L'Oreal Happyderm Skin Exhilarating Cleansing Mousse

Image from chemistdirect.com

Happy? Really? Happy?

To be fair, when I read Tine's review, I went to the extent of penning it down in my diary as a reminder to pick up a bottle of L'Oreal Happyderm Skin Exhilarating Cleansing Mousse.

And so I did the next time I hopped into Priceline. I got the formula for Dry and Sensitive skin. I loved the novelty of a cleansing mousse and when I saw the soft-serve ice cream-like foam on Tine's palm, I just knew I had to get it.

I agree with Tine that this probably does not contain a lot of cleansing agent.

See, my skin's simple this way. The moment it doesn't like something, it has absolutely no qualms in flaring up in the worst possible ways. Thankfully it's not angry red acne spotted all over. It's merely angry red patches.

I approached it rather tentatively. First time round, I used it to cleanse my face in the morning. Logic tells me my skin isn't really that grimy in the early hours of the morning so a gentle cleanser would be fine. My usual Dermalogica gives me very smooth and clear skin after cleansing. Unfortunately, L'Oreal Happyderm doesn't live up to its name. At least not by my skin's books. It went red in patches.

It was the first time I had to wear foundation to work in a long time.

No, I was most certainly not happy.

Thankfully for me, my skin calmed down in an hour or two. By the time it was lunch, it was back to normal. Bits of scars from good ol' acne days no longer held up a neon sign screaming for attention.

I continued using the cleanser off and on to give it more opportunities to try and live up to its name. Sad to say, my skin just would not accept it. No wonder Jen says my skin's a huge snob. It wouldn't even like Cetaphil on certain occasions!

Despite all that, I absolutely love the smell. There's a certain sense of light-heartedness in both the scent and texture of the cleanser that you can't help but look forward to using it. I smell a little hint of green tea and I would think the lab rats of L'Oreal decided to toss in a happy scent and name the cleanser after it.

I pleaded with Tine to relieve me of the guilt of binning this and she's very kindly obliged. If and when we meet up, this will go to an appreciative skin. Otherwise, straight into the bin it goes!

L'Oreal Happyderm Skin Exhilarating Cleansing Mousse can be purchased online for AUD$14.95 from Chemist Direct and Pharmacy Online.

NB: Because the L'Oreal Paris Canada website -- the only one in English with information about the Happyderm line -- is such a shit one built in flash, none of the links on the Happyderm product work. I couldn't even find which region the cleanser is located in. I could only find the moisturizer! Maybe my Google-fu just needs polishing up. (Shryh notes: g33kchic's Google-fu is perfect and she's right about the L'Oreal website being a Pain In The Ass.)

Hit-and-miss

In our pursuit for the most perfect mascara (does it even exist?!), both Shryh and I have come across many that have failed us. So much so that it takes no more than 1 use before we decide life is too short crummy mascaras.

I'm listing out, in no particular order, mascaras that have been a complete miss in my life.

1. Mavala Waterproof Mascara in Black

This tube of mascara was bought in Sasa a couple of months back when my stash of HG of mascara was running low. I was so desperate, I was willing to try everything. Though I love the brush, I most absolutely have to say that the waterproof formula is rubbish!

The brush was long and it fits the shape of my eye most perfectly. With the rest of the stubby brushes, I generally have to angle the brush to catch the tiny hairs at the corners of my eyes.

Not with this one. It was long and curved at just the right angle to catch hold of all the tiny hairs with just one sweep.

As for its waterproof formula, getting panda eyes within 3 hours of application is honestly not my idea of waterproof. Having said that, the mascara does not clump at all. It coats each lash pretty evenly but because its failure in keeping my under eyes smudge-free, into the bin it went; save for the brush, of course!

Removing was a cinch, obviously, since most of the mascara had done the migration to my under-eyes.

2. L'oreal Panoramic Curl (Waterproof)

Now, what we have here is really a very queer tube. I don't know what to make of it. The thing is, it is waterproof. But only to a certain extent. It definitely curls, it definitely opens my eyes in a way not many mascaras are able to. I'm just unhappy by the fact that it's not completely waterproof.

And that it was a complete bitch to remove!

Clump factor was there after a few uses so that's another thumbs-down for this.

Into the bin it went, naturally.


So, there we go. I think that marks the end of Mascara Mania on my bit.