Review: Lakme Cleansing Milk

Lakme Gentle and Soft Deep Pore Cleanser

with Avocado extracts and Vitamin E

for Normal to Dry Skin

Somethings never change. Thank God for that. I first used Lakme Cleansing Milk way back in 1996 when I was still a kid - to get rid of all the dirt on my face after coming back from a PT class. We used to live by the beach and the humidity just made the skin sticky and attracted all the dust and dirt. It was amazing! It would remove layers and layers of dirt from the skin. And that was that. Years later, in 2015 while browsing through my local grocer's shop, I found this all new and revamped bottle of Lakme Gentle and Soft Deep Pore Cleanser. I remember back in the 90s, it was a slender, tall white bottle with light blue cap and text accents. Now it is still slender and tall, but with some curves, and mint green cap and text accents. The name has changed to "Deep Pore Cleanser", but what is in a name, right? I was delighted to find out that the product was just the same - with new ingredients.

Ingredients:

Ingredients, as mentioned on the bottle, and their use in the product (after my own intensive research) are mentioned below. Those highlighted in red are deemed unsafe on skin or of animal origin.

• Water


• Mineral Oil - It is a petroleum derivative and blocks the pores on the skin not allowing it to breathe, acting just like a plastic cling wrap on the skin.


• Laureth-4 - Allows the product to dissolve in water.


• Glycerin - Skin softener and moisturizer.


• Stearic acid - Cleansing agent of animal origin, most commonly derived from the fatty acids in the stomach of a pig.


• Palmitic acid - Cleansing agent. May be of plant or animal origin.


• Cetyl alcohol - Fragrance, opacifying agent, emollient. May be of plant or animal origin.


• Glyceryl Stearate - Skin conditioning.


• PEG-100 Stearate - Cleansing agent.


• Perfume


• Tocopheryl acetate - Acetate variety of Vitamin E. Skin conditioning. 


• Carbomer - Emulsion stabilizer.


• Sodium hydroxide - pH adjuster. However, can irritate skin and eyes.


• Disodium EDTA - Decreases the reactivity of the ingredients.


• Butylated Hydroxy Toluene - Antioxidant.


• Propylene Glycol - Fragrance and moisturizer.


• Avocado fruit extract - Moisturizing and antioxidant.


• Parabens - Preservative but can disrupt the hormonal balance, especially in women.


• Phenoxyethanol - Fragrance and preservative.

There are many products red-listed, so it is alarming that my favourite cleanser hid so many unsafe and animal origin ingredients in it. It is definitely not vegan. It may cause irritation to sensitive skin and eyes due to the presence of one such definite irritant. Parabens seem to have become a norm in each an every cosmetic product these days, but they have been shown to cause much harm. Definitely, put me in a retrospective mode!

The packaging, as you can see, is simple and elegant. A slender, tall white bottle with a gentle curve near the cap to look like a drop. The cap and text is in mint green. The cap, a much lighter shade of mint green, and the text accents in a darker shade. The text on the bottle is shiny as well! So pretty. The bottle comes with a flip open cap  which is easy to flip open and won't break your nails in the attempt.

The product is a thin consistency white colored liquid with a very mild, pleasant fragrance. It spreads easily on the skin on its own, and as such just a little product is enough to cleanse the face. There are 2 ways to use the cleanser - 

1. Pour some product onto a cotton ball and swipe over the face & neck.

2. Apply all over the face & neck and wipe off with either a wet/ dry cotton ball.

In my experience, the former method is a more gentile method to cleanse the face and is especially effective if their is not much dirt or make up on the skin. If using on a heavy make up/ dirty skin , gently press the cotton ball on the skin for a few seconds allowing the product to dissolve some of it and then swipe.

The latter method using a wet cotton ball is also a gentile way to remove make up and dirt without causing a lot of friction, but it does not remove all the grime effortlessly this way. The best way to remove the grittiest make up and dirt is to directly apply some cleanser on the skin and then remove it using a dry cotton ball. This method does feel a bit harsh on sensitive skin but does the job the quickest and easiest of the three methods. Just rinse off the residual cleanser on the skin with plain water or use a toner. As the cleanser is meant for normal to dry skin, it is moisturizing enough that I skip using a moisturizer after the "toner" step. The result is a visibly radiant and clean skin. 

So, the only downside is the number of red-listed chemicals used in the product. As the saying goes, natural is always the best. It may be slow to work with but will not have any side effects. However, this is a very popular cleanser. Millions use it, including me. Luckily, I've had no adverse reactions to it so far. However, I'm left with little choice in order to switch over to any other cleanser, especially when it comes to the efficacy of the product, few come close to matching this one.