Lancome Bi-Facil Non Oily Instant Cleanser Sensitive Eyes (eye makeup remover) review

Lancome Bi-Facil has been a staple Lancome skincare item for  long long time in the Lancome skincare line. In fact the packaging seems exactly as I remembered like 10 years ago. I've gone through several smaller gift with purchase bottles and always liked it.

I started wearing a really stubborn mascara (Helena Rubinstein ) which is not only water proof but probably almost cleansing oil resistant. (don't worry I don't think it's that a brilliant mascara so there's no use in trying to track that one down either).

I noticed that my normal cleansing oil was having trouble getting rid of all traces of the mascara, so I finally bought another bottle of specific eye makeup remover.

The Bi-Facil is a two-phased eye makeup remover. I've tried the cheaper Loreal and Maybelline counter parts in the 'two layer' sort of solution and none really beat this.

The top is a blue 'oil' feeling layer, the bottle is a more liquid like lighter blue layer. You shake it before use.

(FYI the regular retail size is 125ml and retails about 20-30USD depending on which country you purchased from).

Comes in a screw top bottle , it should be sealed internally with a sticker. After removing the sticker you can see a small hole opening which is fine for dispensing.

I saturate a bit on a cotton pad, and press it against eye makeup, wait for 10 seconds then wipe off, then just make sure you wipe both the top and bottom of your eyelashes to get every last trace off. I often also follow with a cotton bud saturated with the Bi-facil and make sure I also clean the lashline closely.

The best way to see if it works is by using whatever's in your makeup bag, so below there's a Lancome eyeliner and a Dejavu brown eyeliner and Visee eyeshadows and a random Lipstick (I think that was the Fancl one I reviewed before).

You can see it removes it completely with a simple swipe or two. even the shimmers come out really easily.

It does leave a slightly shiny feeling, I wouldn't say it's non-oily since it clearly leaves some residue behind due to it's duo texture. However I always follow with a face cleanser and any residue comes off so easily.

By far this is the most effective eye makeup remover I've tried over the years, if you  use a weak mascara or light eye makeup you probably don't need to use this at all, but if you have a waterproof mascara or eyeliner, this helps greatly.  While cheaper eye makeup removers I've used (Fasio etc), probably does the same job with a few more swipes, but the eye area is so delicate I'd rather minimise the number of times I have to put a cotton pad to my eyes.

I usually remove eye makeup using Bi-Facil, then use a cleansing oil  (Hada Labo one I reviewed recently) to remove rest of my face makeup, then hop in the shower and use a regular foaming cleanser (a range of anything lately). 

Overall rating 5/5.

MAC Together-ness, Making it Easy and Calm, Cool and collected mineralize eyeshadow Trios review/ swatch

MAC in the groove collection was probably quite popular back when it first came out in 2010- the mineralised eyeshadow trios and mineralised blushes all offered an array of colors in a single compact at a decent price.

Here are quick swatches of three of the trios:

Together-ness:




Features: - pale pink lilac, extremely pale, on velvet side with very light iridescence, not really shimmery.
- Greyed-blue based lavender, it's almost like a navy purple , again, it's shiny but not shimmery or metallic
- Medium charcoaled grey, applies like a true grey, not very dark


Making It Easy
- peach beige, looks more matte than the other shades.
- middle is champagne peach, still a neutral peach and not too warm. it's more shimmery than the other 2 shades.
- right is a coppered brick (not so red as to turn into brick red). can be a bit harder to wear.

 Calm cool collected- sorry I must have misplaced the product pictures!
- off-white with a tinge of green, the green is really subtle (not sure if it was intended to have green inside, might just be because the other two sides pigment migrated on this side).
- shimmery grassy green, it's not really yellow based so looks like a neutral green. it's more shimmery than the other two shades, again, the shimmer is pretty subtle.
- Mossy green, it's medium-dark but not blackened, it's very winter sort of green, a bit forest green.

swatch only:



Overall I don't really any of them are must haves- the pigmentation vary and the finish is not really as silky as I like. Some of the metallic sparkles are uneven and sparse.

Rating 2.5/5

IPSA Cleansing Oil review

IPSA Cleansing Oil comes in a pump bottle dispenser, 196ml and retails for 3,000 Yen (which is around 32USD, around a mid-range pricing point in terms of Japanese cosmetic brands). It looks like this:



It's housed in a clear orange bottle I believe, I cannot tell if the product is clear or light orange, seems just clear to me.

The orange bottle version must be an older version of Ipsa's cleansing oils- as I can only see from the official website the 'Cleansing Oil EX', which looks like this instead:



I decided to try the IPSA cleansing oil since I had rather good experience with the cleansing oil from a pricier line in IPSA, which looks like this:


The "On the Peak Cleansing Oil" above is in an even smaller size, 150ml and retails for 4750Yen. This was about 2 years ago when I used the On The Peak cleansing oil but did remember it to be a rather nice and comfortable makeup remover.

Anyhow, back to the Cleansing Oil. I've really struggled trying to use this up, I end up using this on extremely light makeup days only (e.g. where I wear just a foundation primer/ base plus a very light powder foundation or pressed powder). Even after almost a whole year, this is all I managed to use up:

The instructions says to use 3 pumps on dry hand, massage on dry face, until makeup dissolves, then add a tiny bit of water, massage further until the cleansing oil emulsifies , then rinse with luke warm water, then you must also follow with a normal face wash again.

I find it very curious as most cleansing oil always boasts that they do not require another cleanser or face wash to follow up. However given I always double cleanse, it doesn't concern me.

I only realised (all too late) that it's best to try to apply your usual makeup to your arm and see how a cleanser oil performs, instead of just relying on it completely. It's really common for a lot of people to use cleansing oil to try to remove ALL makeup (including stubborn mascara and eyeliners). Which really means you could end up going to bed with traces of makeup if your cleansing oil underperforms- this can't be good for your skin.

I used whatever was in my current makeup bag that I knew must be a bit harder to remove. Mascara in the middle (by Helena Rubinstein, which is really waterproof, yet not quite oil proof so still smudges on me). On the side are just Majolica majorca's latest brown eyeliner pencil and De javu brown eyeliner.

I applied some cleansing oil over it- you can see it's runny , not as runny as water, but it's just a tad runnier than Fancl's MCO cleansing oil.

Massaged a fair bit- you can see the eyeliner goes quickly but not the mascara.

I added a bit of water, emulsified a bit, but still, mascara remaining:

Pat dry below:

As you can see, still some leftover mascara. It did come off easily once I rubbed it with my fingers, maybe the cleansing oil did loosen it. However this really meant this cleansing oil is probably not strong enough to remove stubborn makeup. 

While it is a decent price, lasts a while (really only need two pumps for the full face and neck and it's still plenty), however the inherent lack of cleansing property means I will not be repurchasing. 

I always use a separate eye makeup remover now (a habit I wish I picked up earlier- I used to always just cleansing oil everything off, until once I used a cotton bud after i already washed my face, dabbed some Lancome bifacil eye makeup remover, and found the cotton bud still came off with lots of traces of mascara and eyeliner- what a shock it was). I still expect using a separate cleansing oil would ensure absolutely all traces of makeup are removed properly (i.e. a final step after the eye makeup removers as well).

Rating of 3/5. There are tonnes of Japanese drugstore brands that produce superior cleansing oils which are even more comfortable to use and with a smaller pricetag (e.g. the Hada labo one I reviewed earlier that I'm still happily using).