Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm

This truly does what it says it will, it takes off all of your makeup really well and emulsifies as you remove your makeup. However, mine began to smell really bad after about 3 months. I contacted Clinique and they replaced it free of charge which was really sweet! I haven't used my new container just yet as I'm using up another cleansing oil right now, I'll edit this review once I have :)

I really wanted to like this, I tried so hard. I’d read the reviews already posted on it.. and I prepared to be amazed! But sadly it was not to be.

It started off well, I mean no one can argue with Clinique packaging, all those glossy boxes that just scream luxury..sigh… and then..

This product comes in a pot, so that kind of got me offside to start off with. It’s a big pot to be fair (125ml) so I would imagine it will last a while, and frankly if you’re shelling out $68 slides for a cleanser you’d want it to! I’m just not a fan of the pot and especially in the Shower where I tend to use my cleansers. You’ve got to take the lid off, excavate the product, get the lid back on the product while you’ve got cleanser on the other hand, without it tipping off, and then put it somewhere…god! Just put it in a pump bottle will ya?

Anyhow when you take the lid off you see that the product although it’s called a cleansing “balm” actually looks like solidified oil. You dig down into it and then when you rub it on your face it melts and turns oil like and you’re off.

So that was ok, but ultimately the question needed to be did it do what it said it would? I'm happy to report, It certainly did – it claims to quickly dissolve tedious face and eye make up (check) and it left my face feeling wonderfully soft and not at all tight (check).

The thing is, the product is fragrance free. Now for many of you reading this that would be a bonus. For me a big fat negative. I don’t like my products to be overly fragranced, but to me I love that heady smell in the shower when you’re using a shampoo or cleanser that has a fragrance you love and the steam drives it up and your whole shower experience is enhanced. To me the product was a very functional and I just didn’t get what all the palaver was about.

At $68, it's really expensive I think for a functional cleanser, a product you wash off, that gives you no sensory experience. I even wondered if it was the price that put me off, and I concluded that if i'd loved it I wouldn't hesitate to pay the money, but even if this product was a more affordable $25 I still wouldn't buy it, I just didn't click with it.

In summary the experience for me was like dating a really rich, older guy, with a great job, and nice shoes that gives you everything you want and fawns over your every move. You really want to like him because he’s so nice and looks the total package but…. there’s just no spark there!

This product does ok at getting light makeup off, I found it took off the majority of my foundation and base products but getting off the mascara took a couple goes. I love cliniques packaging very simple but beautiful, the formula for me personally just wasn't strong enough I like to use a cleansing balm and then go in with a gentle cleanser but with this balm I had to use it atleast twice and sometimes a third go just to remove mascara. I do like that the formula melts over the skin and then washes off with little residue left on the skin and it doesn't have a scent so it's very gentle great for sensitive skin. For the price of the product I really don't want to have to use it more than the one time and you don't get a huge amount of product. I think that there are better cleansing balms out there for the money especially ones that you only need to use the one time to take off all makeup including mascara. I recommend using almost any of the Korean skincare balms over this one unless money is not an issue than this one is ok but not the best. I really thought this would be one of the best cleansing balm products I have tried but unfortunately it just wasn't what I look for in a balm.

I really wanted to love this product after all the rave reviews, and although it definitely got rid of all my makeup, after a few times using it my skin kept breaking out. It may be better for someone with dry skin

I’ve gotten super into cleansing balms in the last year. I really wanted this one because it got so many people raving about how it takes off makeup even really heavy and full coverage makeup and eye makeup. Now a big tub of this isn’t cheap but cleansing balms do seem to last me longer than cleansing oils and a small ammount works well to cover my whole face and get my eye makeup off. I have monolids that can get oily and make my eyemakeup crease really fast so I often have concealer and an eyeprimer to prime my lids, I also layer on two different mascaras and wear long wearing eyeliner. But this cleansing balm and some gentle rubbing removes it all. I do sometimes wake up with some black eye boogers but that’s more from the method of removal as rubbing can make it go in my eyes as opposed to wiping off my eye makeup. It doesn’t have any scent to it which is good. Now if it gets in my eyes it does have that oily film but as soon as I add water and emulsify it and rinse my face that oily film disappears. It does sting a tiny bit if it gets in my eyes but it’s possibly that’s the combination of the cleansing balm and my eye and face makeup as well. As for the packaging the lid is easy to unscrew and screw back on. I don’t know if it’s leak proof if you decide to travel with it and it melts since I haven’t taken it with me anywhere. I have noticed on the container once you open it it’s good for six months. I think the only con I have really come across is the price. It’s about three times the price of my current fave cleansing balm for about the same ammount of product. So I’m not sure if I would repurchase this or not. I think I would need a good discount or gwp to justify it.

My makeup seems to be all gone if I pair this with a cleanser afterwards as well. Sometimes my foundation or eye makeup won't come off with this (but Vaseline seems to work). One time I think I had a primer on and there was a weird reaction where my face had a crazy layer of oil on which wouldn't come off... I'm not sure what happened. Anyway, generally this does the job pretty well!

As with all Clinique products this is brilliant- takes off all your makeup and leaves your skin feeling lovely and not oily. The packaging is very luxe with the purple glass jar. My issue is paying $60 for a makeup remover when there are other effective options which don’t break the bank- and which don’t result in more waste sent to landfill. Ethique has a makeup remover bar which is just as good and in fact I think coconut oil would probably be an ok substitute. Maybe I’m turning into too much of a hippy but I can’t see myself repurchasing for these reasons

I received this product for a gift and originally didn't use it for a while as I was happy using my face wipes.

However I started using it and it really takes off every bit of makeup. I use it under and ontop of my eyes to get rid of all the last bits of eye makeup and literally takes it all off.

However I find that it takes alot to wash off excess balm and it sits on your skin, so I put it on with my fingers, use cotton pads to wipe it off along with all the makeup and then a wet cotton pad to wipe again to get rid of it all as it does have a slimy feeling to it.

I have recently bought this product and have been using it each day. This product works great for me as I wear a waterproof mascara which is usually quite difficult to remove. I find this remover very gentle on my skin and the oils remove the makeup very quickly and effortlessly. This product is great for my sensitive skin, and surprisingly doesn't sting my eyes!