products from this line. I am still hesitant to try other moisturizers from this line and I would be even less comfortable using any product from this line around my eyes. I would only consider trying other products from this line if I could obtain a few samples and repeat the extensive patch-testing, I am so happy that the manager of my store was willing to help me with all the samples and I would go back to her if I decide to try another products from this skincare line.
photo courtesy of Sephora
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