Boscia Soothing Cleansing Cream

Update Sunday, May 19, 2013.

So I learned the reason behind the "demand" that this cream cleanser is to be used with dry hands and face. Because it's actually a cream-to-oil cleanser.

As mentioned below this cream cleanser starts to dry up about 30 seconds into application. Usually, this is the cue for me to rinse my face before it becomes too tugging, not to mention my arms would get tired. Then one night, I was in a rebellious mood and stubbornly massaged on even though the cleanser became drier and drier. And then -poof!- the whole thing just melted and became oily and slippery. The first time this happened, I brushed it off as a fluke. But since then, I've been consistently replicating this cream-dries-poof-oil process with every use, so my only logical conclusion is that it's a cream-to-oil cleanser. It makes perfect sense now why the instructions say to start with dry hands and face.

While this cream cleanser is no longer "demanding," I now blame it for being misleading and confusing. Nowhere on the packaging or even Boscia USA's website explains fully the nature of the cleanser, that the users are to massage the cream cleanser into their skin until it completely dissolves into an oil, then rinse. This means unless you stumbled upon this fact accidentally like I did, you are using this cleanser incorrectly, like I was, up until my discovery. And this means if the cream cleanser hasn't been doing a good job cleansing your face, removing your makeup, etc., well, perhaps this is why!

Ha...

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Original post Friday, March 15, 2013.

I bought this Boscia Soothing Cleansing Cream during Boscia's Surprise Beauty Box Holiday 2012 promotion, wherein you get 5 full size products with every order of $75 or more. I ended up with 2 of these, having received the second for free as part of the Surprise Beauty Box.

Boscia's Surprise Beauty Box promotion was quite generous!

***Screencap from Boscia.

The purchased items are boxed at right, and I bought full sizes of, from right to left, Smoothing Facial Polish (currently using, will review next), Balancing Facial Tonic, and this Soothing Cleansing Cream. The GWP items are unboxed, at left and top, and I received duplicates of Balancing Facial Tonic and Soothing Cleansing Cream, Makeup-Breakup Cool Cleansing Oil, Vital Daily Moisture SPF 15 (top left, this was gifted to my mum in law), and Enlivening Amino-AG Eye Treatment.

I was looking forward to using this cleansing cream, however when I did, to my surprise I was not too thrilled with it :( It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good, and I'm disappointed to say I've had much better, and way cheaper (less than half the price!), else where. My favorite is still The Body Shop Vitamin E Cream Cleanser. And unless they change the formula since, I remember Softymo Speedy Cleansing Milk being rather decent even if it was an unintended purchase.


First off, you are supposed to start with dry face and hands. Perhaps I'm more annoyed with this than I should be because all the other cream cleansers I've used worked dry or wet. So I take this as the product being "demanding" and I don't like "demanding" products :P

Secondly, while demanding dry face and hands, it also dries out much faster than it should. As with oil cleansers, I'm also very liberal cream cleansers. I use 5 pumps of this cleanser each time, and yet about 30 seconds after application it starts to dry out, making massaging difficult, if not tugging. Big no-no. I don't know about other cream cleansers, but this quick-dry thing never happened with The Body Shop or Softymo, and you bet I took my sweet a$$ time with them too. Hell, I do the same with oil cleansers!  Not to mention it's humid here in SF, so I can't even imagine how much faster it would dry out if I were to use it in a much drier climate where my folks are! Regardless, I prefer my cream cleansers to remain nice and moist, at least for longer than a minute or two to allow for thorough massaging into the skin. So not only this product is demanding of me, it's also difficult and rushes me through my facial cleansing. Tsk tsk tsk.

Lastly, being a cream cleanser it doesn't dry out my skin, but it doesn't help keeping it soft either. After washing, if I don't continue with my morning skincare routine quickly enough, my face will start feeling tight and dry. I expected a cream cleanser to be somewhat moisturizing, or at least keep me comfortable for a few minutes, but this doesn't seem to provide any moisture at all!

Overall, I must admit I'm pretty disappointed with this product. I even regretted buying this and not a bottle of Makeup-Breakup Cool Cleansing Oil instead. Oh well...