Softymo Airy Whip

Did you know those Naive Facial Cleansing Foams last for freakin' ever? I started using the Peach one in January, and by April I barely used up a third! So I got impatient and started trying out a different cleanser :P

I spotted this Softymo Airy Whip on Sasa.com and didn't have the strength to resist it. It had glowing reviews with 5 stars, and they all says it's gentle, non-drying, and suitable for all skin types. And it was cheap! I was completely sold and tore into the package as soon as it arrived.

Well, I hate to rain on all the great reviews, but other than the scent, this cleanser didn't bode well with my skin at all :( First of all, switching from Naive Facial Cleansing Foam to this Softymo Airy Whip, I was a bit disappointed with the foaming factor. To be fair, the Naive cleanser foamed much more than your average foaming cleanser, and just a tiny little dollop would yield a very thick and rich foam. Also, the Airy Whip's packaging gave me incorrect assumptions and my expectations were way off, which probably also explains my disappointment. Because it came in an aluminum aerosol bottle that requires rigorous shaking prior to dispensing, I expected that it would be sort of like shaving cream. You know, shake well, dispenses a gel or foamy cream, and upon application it would foam like mad. Nope. Not so. The Airy Whip dispensed a thick and rich foam, but upon massaging that foam onto my face it would quickly dissipate and become a very light and airy foam and did not stay thick and rich. So in this sense it did stay true to its name, just not the way I expected it to.

Why didn't it bode well with my skin? It stung like hell, that's why, although not consistently every time I use it. No, it wasn't because I bought the wrong stuff or that because the bottle I got had gone bad or anything. The cleanser just wasn't suitable with me skin, period. It only stung on drier days and stung the areas where my skin is most dry and/or sensitive, i.e. around my eyes, my nose and mouth, especially the under eye area, corners of my nostrils, and the area above my upper lips. You see, other than the oil cleanser to take off sunscreen, I avoid using any other cleansers on these areas directly. Of course, with any foaming cleanser it's not possible to neatly contain the foam to wherever you want them, but out of all the foaming cleansers I have used in the past (which is quite a lot!), the only other one in recent memory that stung me like this was Estee Lauder Soft Clean Moisture Rich Foaming Cleanser (what a long-winded name it was too)! So unfortunately, on drier days, washing my face was like a race to wash and rinse off before it starts stinging, which is totally ridiculous if you ask me.

To top it all off, by May I had already used up the darn can! Yes, it lasted me 1 whole month with nightly use and every other 2 mornings' use :(