Review: In Her Element Nourish and Cleanse Balm
As I've let my excitement die down, it's about time to post a review about the In Her Element Nourish and Cleanse Balm*.
The Nourish and Cleanse Balm is IHE's flagship product. The founder, Liz Lanuzo, wanted to create skincare we could all be excited about. As I gathered, she was tired of half-baked products with tipid active ingredients - products that could potentially be hit-or-miss. She wanted to offer purer and more high-grade products to ensure a better success rate with everyone's particular complexions.
The first product was designed to be an all-purpose, nutritive balm. You can use it as a lip balm, elbow/knee/sole softener and makeup remover. I have used it to strip artistic makeup (i.e. paints) and it was one of my winter best friends in Korea.
My favorite use for the Nourish and Cleanse however, is as an exfoliateless exfoliator. This was not recommended by the manufacturers, but I went ahead with it when I noticed that it helped the adobo-flakes situation on my face whenever I used it to take off my makeup.
The packaging features a heavy glass jar, sturdy acrylic cap and inner cap - useful for when the balm gets all melty such as in this heat.
IHE Nourish and Cleanse Balm as Exfoliateless Exfoliator
Basically, I scoop a suitable amount of product on my face. A dollop or two is fine, but I always end up with more than what I need because the product seems to double up once it melts on my skin.
Once my whole face is lubricated (heh) I take a liiiittle bit more product and work it in circles for 30 seconds to a minute on each patch of dry skin - around the mouth, cheeks, sides of nose and on the eyebrows.
If I have more time and patience, I sit for about a minute more before wiping everything off gently with a soft facial tissue.
Then, I proceed to wash my face.
I highly recommend anyone with patches of dry skin to try this out! Exfoliation is the standard recommendation for excess skin but there are days (especially those harsh, cold winter days in Korea) where I want to get rid of flakes but am scared to try anything too stripping. The good thing about NAC is that the thickness of the balm combined with massaging motions gently pulls off excess skin, while the nutritive aspect keeps it from being too stripping. At least, compared to most exfoliating methods.
IHE Nourish and Cleanse Balm Final Points:
Pros:
Intensely nourishing - if your skin is feeling a little roughed up and you want a nutritive, rather than stripping, way of cleansing, this product is it. Cleansers are typically stripping and I make sure to wash it all off and apply tons of moisturizer after. With the N&C, I actually don't mind leaving some traces behind. I like that it keeps working even after I'm done using it.
Multi-purpose - I keep setting it aside for cleansing purposes, but it doesn't hurt that it can serve other areas of my dry skin. I have rubbed it on my eczema spots, in a moment of laziness. (Make sure this won't irritate you further if you plan to use this on problem areas.) I have also used it as a sole softener. My feet don't feel particularly rough, but there are some nights that I've used it to soothe a strangely, overly dry feeling on my soles. Most obviously, I use it as a lip balm. I just go over my lips when I use it to take off makeup. It's quite an adjustment to actually rub "cleanser" on my lips because I normally keep cleanser away from them, but the texture is great for chapped pieces of lip skin!
Non-irritating - I did say I leave traces of it on my skin. One particularly windy day I even used it as a windburn-shield / moisturizer. It's never caused breakouts which I was kind of surprised about because I was expecting something so goopy to cause cystic acne!
In Her Element Nourish and Cleanse Balm Swatches : T - full scoop, smeared to the right. B - product when spread. It's very goopy in the summer but I remember having to scoop it with a spatula during winter.
Cons:
Coconut oil - I myself don't have problems with Coconut oil. I think it is highly nutritive but others worry about it being comedogenic. To each his own, but the thing that annoys me with the IHE is that I can pick up the coconut scent even under the chocovanilla and vanilla oils. Most people feel it smells like a pastry, but I can definitely pick up the coconut in it.
You may visit InHerElement.ph to shop, or find out more information.
IHE is also available in BeautyMNL.com
*My In Her Element Nourish and Cleanse Balm was an employee gift from Liz Lanuzo, who I contribute for over at ProjectVanity.com. The review is honest, unfiltered and aims to remove bias. I was not asked to, nor offered any compensation to write a review.