Hada Labo Gokujyun Cleansing Oil Review:

Boasting a short ingredients list and a hefty amount of product at a relatively affordable price, I was quite intrigued with this cleansing oil. So when there was a sale, I immediately decided to pick it up as I generally have had no issues with olive oil-based first cleansers in the past. So, how did it fare?

Claims:

• Formulated with High Purity Olive Oil to instantly remove heavy makeup and waterproof mascara. Gentle to your delicate eye area & eyelashes.
• Deep clean to gently remove dirt and excessive oil.
• Enhanced with Super Hyaluronic Acid to intensely hydrate and maintain skin’s moisture balance leaving skin feeling soft & smooth.
• It is water-soluble, does not leave unpleasant greasy feeling.
• Skin pH balanced. Low irritation.
• Free of fragrances, mineral oil, alcohol & colourant.

Ingredients:

Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Triethylhexanoin, Sorbeth-30 Tetraisostearate, PEG-20 Glyceryl Triisostearate, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Water, Dextrin Palmitate/Ethylhexanoate, BHT, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate, Hydroxypropyltrimonium Hyaluronate.

Star Ingredients:

• Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil: Contains essential fatty acids such as oleic, palmitic and linoleic acids, and also rich in vitamins A and E which are especially beneficial for dry skin. It helps provide antioxidant benefits due to its phenolic compounds as well.

• Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil: Provides long-lasting moisture and balances oil production in the skin. Also suitable for sensitive and acne-prone skin due to its gentle and anti-inflammatory properties. Also a natural makeup remover.

• Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate/Hydroxypropyltrimonium Hyaluronate: Different forms of hyaluronic acid. Hydrating; a humectant which (ideally) draws H2O from the surroundings into the skin.

*Contains Ethylhexyl Palmitate which has a comedogenicity rating of 4 according to Cosdna, and Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil at a rating of 2. However, as skincare is subjective and everyone’s reactions to a product (and/or its ingredients) is different, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

Volume: 200mL

How to use:

1. Keep your hands and face dry.
2. Pump sufficient cleansing oil onto your palm and gently massage onto your face and eye area.
3. Wet face to emulsify cleansing oil.
4. Rinse thoroughly with water.

My Skin Type: Sensitive (prone to redness), Combination, Acne-prone, Dehydrated

Hada Labo Gokujyun Cleansing Oil Review:

The Hada Labo Gokujyun Cleansing Oil comes packaged in a translucent pump bottle, and is conveniently provided with a stopper for travelling purposes. While the bottle is tinted in a golden-yellow hue, the oil itself is more or less colourless and is of a light, watery, “drippy” consistency. Due to this, spreading it onto the face takes little effort as the oil glides on easily without much tugging.

To clean my face and neck of makeup and sunscreen, I usually slather on a generous amount of 2-3 pumps, but for illustration purposes here, I used about a pump of oil to remove some makeup swatches. As shown in the pictures, I swatched a combination of both light and heavy makeup, with the Heroine Make Mascara and Peripera Lip Tint being the most difficult to remove in general.

As seen, the cleansing oil manages to easily remove the light makeup without any issue, but struggles with the remaining two heavy makeup (ie. bottom two swatches).

Hence, I do find its claims to “instantly remove heavy makeup and waterproof mascara” to be a bit of a stretch.

However, I do agree on its claims to be gentle to the eye area to be mostly true as I’ve rarely had any issues with my eyes stinging upon contact with the oil while washing. Included is also an extra picture to illustrate how well the Hada Labo cleansing oil actually emulsifies upon contact with water, which is not seen clearly in the swatch pictures.

Rinsing off the oil fully, my skin is usually left with a slight “film” which I found annoying at first, but have since found to be bearable as it might be to avoid harsh effects on the skin as it does claim to be “low irritation”. After following up with my second cleanser, my face feels clean of makeup without feeling tight or dry.

Overall, I’d rate this a 4/5 as I do find it to be a good, relatively affordable cleansing oil. While it does not live up to all of its claims, it performs decently and has not caused irritation to my skin nor the sensitive eye area, which is certainly something to look for in a first cleanser. This is also actually my second bottle of the oil, so it’s definitely a cleansing oil to consider, in my opinion.

A personal tip: I find that it works better at rinsing off makeup if I slather on the cleansing oil and leave it on for about 10-15 minutes before rinsing everything off by either my hands or konjac sponge (the sponge is for days where I want a cleaner rinse and gentle exfoliation!).