Review | Holika Holika Soda Pore Cleansing BB Deep Cleansing Oil

I've been waiting to write this post for a while. This was the first ever Korean cleansing oil I purchased. It definitely can be a substitute for traditional western make-up remover and is integral to the Korean double cleanse process (first the cleansing oil then the foam cleanser). 

Bottle is just about empty!

Holika Holika makes two versions of this product - the Deep Cleansing Oil and the Light Cleansing Oil. They basically differ in ingredients. The deep cleansing oil contains: olive oil, argan oil, and harrogate sparkling water. Read below for benefits of these ingredients:

The light cleansing oil on the other hand contains grape seed oil, lemon & alpine herbs, and harrogate water. Read below for the benefits of these ingredients. 

Since my skin is very stubborn, I wanted the stronger product of the two, so i opted for the deep cleansing oil. The deep cleansing oil had also been raved about on other blogs (running a quick search on google can help you find some other reviews) and how you could basically massage away your blackheads if you rubbed it in long enough.

Packaging: Pump top 150 ml, or about 5 ounces. 

Pricing / Purchasing: Being an incredibly impatient person, I purchased this product on Amazon Prime and WAY overpaid. I mean WAY overpaid. I paid approximately $30 because I was in a rush to try out this product as I was having a particularly bad skin-month and wanted to jump-start a new routine. But you can find this item now for $10-14 on Amazon, as well as on eBay. 

Usage Tips: 

• Use this before you use a foam cleanser (double cleanse technique), especially if you are wearing make up like foundation, BB cream, eyebrow powder, etc. 
• Pump about a dime size to quarter sized amount in your palm and rub onto face
• Do not be afraid that this is an "oil". It sounds counter-intuitive, but if you have oily skin you can still use a cleansing oil, although I would start out with the light version of this product

Color / Consistency: Clear with a slight yellow tinge. It is a thicker oil, but still watery. That is because it contains both argan oil and olive oil, both of which are thicker oils. 

Scent: Smells kind of like the drink ramune. For those of you who have never had ramune, it is a light, sweet, almost baking-soda bubbly smell...

Pros:

• Face feels really clean after use 
• Good for removing make-up (doesn't get it all off though, especially if you are wearing liquid eye-liner)
• Thicker consistency - I have used the Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Oil (review to come), which I didn't like as much as this product. The Face Shop's cleansing oil is very thin and almost watery in consistency, which makes me feel like it doesn't clean as well because a lot of the product slips right out of your fingers when you are using it.
• Product will last you for a decent amount of time, approximately 1 bottle will last 6 months if you use it to wash your face 2x a day. 

Cons: 

• Didn't seen anything amazing happening to my skin after use besides that it got my skin clean. I was really excited especially from all the rave reviews on the product...

Overall manage your expectations with this one. It is great as a facial make-up remover as it has deep cleaning power but it most likely won't remove all your blackheads especially if you don't have larger blackheads to begin with. 

Overall rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Have you tried this product? What did you think? Let me know down below in the comments and thanks for reading!