Trilogy Make Up Be Gone Cleansing Balm - review

I received this cleansing balm in Marie Claire's Summer 2015 Edit of The Parcel (reviewed here).

I was super excited to see it because I love cleansing balms and I'd run out of mine, plus I'd never tried anything from Trilogy before but I'd heard great things about the brand so I was pleased to try something from its range.

While there's nothing wrong with this product, I don't love it and I've used better balms before. I've also been comparing it to a cleansing cream and cleansing oil I've been testing, and those do the job better than this does so it's not one I would buy.

Trilogy claims/product details:

• Melt away makeup for clean, supple, hydrated and nourished skin 
• A lush, end-of-the-day cleansing balm to remove foundation, mascara and lipstick like nothing else - even long-wear and waterproof formulations
• Combines a rich blend of pure plant oils and contains mango butter, rosehip oil and coconut oil
• Melts on contact with warm skin, dissolving impurities and leaving your face perfectly cleansed, supple and silky-smooth
• To use: scoop ¼ teaspoon onto fingertips and massage onto dry skin; as the balm melts, concentrate around eyelashes and areas of heavy makeup; wipe off with a warm, damp face cloth 
• RRP $36.90 AUD for 80ml

Verdict

As mentioned above, there's nothing hugely wrong with this product - it's just that I've used better cleansing balms before (eg my HG Happy Skincare Cloud 9 Deep Cleansing Balm, reviewed here).

This one's hard-ish in texture like a lip balm when you touch it, but it does warm and melt on the skin when applied. It has a nice, inoffensive smell that's quite faint (I'm smelling fruit and coconut), so you might be ok with it if you don't like scented products.

You only need a small amount each time because it does melt and spread (so it's more like an oil in texture once massaged onto the face), and I haven't noticed any difference in its efficacy when I use more or less of it - so I wouldn't slather it on to improve the results, but of course it's worth playing around with products to work out how they work best for you.

It does a reasonable job of melting away 'easy' makeup like my tinted moisturisers and powders, but I haven't had huge success with it when it comes to waterproof mascara. Most online reviewers have commented on this, so don't expect it to remove your eye makeup: you may still need a dedicated eye makeup remover to do that job.

While it does feel nourishing and soothing on the skin, I don't feel that it cleans well. It does dissolve that surface layer of makeup, but my skin doesn't feel clean after using this so I always need to cleanse with a different product after this one; otherwise my face doesn't feel clean.

On the product claims: it does melt away light makeup but not the heavy stuff or mascara; it does leave the skin feeling supple, hydrated and nourished; but it doesn't deliver a good overall cleanse - at least in my experience.

I've also seen a few reviewers say that the product requires too much work to remove makeup and they would rather use a facial wipe or micellar water to get the job done in a fraction of the time. While I don't mind spending some extra time massaging my face with this, I can see how it would be an issue for some.

Overall, this is a nice product but it's not one I would buy because I think better options exist - particularly if you want something that cleanses really well.