Colleen Rothschild Balancing Gel Cleanser - Review

I purchased the Colleen Rothschild Balancing Gel Cleanser back in December 2015. As you can see, I haven't quite used half of it yet and I have used it fairly regularly since then. A little goes a long way. I have a lot of thoughts on this product which is why it took me this long to do a review on it. I bought this for $38 U.S. direct from the Colleen Rothschild website. While $38 U.S. isn't cheap, especially given the current exchange rate, I did have a discount code at the time so I saved a few bucks off of the $38.

The bottle has a pump and the pump works well. No waste, no spillage that I have noticed. The bottle itself is 200ml or 6.8 oz. so it's a reasonable size. I like the packaging - simple, clean looking and efficient which is all a cleanser's packaging needs to be. The first thing I noticed about this cleanser when I used it is the smell. It smells very manly to me, like men's cologne. Some people will love the smell for that reason and some will hate it. I am not crazy about the smell, but I have gotten used to it and I hardly notice it anymore. I like a clear, foamy cleanser and this product delivers on that.

I noticed after using this for the first time that my skin was squeaky clean and it just felt like it was breathing more. Hard to explain. Even when I put on makeup, I could feel like my skin was breathing better. I have noticed this phenomenon other times when I have used it, but not each and every time. 

This cleanser is good at removing makeup. It really seems to clean my skin well. My skin is comfortable for awhile after using this and feels soft. However, not sure if its because I'm getting older or if it was because it was winter while I have been using this, but I do notice my skin getting dry and uncomfortable 15-20 minutes after use if I don't rush to apply moisturizer afterwards. So if you have very dry or mature skin, I wouldn't recommend this. I have combination skin by the way.

I noticed after using this for a couple of weeks that my cheeks started to break out. I don't think it was as a result of this product, but I quickly realized that this product was doing nothing to get rid of the problem. I used my Murad Time Release Acne Cleanser and that cleared things up. If I use the two cleansers in rotation, or one in the morning and one at night, the blemishes stay at bay. My point is, while the Colleen Rothschild cleanser isn't hurting my skin, I don't think it has any blemish fighting properties. If you have overall good skin and just want a good, balancing cleanser, this one may the one for you. I don't think it is for me because I don't tend to have good skin and this doesn't help in that regard.   

Packaging: 10/10

Texture: 10/10

Price: 6/10

Ingredients: 7.5/10

Easy to Work With: 10/10  

Travel Worthy: 7/10 (don't think it would leak but it's big)

Deep Cleans: 10/10

Moisturizing: 6/10

Comfortable/Softening: 8/10 at first 4/10 after 20 mins.

Blemish Fighting: 0/10

Smell: 4/10

Would I buy this again? No  

Overall Rating: 7/10