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!

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Berli Pops Honey Orange Smoothie 3-In-1 Facial Foam

Here's another random purchase from Thailand last year... I ran out of face cleanser while I was re-honeymooning in Bangkok and was really, really annoyed with myself. Me and my "travelling with samples only" mantra! Because of that, I ran out of face cleanser on the last day I was there, and there's no way that I can NOT wash my face. Or wash it with soap. I insist to use proper face cleansers, so I had to go and buy a new one. But since I was (am, actually) really cheap, I didn't want to buy something too expensive. After scouring the drugstore, I wound up buying this really random facial cleanser called "Berli Pops". Why? Cos I thought it's the cheapest item available there.

To be honest, I'm a real FAILED SHOPPER when I'm in Bangkok because I couldn't understand the signs. I would think that something costs 150 Baht, and later only find out that it was 150ml, nothing to do with the price at all. -__- I saw a lot of 3-X-1 signs (like this facial foam below!) and I would think it means buy 3 and free 1, but in the end, it's promoting that it is a 3-in-1 facial foam. WTF. I kept the receipts for my purchases, but it's been quite some time, so even the print has faded...

This is how the facial foam looks like, and on Amazon, it actually costs USD$6.50 or thereabouts. I believe it's cheaper if you buy in Thailand. If I'm not mistaken, it's a made in Thailand product, so it should be cheaper in the home country? It was displayed on the bottom-most shelf in the shop too, and they didn't have all variants available. I chose the facial foam for combination skin because I like the "Honey Orange" variant. They also have:
i. apple berry smoothie for oily skin
ii. banana cherry smoothie for dry skin
iii. melon cucumber smoothie for a weekly scrub

Hmm.. they don't have anything special for normal skin? Anyway, the honey orange smoothie for combination skin has been quite kind to my skin.

The facial foam is thick and rather firm when squeezed out from the tube. It only looks so erm... soft in my hand because my palm was not 100% dry. Recommend that you moisten and rub up the foam between your hands before applying directly to the face. It leaves skin feeling clean, but not squeakily-I-stripped-off-all-the-natural-oils-from-your-skin kinda clean. The best part about this facial foam is probably that it smells really nice and unique. How would you think a honey orange smoothie would smell like? It actually smells like barley drink + some Sunkist. Hahaha. It is actually quite yummy! (In fact, now I feel like drinking barley mixed with Sunkist, haha!)

My only complaint is that it is not "strong" enough to remove make-up from my skin. I know, I know, should always remove make-up separately with a proper make-up remover. However, it leaves a LOT of traces behind, which my other cleansers never do. It just makes me feel like this facial foam is not as tough on dirt as other cleansers. It is especially difficult to remove my Maybelline Masterliner, which is probably a good testimony for that eyeliner. -__-"

Surprisingly... my husband has been stealing my facial foam and he says that he LOVES this facial foam. And asked me random questions like:
"What is this Berli Pops? How come so cute one?" -___-"
"How you know about such a good thing one? Really just simply buy one ah?" -____-"
"Why you never buy one for me also? How come good things you keep to yourself only?"

How to explain to him the behavior of a hoarder? Anyway, I guess it's gonna be a repurchase for me, if simply to appease this strange man. FYI, he also uses my shampoo, which explains why it's since finished, much earlier than I anticipated. When I saw my shampoo dwindling so fast, I was horrified. He finally admitted to using it as well and saying he loves it soooooo much. So much so that he bought another bottle which we are BOTH using. I'm only annoyed because he only uses shampoo and not conditioner, so when he finished off my shampoo, I had 50% conditioner left... argh!

That was quite off-topic, but anyway the conclusion is this is one of the nicest, random purchases that I've gotten from an unheard-of brand. =) And I'm also happy to have a "second reviewer" in the form of my secret drugstorelover husband. 

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