Comparison & Review: L’Occitane’s Shea Cleansing Oil & Immortelle Oil Makeup R

Hi Beauties! Today I have a comparison review prepared for you 🙂 Two cleansing oil’s from L’occitane; one is enriched with 5% shea butter, while the other contains immortelle essential oil. The Immortelle cleansing oil is the first that I fell in love with. It dissolves makeup so so well and then emulsifies once you rinse off the product with some water. Emulsifying cleansing oils are the bomb because they don’t leave an oily residue on the skin. I don’t know why people bother to use cleansing oils that don’t emulsify (unless you buy one by accident lol). When L’Occitane released their Shea Butter Cleansing Oil, I wondered how different it really was because it is quite a bit cheaper. Is the cheaper offering just as good? Let’s find out!

I always remove my makeup with an oil based cleanser before cleansing my skin with a regular gel/cream cleanser. Double cleansing has changed my life! Well my skin at least 🙂 My skin is so much clearer and happier now that I cleanse it properly after a long day. Who knew removing makeup properly would make such a difference hey?!? I now also don’t wake up with mascara under my eyes, which used to happen all the time when I would only use a dedicated makeup remover to remove eye makeup (using either micellar water or an oil based eye makeup remover) and then cleanse once using a gel cleanser.  It definitely helps keep breakouts at bay too. The Immortelle Oil Makeup remover was the first oil based cleanser that I ever tried and I fell it love with it right away. It has a base of sunflower oil, with some added apricot oil and immortelle essential oil (which is supposed to be ‘anti-ageing’). It has no trouble melting away mascara or other heavy duty makeup. It’s actually a lovely feeling massaging the oil into your skin and gently over your eyes (I massage it into the roots of my lashes to remove pesky mascara residue). It leaves the skin feeling sooo soft and comfortable after rinsing. You could easily say that it leaves your skin feeling plump and hydrated. It has a slight flowery-herbal scent, but it’s nothing too overpowering. At $48 for 200ml, it is on the pricier side you could say.

Immortelle Oil Makeup Remover Ingredients: Sunflower Seed Oil**, PEG-40 Sorbitan Peroleare, Isopropyl Isostearate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride**, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, DI-PPG-2 Myreth-10 Adipate**, Helichrysum Italicum Flower Oil (Immortelle Flower Oil)*, Apricot Kernel Oil**, Pentaerythritly Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Parfum/Fragrance, Tocopherol (vitamin E)**.

Shea Cleansing Oil Ingredients: Sunflower Seed Oil**, Isopropyl Isosterate, PEG-40 Sorbitan Peroleate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride**, Shea Butter**, Baobab Oil**, Parfum/Fragrance, Tocopherol (vitamin E)**.

*ingredient from organic farming   ** natural origin ingredient

The Shea Cleansing Oil also has a base of sunflower oil. This is why both oils feel the same on the skin and have the same texture. Super light and ‘liquidy’, yet super silky. The Shea Butter Cleansing Oil removes makeup just as well, including waterproof mascara. It has a ‘creamier’ shea butter scent as you would expect. Because it contains 5% shea butter and shea butter solidifies in cooler temperatures, the oil looks a little more cloudy in the bottle. Once you have the oil in the palm of your hand, the shea butter ‘bits’ turns into liquid thanks to the warmth of your hands. Instead of the addition of apricot oil, the Shea Cleansing Oil also includes baobab oil (also a light oil). This makes the Shea Cleansing Oil a touch more hydrating than the Immortelle Cleansing Oil, but to be honest, in how they work to melt away makeup and leave the skin feeling afterwards, they are so comparable that I don’t notice a big difference. The scent is the only thing that gives away which oil you are using. The Shea Cleansing Oil also comes in a 200ml bottle but costs $31. That’s a difference of $17 compared to the Immortelle cleansing oil – quite a bit (2 coffees and a piece of cake to be exact 😛 ). I have heard that Immortelle flowers are super tiny and need to be picked by hand in order to make immortelle essential oil (and you need a lot of them). Or maybe that’s just how I imagine the process working 😛 What I do know for sure though, is that L’Occitane was the first company to set up an organic planation of the flower in Corsica, where the flowers are sustainably harvested. Apparently the flower is disappearing in mainland Europe, because the flowers are being picked in the wild and are not being replanted. Once the flowers regenerative properties were discovered, everyone wanted a piece of them! Not cool… it’s funny how everyone wants ‘all natural skincare’ but we don’t often think about whether or not the ingredients are sustainably grown. Thankfully thanks to L’Occitane, the Immortelle flower won’t disappear forever. I’ve also read that the flowers don’t wilt very quickly even after being picked, which is where their French name ‘Immortelle’ come from 🙂 After knowing all of this, an extra $17 is justified. But – because you wash off a cleansing oil rather quickly after application, the anti-ageing ingredient gets lost I think, so I’d rather invest in a cream or serum that contains the immortelle essential oil, rather than a cleanser… that’s just me though.

Above: Immortelle Flowers (Latin: Helichrysum Italicum, which means ‘golden sun’).

Neither oil leaves an oily film on my eyes, which is a big plus. The Dermalogica PreCleanse Balm has been everywhere on Youtube recently, but at $65 for 90ml, I don’t think I will be trying it. My maths is terrible, but that’s like over twice the price of the Immortelle Cleansing Oil (for 180ml you would pay $130!). Yes it comes in a tube rather than a pump bottle – so it’s much more travel friendly, but for everyday at home, I can’t go past the L’Occitane cleansing oils. They last a really long time too, because a little oil goes a long way. I do like that the Dermalogica balm comes with a rubbery cleansing mitt of sort with little nodules that help massage the product into your skin, but just like the PreCleanse Oil, it contains citrus oils in it’s formula (why oh why?!). So the winner in the end for me, is the L’Occitane Shea Cleansing Oil 🙂 Horray! You can pick up both of the L’Occitane cleansing oils at Adore Beauty or from the L’Occitane web site <3

Have you tried either cleansing oil beauties? Are you a fan of the double cleanse when wearing makeup? Let me know if you have used a different cleansing oil which you love!

Catch ya next time,

Beauty Bee~

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