Review: The Body Shop Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Butter

Really late to the party with this one aren’t I? I first saw The Body Shop's Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Butter featured in an article on The Grauniad about ‘the best cleansing balms’ and it seems to have made an appearance on every beauty blog out there. That was approximately one year ago … and now its rolled up on my blog too, whuppee! I actually bought it months and months ago but left it to languish at the back of my skincare drawer. I dusted it off (figuratively speaking, ew) to review for my mini-series on cleansers.

Packaging:

Seems sturdy. No worry of dropping glass jars on bathroom tiles and smashing them to smithereens - only of it landing face down. Unanimous agreement that the broad flat tin resembles a pot of shoe polish. Boor-ring.

Texture:

The texture is very far from the ‘sumptuous cleansing butter’ it’s described as. It’s like a wax that melts into an oil. Not a nice smooth blend, but something slippery and lumpy. That is NOT cleansing butter. Antipodes grape seed butter cleanser is exactly that. Omorovicza’s night cream is sumptuous and buttery. This is not.

Performance:

This cleanser was ok at removing suncream + make-up, but not 100% effective. A flannel and second cleanser are a must to remove the product and residue. I’d follow up with a cream cleanser.

Ingredients:

Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Synthetic Wax, PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate, Olea Europaea Fruit Oil/Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil,  Butyrospermum Parkii Butter/Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Caprylyl Glycol, Tocopherol, Parfum/Fragrance, Aqua/Water, Linalool, Limonene, Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil/Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil,  Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract (Camomile), Citric Acid.

I’m always waffling on about checking the ingredients (I didn’t realise you had to peel the label back to read them >.< the irony eh), but how many of us actually do that? Why/why not? My label-checking mania stems from my battle with hormonal spots (which I mention a lot too). I probably wouldn't have bought it had I known it contained synthetic wax (nasty texture) and virtually no chamomile. What stands out to me on reading it a second time round - and with the benefit of hindsight - is OLIVE OIL. I had a severe reaction to DHC’s Deep Cleansing Oil (reviewed here) and I avoid it like the plague now. The reason this cleanser was left to languish wasn’t because I disliked the texture - it was because little spots started appearing after a few days of use! :( I think it's safe to say olive oil is the culprit ... Obviously this won’t be a problem for a lot of you, but I thought I’d put it out there, juuuuuust in case you ever wondered why you had a terrible experience with DHC products…

Price:

At £12 for a 90ml tin, I doubt you’ll find anything cheaper. Its the cheapest among thirty odd cleansing balms/butters that I compared the prices of. However I’d much rather spend my money on something that functions and feels better - your skincare routine should be enjoyable not a waxy mess!

Has anyone else tried this cleanser? How does it compare to the Camomile Cleansing Oil? And dare I ask: is there a cheaper alternative??