Neutrogena Deep Clean Brightening Mulberry Ultra Foam Cleanser

I bought the Neutrogena Deep Clean Brightening Mulberry Ultra Foam Cleanser when I was in Singapore earlier this year, and guess what? It is now widely available in Malaysia. The 175ml foam cleanser that I will be reviewing today goes for about RM31.90 in your local drugstores. What attracted me to get this was:
- the brand name : no doubt Neutrogena is well known and established as an affordable skincare specialist
- the packaging : sweet light purple packaging + mulberry scent = irresistably cute
- prior experience : I've tried another product in their Deep Clean range, the pink grapefruit scrub, which had a scent I adored, but the scrub left me with a "oily" feeling after rinsing that I don't quite like. Well, some people don't like the "tight / squeaky clean" feeling, and it's not that I'm advocating that... I just want a compromise! I decided to get the other item in the Deep Clean range, and to try the ultra foam cleanser (instead of the scrub) to see if it would fare better!

The Ultra Foam Cleanser claims to clean DEEP DOWN into pores with a self-dispensing luxurious foam, while helping to reveal visibly brighter skin. It can effectively remove up to 99% of oil, dirt and impurities, while the mulberry extrat helps reveal brighter and fairer skin. The mulberry plant is indeed known for inhibiting melanin formation on skin, and is widely used in lightening / whitening cosmetics.

So firstly -- the good points about this ultra foam cleanser! Really like the easy packaging, very easy to dispense the foam, though the foam is not very "firm". And I use a LOT each time.... like five pumps! I don't get it when people say they only need to use one pump. How can that be? Is my face 5x larger than average?? *skeptical look* 

Second item I really love --- the scent! Both the pink grapefruit and the mulberry scent in Neutrogena's Deep Clean range smell lovely! Some find it overwhelming, but I really love to smell the foam before applying it onto my face, and I love the slight lingering sweet berry scent it leaves behind (don't worry, the scent doesn't last that long out of the shower). 

What I don't like is that this ultra foam cleanser is REALLY, REALLY mild. I totally DO NOT BELIEVE it when they say that they clean this deep down to the pores. Reason being, I tried my "how much of my make-up does it strip off" test, and the answer is - NONE, REALLY. Now, I do advocate removing all your make-up with a proper make-up remover before cleansing, but it's really shocking how LITTLE is removed, considering that it touts itself as a product that removes 99% of dirt, oil and impurities. It removed maybe 1% of my eye make-up, which could have been easily stripped off with say, my Pure Beauty 2-in-1 Cleansing Foam. So this was really shocking and disappointing, really.

I don't notice much difference in terms of BRIGHTENING effects, in fact I felt that my face has more pimples sprouting out after using this for about 1 week. *annoyed* Maybe because it really isn't that effective in cleansing. *annoyed* And yes, I've only used it for 1 week, but it looks like 25% of my bottle is gone, so I don't really feel like I'm getting good mileage out of this product.

Not a repurchase for me, and I'm going to be very wary of Neutrogena products from now on!