In my opinion Nykaa is doing a great job at getting us access to global brands and the amount of buzz the Korean Beauty Brands have created in the western beauty industry that its high time we also look east.
Innisfree recently entered the Indian beauty space and was followed by its competitor The Face Shop. I wonder why they named their brand notoriously similar to The Body Shop. Their underlying brand value is also similar! I recently finished my Vichy Face Wash and wanted to try something new so I chose the Rice Bran All In One cleanser from The Face Shop’s Rice Water Bright Range.
About the Brand:
The Face Shop is a relatively young brand. They started out with one store in Myeongdong, South Korea in 2003. Within a span of 2 year they grew to be one of the biggest name in cosmetics. They further expanded over seas and have not looked back. In 2009 the company was bought by LG Household & Health Care and became a subsidiary in January 2010. This acquisition has only opened more doors for its global expansion.
Cost: 690 INR for 140ml
Buy Online:
Claims: Rice Water – Rice Bran All-in-one cleanser (exfoliating care + facial cleanser + makeup remover) is a mild cleanser that removes make-up and delivers exfoliating to the skin without having to go through double cleansing.
Ingredients:
Before getting into the review let me talk about the ingredients because that is the most innovative part of this product. It contains Rice Bran & Rice – not just any rice, but the Yeoju Rice which is organically certified and is grown in Yeoju which has a strategic geographical location and climate that produces good quality rice with lots of sugar and starch. The soil here is also special because Yejou is surrounded by 3 mountain ranges making it rich in organic substances. The water used for irrigating this rice is not any regular water but water from Namhan river which flows in Phal-Dang Water Source Protection Area so the water is clean and clear.
Rice Bran is a byproduct of milling in the production of refined rice. It is said to contains vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids that are good for immune system and prevents illnesses. It also contains various antioxidant ingredients. In particular tocotrienol that has excellent anti-aging effects. It also contains 5 types of grain particles rice bran, job’s tears, almond, apricot and red beans that deliver mild cleansing of make up.
Call it clever marketing, but that extensive attention to detail about ingredients is bound to sway your purchase decision.
It comes in a transparent plastic bottle with a pump dispenser which is nice and dispenses the right amount for one use. It has gel like consistency and has small microbeads. Initially I thought it conatined plastic micro beads which were recently banned because they create a lot of environmental problems, but then I did some reading and was relived to learn that they are microbeads made of natural ingredients.
It initially has a strong fragrance but it’s not a “wake -up rise and shine” kind of invigorating scent, beneath that intense opening it settles into a “warm & cozy – eat your porridge and go to sleep” kind of scent which is OK for night but doesn’t give you that fresh feeling in the morning.
A little bit is enough and it lathers quite well. The surprising thing is inspite of that much lather it doesn’t dry your skin, nor does the skin feels as if it’s pulled taut.
Since they claim to be a all-in-one cleanser I tried it with makeup, I had on – Concealer, BB cream, Eye-Shadow, Felt Tip Liner & one coat of water proof Mascara (plus 12- 13 hour worth of oil and dirt). As per instruction I massaged the face with the product (without dampening the face), after a while it dries up and one has to add water to keep the massage going. At this point it starts lathering. Post wash I noticed that it did remove all the base makeup but the Liner and Mascara did not come off completely and I had to go in with a makeup remover. But then the instructions do say that for waterproof makeup one will need additional help. I think it’s better to remove eye makeup using a makeup remover meant for it because if you try to massage this cleanser on the eye it is bound to enter the eye and cause burning & irritation. Ofcourse makeup on water-line cannot be removed using this.
Pros:
- Gentle and Non Drying
- Mild Exfoliation
- Removes Base Makeup to great extent
Cons:
- Paraben free
- Cannot be used for eye makeup removal
Closing Thoughts:
It’s a good face wash, it cleans without drying and will work as a decent make-up remover for folks who don’t wear too much makeup. Basic compact powder / BB Cream can be easily removed by just this. Dont expect it to work with waterproof makeup. It’s a neutral cleanser so should be OK for all skin types.
Have you tried products from The Face Shop yet? Let me know your experience in the comments.
Update | 4 months after use
Once I finished 2/3rd of the bottle, one fine day despite pumping a 100 times nothing decided to come out. This was so strange because I could still see the bottle having a considerable amount of product left.
On closer inspection I found out the pipe that connected to the pump was completely choked with the micro-beads, so much so that it wont allow any product to pass! Cleaning this choke was not at all easy because merely jetting water on it was not moving the beads… I had to find a big needle and dislodge the choke manually. Eventually I did mange to clean out the pipe but only in a matter of few days it choked again!
I guess due to gravity the beads tend to settle at the bottom and once you reach towards the end of the bottle these tend to start choking the pipe. I guess one way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to keep shaking the bottle & cleaning the pipe regularly but who has the time for that! After a point I just did not have the time& energy to keep cleaning the pump so I had to throw it out and I am not at all happy about wasting that much product!
I wish the brand would improve the formula so that this doesn’t happen!
The product looks appealing……would love to try it…thanks for sharing…
http://www.crazyaboutcolors.com
Swati, Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Thanks for sharing I am a lover of K beauty, find the products effective and clean also great to see it spreading around the world. We just need it fully in the UK now 🙂
Absolutely agree! Do you have a store of the popular K beauty brands in UK?
That sounds wonderful. Innisfree has a store in bigger cities since about a year here in India. The faceshop recently launched via a local online beauty retailer. But apart from these two brands it would need to be shipped in from outside the country and that mostly turns out to be very expensive due to various reasons. But I am happy that gradually we are getting access to global brands.
It’s great there’s a store in India, I’m going to Sri Lanka in July would love to hop over and stock up! We have Tony Moly in Selfridge’s (sold at the highest price!) Also a few online retailers now too stocking good brands yet it’s quite limited in selection. I’ve been lucky with eBay but can fully relate Re. Outside shipping, it would be great to have direct access to all of it! Slowly but surely it is coming 🙂
Let me know what you think of it.
Sounds amazing. Must try!
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