“So how do you cleanse your face?”, “Oh, I use Simple Wipes”…
This has been the simple back and forth that over my last few years in cosmetics, since their creation, has pissed me off something rotten. Even to the point when I visited home and shouted to my mother from upstairs: “What the f*ck are these doing in here!?”. But she loves them, however myself and people in my circle being complete beauty snobs, wrote them off.
Now, even though, especially when it comes to women removing makeup, as I don’t particularly agree with wipes being facial wash replacements (they’re great for a quick mid-day cleanse!), I decided to do a bit of investigation and see what’s behind the hype.
The ‘classic’ Simple range seems to be geared towards a ‘normal’ skin-type, restoring both oil and water. However, in the last few weeks, they’ve brought an anti-blemish range to the market, so as you can imagine as a patron of Clinique: Anti-Blemish Solutions, this pricked my attention.
The price is brilliant. I bought the items from Boots (they’re the UK’s biggest drug store, for our wonderful American readers). The range as it stands at the moment, includes: Facial Wash (£3.99), Moisturiser (£4.99), Spot Zapper Roll-On (£5.49), Exfoliator (£4.99) and of course, Wipes (!!) (£3.85). I was tempted by facial wash, moisturiser and spot zapper to begin with, as I always say, start small and build up.
Now, I am going to try as hard as I can to review these products without comparing them to the Clinique range, as to start with, there is a price difference of over £30.
Spotless Skin Triple Action Facial Wash
Fragrance and colourant free, so I’m happy from the onset.
This facial wash proved to give a wonderfully complete cleanse, leaving my skin feeling squeaky, although a tiny bit dry. It felt as though it contained some sort of exfoliating beads, I could have done without that, as when the wash spread over my face, it seemed to end up as there being 1 bead per few centimeters of skin. The product foamed well, but not a massive mountain of unnecessary foam that can often really aid in the skin drying out, it felt more luxurious than that. My skin is blemish prone, but not overly oily, so the fact that my skin only felt a tiny bit less comfortable, speaks wonderful volumes on how the product will treat but not dry Acne Vulgaris prone skin. The wonderful conditioning ingredients, that Simple are brilliantly so transparent about are: Zinc – reducing oil, Chamomile – anti-irritant, Witch Hazel – tones and reduces pore size, Phytosphingosine – reduces breakout and a disinfectant – A natural fat derivative that’s in our skin already, they help prevent the build up of micro-organisms such as the vile p.Acne bacteria (spot causing nastiness); it’s also widely known not to cause allergic reactions, being far more gentle than ingredients such as benzyl-peroxide, which even though can be effective, may really irritate some skins. Claims to give results in 1 day- it did for me.
Spotless Skin Anti-Blemish Moisturiser
Again, fragrance and colourant free. Great stuff.
The moisturiser, I will compare to Clinique Anti-Blemish solutions, because I think it’s a tough competitor. Apart from not leaving my skin quite as ‘hydrated’ as I’d like, it did leave it comfortable, reduced in spots and shine free, whilst soaking in relatively quickly. After I’d applied my Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector (Clinique) and Youth Surge (Clinique), as I would normally which are a serum and treatment respectively, my skin felt at it’s best, and lacking in nothing! The moisturiser features similar ingredients as the wash in terms of spot fighting goodies, as well as: Corn Starch – matifying, and Aloe – soothes and helps to repair the moisture barrier. Overall very impressed with this product, as I’m used to many mass market ‘spot-treatments’, completely drying my skin out, and therefore making spots far worse, but not with this bad-boy! Also claims to give results in 1 day- and again, it did.
Spotless Skin Rapid Action Spot Zapper
Sounds exciting, and in all honesty- it is. This claims to give results in 4 hours! Well, it did, the few spots I had noticeably reduced in swelling and dried up nicely, without drying the surrounding skin. As well as featuring some of the previously mentioned ingredients, it contains one of my all time favorites, it’s the old lady’s favourite, lavender – a wonderful anti-inflammatory ingredient that aids in the reduction in the swelling of spots. All I can say is that for me, I did find it work, not as effectively for me as another one does (no guesses for who makes it), but I liked it.
Overall, well done Simple, you’ve turned me round!
