I’ve been wanting to try The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Oil for months, and I finally got my hands on it! I’m still trying to figure out K-beauty before I move to Asia, and this was near the top of my list of things I wanted to find out about.

I’m not a huge fan of facial cleansers in general. I have to confess that I normally clean my face by washing it in cold water (because our hot faucet didn’t work for 3 years, and now it’s a habit), with no products, then I pat it dry with a towel. However, when I wear make-up, that’s not enough.

I most often use the Clio Water Me Please BB Cream for a foundation (which I have reviewed here) because the SPF and PA ratings are really high, which is one of the main reasons I wear foundation (I really struggle to find a moisturiser with a good UVA or PA rating, despite the fact they all claim to have SPF-whatever in them, and it’s the UVA that causes skin cancer).

The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Oil has a pump top, and the liquid inside is super-watery, I thought it would be more of a gel, so it will spread in your hand very fast. It’s also oily, because it’s a cleansing oil, and so I only use one pump of product on my face then I massage it in, especially into areas where I use a lot of make-up, for example my eye area.

When I get it in my eyes it stings a lot and makes them feel really dried out, so it’s not the best thing for removing eye make-up, even though it’s quite effective at getting rid of the layers of eyeshadow, eyeliner and mascara.

Overall, though, it is soft and gentle on my skin. I’ve used it about 5 or 6 times now and I really like how my skin feels moisturized not dry after I wash it off. Having said that, it doesn’t make me break out (which was a worry with an oil-based product because I tend to get spots when I use oil-based things, with a couple of notable exceptions, the main one being that I’m completely fine with face oils, such as the Manuka Doctor Api Nourish one; review here).

I recommend this product for people who don’t have oily skin (I’m not so sure it would be a good product if you have oily skin as it’s oil-based). I have normal skin that’s a little sensitive and prone to drying out or breaking out if I don’t treat it right, but I don’t have true dry skin. I don’t use it regularly, because I like my skin to breathe and have entire days where I don’t put products on it, but when I do use it, I’m really pleased with the result and I definitely like this product a lot. I never thought I’d find a cleanser that was also nourishing but here it is.

You can find The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Oil on Amazon.

The only question I have left is, now that I’ve opened it, when I emigrate, how do I take it on a plane without it spilling everywhere in checked baggage through that pump top?? I could decant it into a smaller bottle but this is a really large bottle of product compared to those little travel bottles and it would be a shame to throw it away.