Trilogy Make-Up Be Gone Cleansing Balm Review

I wanted to love this one, as I've loved most Trilogy products I've tried, but this one is just a little too much effort for me.

In theory there's a lot to love about this creamy balm. It smells delicious and leaves my face feeling smooth, clean and not stripped too heavily after use.

On the downside though, I'm not a big fan of having a pot that I have to dig my fingers into to get the product out. It just doesn't feel very hygienic to me, even though I was my hands before use. I have long nails and getting a sticky balm stuck under them grosses me out.

I'm also a fan of very heavy eye black makeup. Using this to remove it is just too messy and a bit too much of a hassle for me. It takes a fair bit of work and lot of smearing black inky mess all around my eyes for a mediocre result. I'm also not a fan of the way it feels on my eyelashes. Now I use a separate micellar water to take my eye makeup off first, but it seems a bit silly to me to have to take my eye makeup off before I can use a makeup remover. I felt like I needed to really scrub to make this work and occasionally I'll follow with a separate cleanser to remove the residue.

I guess in summary I like the way this makes my skin feel after I have used it, but it's hard to motivate myself to go to this much effort right before bed. Once I use this up I'll probably return to my easy old routine of eye makeup remover/micellar water followed by a cream cleanser.

I love Trilogy and I love cleansing balms so when Trilogy announced they were releasing this, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! However, I decided to be patient for once as I had a suspicion it would turn up in the BRBB that was just to be released! So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I opened said BRBB to see this beauty sitting inside! To me, this alone was worth the cost of the box and everything else was a bonus GWP.

It comes in a screw top plastic jar which is easy to get into. The brown frosted plastic makes it look more like glass but without the risk of smashing the whole jar when you have slippery hands. I've only just realised from other reviews that Trilogy recommend just using 1/4 teaspoon (there's no way I can read that when I'm ready to remove makeup and without my glasses on lol) I definitely used a lot more but the jar has still lasted me a good few months (I've alternated this with other cleansers so hard to give an exact time frame) I currently use a waterproof mascara and discovered when doing a 'Save or Splurge' review for BR that you do need to apply oil cleansers very generously to get it off. I did find this got the rest of my makeup off quickly but I did need to rub it in a lot to get waterproof mascara off.

As well as being a fan of balm cleansers I also love hot cloth cleansing so I was also excited by the face cloth that came with this. However I quickly went back to my old favourite flannels as I find them better size wise and for removing the cleanser. As others have noted, the cloth is really hard to get clean which I've never found with a normal towelling flannel.

What I love is the smell and they fact it is all natural oils - no nasty mineral oils here! I leaves my skin feeling cleansed but moisturised at the same time. What I don't love so much is having to rub my eyes to get my mascara off. This also left my eyes watery and blurry afterwards. At first I was a bit concerned about how blurry my eyesight had become without glasses then realised it was the cleanser causing this lol. Now I have read the label it says 'avoid contact with eyes'. I guess they have to put that but seems to defeat the purpose of a makeup remover to me.

This is a good product but for me, it just doesn't measure up to my all-time favourite cleanser but then I have yet to find anything that does (Lush's Ultrabland in case you're wondering!)

Works just as its described and having the little face cloth that comes with it is great! with most make up removers i have to repeat the process but with the trilogy cleansing balm i don't have to.

down side for me personally is even with a good rinse , removal and cleanse it still leaves a oily residue which i do not like.

Would recommend for someone with dry / sensitive skin not like myself as i have quite oily to combination skin.

I received this cleansing balm in the BRBB and wondered, was this the answer to my longwear makeup removal woes? Well, almost!

It comes packaged in a cute little pot and with its own face cloth (which was appreciated, I didn't really want to mess up my other cloths!). The fragrance is lovely, not too strong but still enough to make it feel that extra bit special.

The instructions say to just use a tiny bit, but I found that wasn't really anywhere near enough. Perhaps I have a huge face or something! I tried to get by without adding more the first time (I always follow instructions exactly when using products the first time, then improvise from the second time onwards if needed) but it wasn't melting it as much as needed, and I struggled to remove my mascara with it. I hoped that the cloth would take care of it though and for the most part it did, but when I went back over my skin with makeup remover on a tissue there was still very clearly foundation left on my skin.

Since then, I've been using quite a bit more product and massaging it quite liberally all over my face and into my lashes (be careful, it's not so fun on the eyeball!) which does help to melt it, but even then there is still foundation on the tissue afterwards. And this is regular foundation, not longwear.

I'll keep using it, but at this stage I don't think I'll be repurchasing.

I got this in the vault ages ago since I've never used a balm makeup remover before. My impression of Trilogy has always been pretty high since I absolutely love their rosehip oil. This was a total disappointment and proves that even really great brands can screw up sometimes.

The product comes in a little jar with a cloth that you're supposed to use to wipe the balm off your face. It's a nice simple design but I wish they had a spatula or something to scoop out the balm since I have to try dig it out with my finger and that feels really unhygienic. It's quite solid in the jar but softens really quickly when I rub some between my fingers. It has a faint scent that smells 'natural' and not unpleasant. When I massaged it onto my face as directed I found that it dit somewhat shift around the makeup and lift it off slightly. But my eyemakeup wouldn't budge and I didn't want to risk scrubbing at my eyes too hard with an oily balm. Then came the step where I tried to wipe off the balm with the cloth. It was slightly rough and I feel like it ended up irritating my skin slightly and didn't remove all the balm from my face. I ended up having to use a couple more makeup remover wipes just to really finish the job.

I really tried to love this and gave it a couple more go's but it just really didn't work for me. I found that when I'm wearing only bb cream and no eyemakeup the balm was sufficient. So I'll probably use this when I only need a gentle cleanse. A good thing though is that this agrees with my sensitive skin! Yay!

I’m a little disappointed in this product. It does remove makeup and as only a tiny bit of the balm is needed it will last for a while but I really have to rub hard to get it to work. I’ve switch up between cleansing oil and balms to remove my makeup before cleansing so I’m used to how these products work. Unfortunately this balm does require quite a bit more elbow grease than any others I’ve tried and even when rinsed away (and after I’ve washed with a cleanser) it leaves my skin oily the next day, as I always do this step at night. Like all Trilogy products it smells great and has great packaging but I don’t think that’s enough for me to purchase this balm again. The face cloth it comes with is lovely though. It’s incredibly soft and works well in conjunction with the balm.

I was very excited to try this product. I don't have any other make up removal products so this was an added bonus to my dressing table. The first time I used it , worked magically! You do need to wash your face with your regular face wash to have it work well I would say. The second time i used it, I put it straight onto my face without trying to wash it first and that wasn't a good idea. left my face oily and the make up ended up all on the cloth and I couldn't wash it off. It works best for that make up you miss when you wash your face. I would use this product again for that exact use.

I received this in the September BRBB and I was super excited to see it since Trilogy is such a great NZ brand. Also it is worth $38.90 which made me even more excited. I thought a makeup remover that costs nearly $40 must be pretty amazing, but I was left with mixed feelings about this product. I finished up the whole pot a few months ago. I got it in September, so I think it lasted me about six months. I used it on average about twice a week, so it does last a decent amount of time.

This product comes with an organic cotton facecloth. I used the cloth when I first tried this balm, but I didn't love it. The cloth is very thin and it felt scratchy against my face. It helped to remove most of my makeup, but not all of it. It would need to go into the washing machine after each use, which just didn't seem practical to me. I never used the cloth again after that first time.

The packaging says that you only need to use 1/4 of a teaspoon for your entire face. There is no way that this is enough product to remove makeup. I measured that amount out with a measuring spoon one time, and it only managed to cover one cheek on my face. I found that I needed to use at least a teaspoon or more to effectively remove my makeup.

I liked how this product felt when I applied it to my face. It feels nice to rub it all over your face at the end of a long day, and watch it 'melt' your makeup away. The balm has a subtle natural smell to it. I preferred to use a baby wipe to wipe away the balm and the old makeup. It's probably not that environmentally friendly to use a baby wipe, but it did the trick for me.

It removed my foundation, lipstick and eyeshadow easily, but it always struggled with removing mascara. I would really have to rub and apply a lot of the balm to get the mascara off. Generally I would end up using Micellar Water on my eyes afterwards to get the last of it off. This is a really gentle product, so it might suit people with dry/sensitive skin.

Overall I found this product to be a bit average. I've used other makeup removers that do a much better job at a much cheaper price, so I probably won't be purchasing this one again.