CLEANSE by Suti: REVIEW

This is a review of Suti's cleansing balm CLEANSE on eczema prone skin.

I read about Suti online and it had some good reviews, so I wanted to try it. I emailed the company to see if they provided testers, and they sent a personal response recommending the 'trial pack', which includes their best sellers in trial size. This pack is very nicely packaged, in a small bag, with cards explaining the products included. For this review I will focus on the Cleanse balm.

Suti is an interesting brand: its run by a sister-in-law duo who centre their products around their experience in healing, aromatherapy and homepathy. This explains why when you open the balm it smells like you've stepped into a oily massage parlour extravaganza: its got a full combo of citrus and floral essential oils, as well as the fancy pants organic avocado and apricot kernel oils. The balm is full of small balls of shea butter that are meant to 'melt' on contact with skin. Overall, the smell and feel of the balm is luxurious and expensive.

You take a dollop, and rub it onto dry skin, massaging it right in. I could actually feel the little balls of shea melting under my fingers. Before a shower, you can put it on your skin and leave it like a face mask, so the shower steam helps it be more effective. I don't know if that actually works, but it is easier to get the stuff off in the shower than over a sink. Either way, you're meant to use a 'muslin cloth' (read: wet flannel) and rub it off in circular motions. The guide recommends taking 2 or 3 tries to make sure you get rid of all the cleanser - and it certainly doesn't come off easily. Also its transparent, so you can't really tell whether its gone or not, but I kind of poke my face a bit and see if it still feels tacky. I've never spent so long cleansing beforen and the process takes a bit of getting used to, and it added time to my previous routine (which was just splashing water in my face...), but I quite enjoyed it.

When I finished and dried my face I had an extremely alien and unusual sensation - unlike usual, my skin did not have that taught, dry feeling, desperate for my to immediately moisturise. Instead, it felt supple, springy and clean! When I put on my moisturiser, instead of having to do the entire job of moisturising my face, it feels like my skin is already halfway there. Initially I experienced a bit of breakout on my forehead and cheeks - I don't know whether that was my failure to effectively remove the cleanser or just the change in routine, but it seems to have settled down now. Also, from my point of view, I much, much prefer spots to eczema and redness.

Overall, I really enjoyed using this product, its clearly high quality and it does its job. It has really helped keep my face in good condition and I feel cleansing daily helps give my skin more shine. The trial pack is a good idea if you want to try it, to make sure you don't react to any of the ingredients.

Without using it everyday, the trial size lasted me about a month. Now I'm considering buying the full size, but its not a bargain: £28 for 500ml. Although I know this would last for a long time, its a big splurge for me at the moment. So I'm having a go with some other cleansing balms to see how I get on, but at the moment, nothing is proving itself to be better than Cleanse.

The trial pack is available from Suti's website for £6.50 (plus P&P)

The cleanser can also be bought from their website, but if you get it from Naturisimo you get free P&P and some free samples!