We need to talk: I don’t love Emma Hardie’s Moringa Cleansing Balm, but I know a lot of people do, so maybe you can tell me how to use it better and convince me to give it another go.
Other first cleansers I’ve reviewed:
- Kose Softymo Speedy Cleansing Oil
- Etude House O-LE-MONG Sherbet Cleanser
- Pixi Double Cleanse
- Leejiham (LJH) Dr’s Care Cleansing Oil (my favorite)
- Sunday Riley Blue Moon Tranquility Cleansing Balm
- A Review of 15 First-Step Korean Oil (and other) Cleansers
How to use it: apply a nickel-size amount to dry, gross skin, massage it in, remove with a warm cloth and water.
Where to put it in your routine: in the first (oil-soluble) cleanser slot. Need a basic outline of when to use your products? Here you go:
Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm
Emma Hardie makes an oil-soluble cleansing balm that’s really popular with skincare gurus, especially in the UK. I picked up a set that included a 50ml jar and tried it for a bit and…I wasn’t loving it.
I have oily skin, so I tend to prefer thin oils that emulsify if I merely look at water. Meanwhile, this balm requires a hot cloth for removal.
I have mixed feelings on cloths and the balms that love them. While traveling this spring, the hot cloth melting off oil at the end of the day felt amazing. I love that this balm does not contain polyethylene, a microplastic resin that’s in every emulsifying balm I’ve been able to find so far (verdict is still out on polyethylene, but I’m ok with dodging it because I like regular oils better).
More pressing (literally) is the fact that once I get a physical exfoliator like a nice warm muslin cloth near my skin, I can’t seem to resist going to town a bit and doing physical exfoliation despite my very rigorous acid and prescription routine that takes care of that much more gently. I’m also concerned about laundering the cloths. I drop my laundry off to be done, and the thought of someone else’s e coli from the machines ending up on my cleansing cloth skeeves me the fuck out. For some reason, I don’t have these thoughts about my clothes, but maybe it’s because my body skin is about 8000x more resilient than my face? Anyway, someone else’s shit particles: no go. That leaves washing these things at home and god I do. not. want another damn thing on my to do list when an oil can slice off my makeup and rinse clean without microplastics or a cloth in no time. Then there’s the problem where I can’t seem to get this out of my hairline as well and end up with needless hairline zits. Urgh.
The ingredients are perfectly fine, if weighted toward thicker oils. I can see more mature, dry skin absolutely thriving with this.
Ingredients: Moringa Balm Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol, PEG-8 Beeswax, PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric Glycerides, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides, Sorbitan Stearate, Palmitic/Stearic Triglycerides, Limonene, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil, Silica, Glycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil, Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Flower Oil, Citrus Nobilis (Mandarin Orange) Peel Oil, Juniperus Virginiana Oil, Aqua (Water), Lecithin, Linalool, Butylene Glycol, Octyldodecyl PCA, Menthyl PCA, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Crithmum Maritimum Extract, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Moringa Pterygosperma Seed Extract, Jasminum Officinale (Jasmine) Flower Oil, Rosa Damascena Flower Oil, Disodium Phosphate, Citronellol, Citric Acid, Geraniol, Citral. CosDNA anlysis.
It smells fine, costs quite a bit, and mine at least didn’t come with a spatula. I dug my fingers in to get out the balm for the sake of science and that was a mess: I’d end up with balm under my nails (yuck), too much product (yuck), and the balm in the jar got wet from my hands (double yuck).
You can find Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm at Cult Beauty, emmahardie.com, Amazon, or us.feelunique.com (referral link to get £10 off your first order).
It costs £39.00 in the UK and about $60 in the US. That just seems…a bit steep for something that’s not smashing the competition and going down the drain pretty quickly.
BUT I know lots of people love this, so tell me and other fan-b readers in the comments why this balm deserves another look.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Clicking those links before you shop means that fan-b receives a small commission, which helps to support the blog. Please see my full disclosure for more information.
Okay …. First let’s start like this : I use 4 types of balm cleansers & among them the Emma Hardie one rofl
My skin WAS oily,dehydrated,acne that last up to a month and then more came , scars that refused to fade , got melasma,etc and I had enormous other issues 4 years ago with my skin due to my thyroid gland, hormones, etc. and after a year and a half now (more probably 2 years ) , my skin is now “normal” – sometime I get a bit oily on my forehead and/or around my nose but I just blot it once and I’m fine for the rest of the day . This being said , I have been to 5 dermatologists , did all sorts of treatments (except laser ) , and only the fifth one helped – all others were a waste of money and hopes …
My skin likes balms as cleansers , but I tend to just wash them off my face instead of doing the cloth thing . I first got into balms when I received in spacenk goody bag the Eve Lom balm cleanser which is notoriously banned from most skin-guru’s etc lists cause it contains PARAFFINUM LIQUIDUM (MINERAL OIL) – but my skin didn’t mind it and I emptied the whole pot ! I will not buy this cause I think it is too expensive compared to other balms on the market that are lower in price but better in overall ingredient list .
If you are using the balm to remove makeup , please use as little as possible and concentrate on the inner part of your face , add a bit of warm water to emulsify and just rinse off once you see that the makeup has melted . After that ,use a decent 2nd cleanse (I use SUM37 rose stick ) and you should be fine .
I would agree that Emma’s balm is something I enjoy more during the autumn / winter months and less during summer , only cause it’s really rich , but I have balms that I love using in summer since the ingredient list is more “summer weather friendly” (if this makes any sense ?) .
I can understand the reasons why you disliked this. When using a balm like this you need to have quite a few cloths( and Emma hardie’s cloths are the best). Then they’re good when you’re going with something stripping afterwards like a clay mask for instance which might be a bit drying. My mum used to love it and she had super dry skin. I have combo skin and it is a winter cleanser for me, it took me a while to get it, once I finished the jar ingot the hang of it
I’m 42 and have normal-dry skin. I’ve tried almost every cult favorite cleanser and this one I don’t get tired of. I like the smell, it cleans well and doesn’t leave my skin right. I enjoy the warm cloth removal, though I agree that if I had to send my laundry out, I doubt I would like it as much as I do.
Back in the day when I believed Caroline Hirons I really wanted to try this but was holding out for a discount that never came. Now I’m not ever going to, because no cleansing is worth this much money. No way.
I never tried it and I probably never will. I just hate everything about wash clothes: the scrubbing of the face, the maintenance… No, just no.
A good cleansing balm is a cleansing balm that emulsifies with water! 🙂
I have used this off and on for a few years, every now and again I rebuy it. Although I use other balms to cleans (Banila, Heimish), I mainly come back to the Emma Hardie for the lovely smell (my skin is not sensitive so I prefer my balms with a smell) and the luxurious feel.
For me it’s not an every day cleansing balm, but together with a hot towel it’s more of a Spa experience if I want a treat or a more luxurious cleanse.
However I am aware that not everyone is happy to drop this kind of money for that and totally understand it.
If a decent and thorough balm cleanser is what you are after, there are plenty of other cheaper options around that do the same thing
I loved this cleanser for quite a while, it was in fact the balm cleanser that finally got be onboard with balm cleansing. I’ve taken a break from it for the last 2 months, mostly because I felt like the heavier texture might have been contributing to the incessant white heads that plague my skin. Oddly enough, the cleansing cloths are the part that I still use & have continued to repurchase, I love the two different textures and even though the DHC cleansing gel that I’ve been using of late rinses off clean enough on its own, I like the gentle manual exfoliation of the hot cloth step.
I think you and I are the only two people who don’t love this product. I am not that sensitive but the scent really bothered me (like, made my eyes water and sting) and I didn’t like how heavy/greasy it was. The packing was annoying too. It’s very clunky. However, I wrote to the company and they let me send it back for a refund even though at the time they stated on their site that they didn’t accept returns. Not sure if that’s changed now. Anyways, great customer service!