iS Clinical Warming Honey Cleanser

I'm late on jumping onto the iS Clinical bandwagon. I had seen them around for a long time and thought about grabbing their products for years (like four years now). I just kept getting distracted so now I'm going to be trying some of their items. The Warming Honey Cleanser seemed like the perfect green beauty meets clinical product to try first. Details per iS Clinical:

This rich, luxurious treatment cleanser with the purest raw honey, royal jelly, and propolis imparts an extraordinary sensory experience, while effectively cleansing and gently exfoliating the skin. It leaves skin ultra-hydrated and moisturized, while helping to refine and balance problematic skin types. WARMING HONEY CLEANSER has been specially formulated with papaya enzymes and green tea extracts to further exfoliate and nourish, helping to leave the skin looking and feeling velvety smooth.

Benefits:

• Deep-cleanses
• Gives the appearance of smaller pores
• Helps protect the skin from environmental aggressors
• Excellent for blemish-prone skin
• Rich, luxurious honey gel

Key Ingredients:

Glycerin Vital nutrient to help protect the skin's barrier

Honey Packed with amino acids, vitamins, and powerful antioxidants to help noticeably improve blemish-prone skin

I have to admit I've been playing with this cleanser for a while. I kept going back and forth with how I felt on it. This has a very thick texture and smells like warm honey. The texture is very sticky as well. It feels more like a thick, sticky mask than a cleanser. It has a fairly small inci list revolving around honey, glycerin, green tea and papaya enzymes. I'm guessing that the glycerin as the number one ingredient combined with honey is what makes it so sticky.

This cleanser is very hydrating. It wont strip your skin at all. Honey is antibacterial, antioxidant rich, soothing, hydrating, anti-inflammatory & antiseptic. Propolis is healing, restorative and antiseptic. Royal jelly is packed full of nutrients and rejuvenating. I love honey in skincare. It's one of my favorite ingredients. I love the ingredients and idea of this cleanser. I only have a hard time with the extremely thick texture. It's like spreading spackle on your face. It tugs at the skin a bit as well while spreading this goo on.

However, there is one trick that is the only reason I learned to like this cleanser (thanks Sari). After you get a thick layer applied on your face get the tips of your fingers wet, just a hint nothing big. Massage those tips of your fingers into the thick layer. This ever so slight touch of water really helps loosen the cleanser just enough to allow it to be worked over the skin. Massage for a minute or two to get the warming benefits. The reason I say only use a hint of water is too much will loosen the cleanser too much then you skip the warming benefits. While that's OK overall as the cleanser still works the same on your face, the sensorial benefit of the cleanser warming up on the skin is lost.

This trick is the only reason I have come to like and tolerate this cleanser. Without it I would probably have stopped using this some time ago due to it's extremely thick nature. I'm still on the fence with whether or not I would repurchase it. I like it, it's not bad. It has some nice ingredients, benefits and isn't drying to the skin. The warming sensation when actually being able to be achieved is nice. I have a lot of other honey products that I like the texture on better.

Ingredients