Tuesday, January 2, 2018

NIOD Sanskrit Saponins Face Cleanser Review

I've been intrigued by Canadian beauty company Deceim, aka the Abnormal Beauty Company, aka The Ordinary and several other brand lines, ever since it opened a store near me on Queen St. West over a year (or two?) ago. But even though Deceim generally offers very affordable price points, I'd never tried it until my friend started working for the company this past fall. Now, with almost two months worth of experience with several Deceim products, it's time for me to share my thoughts on them.

And I'm starting with the item that impressed me the least: the Sanskrit Saponins face cleanser. It's part of Deceim's NIOD line, which claims to be "skincare for the hyper-educated." It was recommended to me by a clerk at my local Deceim store (not my friend, she's not in a retail role) when I asked for a cleanser that would get deep down into my pores and clean them out.
Unfortunately I haven't experienced that despite using this cleanser once or twice a day for almost two months. Deceim has a lot to say about this product but to distill it down to just a few quotes, "SS is a viscous and intense cleaning balm" that "contains no purified or synthetic surfactants, sulphates, oils, esters or micellar technologies." Instead it uses, "a pH-balanced suspension of the amino acid, Lysine, in saponins from the Ayurvedic plants shikakai and sapindus mukorossi" to "visibly targets all forms of build-up, blemishes, congestion and impurities." The result is supposedly, "skin looking nearly pore-free and its surface exceptionally cleaned — as if it's radiating from within."

Oh, how I wanted those results. Instead I got skin that was clean but that still had clogged pores and blemishes. I even picked out a few specific clogged pores to watch closely while using this product and after a week, they were still clogged. I also didn't notice any impact on my blemishes; their frequency wasn't diminished nor did they heal faster.

I'll admit that part of the problem was me. Sanskrit Saponins isn't a makeup remover and if you're wearing makeup, you're supposed to remove it first before using this product. I didn't always do that and I'm sure that contributed to my poor results with this item. But at the same time, if this product is such an amazing cleanser, why can it be defeated by a BB cream?

While I wasn't a fan of this cleanser's results, I'm in the minority. However, a lot of people agree with me when it comes to this product's scent: It stinks. It has a strong yeasty smell that is just unpleasant. Thankfully it doesn't linger.

Other people have also complained about the cleanser's packaging. This paste-like product comes in a squeeze tube that reminded me of toothpaste packaging. While I had no issues with the tube, some people have commented that it has a habit of oozing.

NIOD is one of Deceim's pricier brands and because of that, this product comes in at $29, which I find is a lot for results that are just "meh."

Would I buy this product again: No but I will be trying one of Deceim's other cleansers.

Should you buy this product: Skip it.

No comments:

Post a Comment