Do not wipe your bum with these! (Oil of Olay Daily Facials)

Member Name: offy

Product:	Oil of Olay Daily Facials
Date:	09/11/02 (816 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice packaging, avoids bacteria build up, good at cleansing

Disadvantages: Expensive, hard to rinse, dried my skin

Not only am I lazy about housework, but I am also lazy about beauty care, so anything which works and saves me time is good in my books. I cannot use normal soap on my face as it dries it too much, and it really seems a lot of effort to use separate cleaners and moisturisers with cotton wool pads, so when I received a voucher for some money off a box of Olay Daily Facials, I thought this might be the answer.

++ The packaging ++
They come in a snazzy white plastic box about 5 inches wide, 4.5 inches deep and 3.5 inches tall which is wrapped in a cardboard covering with all the blurb on it. This is quite good as it means you can remove the cardboard and have a reasonably attractive waterproof box in your bathroom, rather than something which screams out ?grubby face!?. On the negative side, the box is quite large, so I certainly wouldn?t want to take them on holiday with me, as I?d have to cut down on about 10 pair of knickers! It also looks quite like the box that moist toilet tissues come in, so be careful not to wipe your nether regions with them. Inside is a softer plastic white box with no lid that contains the cloths and this is the bit you would replace if you were to buy a refill pack. The wipes are available in normal to oily skin and normal to dry skin, and this is clearly marked on the cardboard packaging. It also has a photo of a lady with perfect skin (don?t they always?) lathering her face and gives instructions for usage. One thing that is a bit odd is that the box says ?new?, but I have read opinions on this product date back as far as 2000, which is hardly new.

++ The cloths ++
The box contains 30 white cloths. They are about 6 inches by 7.5 inches and made of a sort of woven cloth material a bit like a dishcloth. They are like a flannel, which surprised me as I was expecting a wet cleaning wipe similar to the Johnson?s PH5.5 wipes I had used previously. Still at least they don?t dry out like the wet ones do. They are folded
into quarters to fit in the box. One side is rougher than the other so the flannel can be used to exfoliate and also for more delicate areas. Apparently it is impregnated with a soap free cleanser, which will lather when moistened. As they are quite large, you can actually cut them in half and still get your face clean, which obviously makes them twice as long lasting. One huge benefit I can see is that although it may seem wasteful to throw away a cloth (or half) after one use, it is also throwing away the bacteria that would otherwise fester on your flannel ? gross!

++ The claims ++
Well, these cloths are supposed be used instead of your normal cleansing routine, such as make-up cleaners, soap, face wash, cleansing milk and toner. They are also supposed to contain light moisturisers and ?improve the skin?s condition as you cleanse?. Apparently they will remove ?dirt, oil, and make-up, even mascara? and ?leave skin soft, not tight or dry?.

++ So did they work? ++
I followed the instructions. I moistened the cloth with water, lathered the cloth by rubbing it between my hands, cleansed my face, rinsed the cloth under the tap and then rinsed my face with the clean flannel. I threw the cloth in the bin as you must not flush in down the loo. All went well and my face certainly felt clean (so that claim worked), although I did find it quite hard to rinse the cloth before rinsing my face ? that soap free stuff was very stubborn. The cloths don?t smell particularly strong either before or during washing, and it is a smell similar to their moisturisers, nice and fresh but not overpowering. Once my face dried however, I felt that familiar tightening of the skin that I get after using soap (so that claim didn?t work) ? where is that light moisturising then? I just wish that tightening feeling worked as a face lift and I?d use these all the time! I use a lot of Olay products as I have found them good on my sensitive skin, and these were no excepti
on. Despite the tightening skin, I suffered no adverse reaction or stinging.

++ Manufacturer, price and availability ++
Olay Daily Facials are made in the USA by Proctor and Gamble. They have a freephone number for any queries which is 0800 9177 197. It is worth visiting their website too, as you can sign up for free offers sometimes. The address is: www.olay.co.uk. These cloths are a shocking £6.99 for 30 or the refill pack is £5.99, but if you shop around you can get them up to about £1 cheaper. I have seen them in quite a few supermarkets and local chemists, so they are widely available.

++ So, do I recommend them? ++
For me, no. I might as well buy a cheap bar of soap to tighten my skin rather than pay £6.99 for the privilege. The main reason I bought them was for the claim not to tighten or dry skin, and they failed for me on those, but then I do have very dry and sensitive skin. I also found them a bit of a hassle. I would much rather grab a facial wet wipe and scrape my make-up off in a drunken stupor, rather than grapple around with water, lather, rinsing (both cloth and face) and drying. The box is too big to take away with you and I'm worried about mixing them up with the moist toilet tissues. Anyone want a half used box?

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