Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish

About 2 weeks ago I was on my own, my fiance was working, I was bored out of my tree, I had far too much time on my hands and there was nothing on TV!   But during my channel hopping I came across the Beauty Day on QVC.

..Yep, the dreaded people there that could sell ice to an Eskimo, suckered me in!

I went for item # 212054 the Cleanse/ Polish and tonic set.  This is priced at £24.52 (and was spread out over 4 payments).  The set comprises of the Cleanse & Polish 100ml and the Skin Tonic 200ml, 2 muslin cloths and a waterproof bag.

Picture taken from QVC.com


(I apologise for the stock photo, but a) no one wants to see my manky muslin cloths.. and b) well, I'll get to that later..)

In my defense I'd been wanting to try the Cleanse and Polish for a long time, probably even before I purchased my Clarisonic, but the 'Easy-pay' option made it seem like a good idea to try it, plus I thought about their 30 day money back guarantee.. I didn't have much to lose!

The first thing I noticed, as do many, was the smell.. notice how I said smell there, rather than scent!  I hated it!  What I do like is that it smells of eucalyptus, that always evokes thought of cleanliness and germ fighting, but I really didn't care for the scent of any of the other ingredients..
The tonic, does that smell any better?  To me, that smells even worse!  I was expecting some uplifting, fresh, Summer scent.. but instead I got something the smelled sort of old fashioned, and ever so slightly musty.  I was really surprised that I didn't love the 'scent' of this, as so many people have raved about how lovely it is.. sadly I didn't find myself agreeing with them at all :0/

Did I see any results?  Nope..  not any positive ones anyway!

I used it each night, I took off the majority of my make up with a Boots Botanics cleanser, then applied the Cleanse & Polish, did the whole hot cloth jobby.. patted my face dry then went ahead with the toner.  Over time, upon waking up I expected to see something.. maybe some brightening of the skin, perhaps fewer blemishes, maybe a more even tone, smaller pores?   Just.. something..  Instead I woke up to more and more spots that got steadily worse over time.  Now I know sometimes your skin will get worse before it gets better, that was certainly the case with the Clarisonic, but what I consistently noticed was that the Cleanse & Polish never got my skin totally clean, this is probably the biggest factor in why I don't want to see it to the end of the bottle.  I switched cleansers in the hopes it would take off more makeup beforehand.. I applied two pumps of the C&P instead of one.. I was more thorough with the muslin cloth.. Nothing I tried got my face as clean as the Clarisonic does.  Each time I go over my skin with a cottol wool ball and toner I see my face is clean, theres no residue or any trace of makeup.. but with the C&P there was always some grime left behind. Ewww!   I hated that, that and the fact it took lots of the toner to remove it.. what a pain!

I also dislike that I feel I have to run the muslin cloth through a wash cycle before each use, thats just something I can't be doing with.  Again, with the Clarisonic I just rinse off the soap after use, then spritz with a dettol solution afterwards, and bam, clean for the next use! :op

I don't like that theres Cocoa Butter in amongst the ingredients either (I believe its the next ingredient after water!), I don't feel that most people with oily, spot prone skin, actually want (or need) something as rich as Cocoa Butter on their face.  I'm not sure of the amount thats inside this, but to me its a pretty heavy moisturizer for oily skins.  It makes me wonder if Liz Earle and her people are working on something lighter, perhaps more deeper cleansing for us oily peeps!?

I don't know if this is a Marmite thing, you either love it or you hate it, but I definitely hate it.. With a passion!

I normally hate QVC too, the rubbish they spout sometimes is truly laughable and Im sure some of them live in La La Land (for example, a £100 set of cotton sheets "Is a good teachers present to say thanks"  Alrighty then..), but on this occasion I'm glad I purchased it via QVC because I will be making full use of their 30 day returns policy on this one!  Which brings me onto the other reason for the stock photo.  Reason b) that I don't have it to show you as its currently packaged up and ready to go back!

So sadly this didn't work for me and I really didn't get the hype about it at all :0/

I still wouldn't advise anyone not to give it a go, as always.. what doesn't work at all for one person, may well work wonders for someone else!

Have you tried it, do you love it or hate it!?