Guerlain Creme de Beauté cleansing cream

Guerlain products get me excited and that’s that. I absolutely love all the makeup I am lucky enough to own and I thoroughly enjoy quite a few pieces in my collection. I have never tried any skincare from them because let’s be honest, we all know it’s a high end brand with high end price tags, but some skincare products are just simply ridiculously expensive and way out of my budget.

I was gifted some Guerlain products by my man for Christmas last year and one of them was this cleansing cream/makeup remover with a very posh and fancy name Crème de Beaute. Granted, he didn’t have the foggiest idea what he’s actually buying and what it’s supposed to be used for, he just liked the packaging… Bless him. I don’t think this would be my choice when makeup remover is concerned so now I have a chance to bring you this review in case you’re interested or considering buying it.

As you may know, I’ve been faithful to ‘Clinique ‘Take the Day off’ for years now and I cannot recommend it enough, it’s fantastic and hands down The best one I’ve used so far. Read all about them Here for more details. Both balm and oil are really great at removing eye and face makeup and because they’re scent free, they don’t irritate sensitive eyes. That’s the first thing that got me a bit worried when I opened the jar and smelled a very strong, typical to Guerlain, perfumed scent.

The scent is very potent and to me personally, it smells as strong as any body lotion should. Very highly perfumed, which I’m sure will be a winning factor to those who love and can use strongly scented products. The smell is absolutely divine, just like Guerlain perfumes, except in a cream form, so a bit more subtle. It definitely adds a touch of luxury and sophistication to otherwise relatively boring process of removing makeup. That’s if you can use it…

When I apply it to my eyes and gently massage around, like I do with any other remover, I have to keep my eyes shut all the time because as soon as I as much as blink, the product stings and feels rather uncomfortable. It’s not very strong, but strong enough for me not to like the sensation. It also causes my eyes to feel a bit itchy afterwards, later in the evening and then a little bit during the next day too. It is strange considering it’s a product that washes off and doesn’t remain directly on the skin, but I am using nothing else I could relate the itchiness to. I stopped using it and went back to my Clinique for a while and my eyes calmed during that time. Then I got back to Guerlain and it came back, so that, for me, speaks for itself.

I don’t suffer from over sensitive eyes, although I do get a reaction sometimes, especially when I use out of date mascara. The minute my eye lids start itching and feel very uncomfortable and heavy, I know something is wrong. Every time I use this product I feel very slight itching in the corner of my eye, and this time, I cannot blame it on mascara because I have literally just opened a new tube. There is also nothing else I use that would cause this irritation, so I feel like it must be the perfume in the product that doesn’t agree with my eye area. Shame, because it’s a very good makeup remover. It takes off makeup perfectly, both from eyes and face. It makes my skin feel very soft afterwards, so I will definitely keep using it but only on my face since my eyes are definitely not fans of fancy, perfumed products.

The consistency is much different to what I’m used to with Clinique. This one from Guerlain is more like a face cream or lotion in texture. It’s very soft and very pleasant to apply. While massaging around my face and eyes, it softens up even more, I’d even say turning a little bit oily, but in a good way. It washes off very easily and leaves no residue at all, just a perfectly clean and very pleasantly smelling skin.

The packaging, just as everything else makeup or skincare that Guerlain has Ever created, is absolutely beautiful. It comes in a glass jar, of a very substantial weight, in milky white colour with gold touches. Very simple yet classy and will be a lovely feature in a bathroom if placed somewhere on display. However (I’m a total party pooper today, I know) for me, it’s completely impractical and my bathroom is unfortunately not big enough to enjoy this piece anywhere where I can see it. So I keep it together with my skincare and whenever I want to use it, I have to literally find a ‘special place’ (which, by the way is less than fancy, you don’t want to know!!) to put it, as the jar is so large and heavy that I cannot just sit on my sink without the danger of it dropping on the floor and smashing to pieces…

I wish I could be more excited about it, but here it is. I will use it, definitely, but I find it a bit of a faff to use one remover for eyes and the other for rest of my face, so it will definitely not become part of my everyday routine. I will grab for it whenever I feel like adding a bit of luxury and glorious scent to my evening skincare. Because it is undoubtedly a very luxurious product. If you don’t get any reaction to heavily scented products and you like perfumed skincare (and have relatively large bathroom!) then you will love it!! I really wouldn’t recommend it to those of you with sensitive eyes, especially considering that it costs a whopping £50 per jar.

Available at Selfridges, Guerlain, Harrods, Feelunique

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