Oh Neutrogena, you really disappointed me this time. After having tried more of their products this year, I have been overall impressed with the ability of their products and ingredients to work so well on my sensitive, combination skin. I have been looking for a good cloth product to help quickly take off my makeup on the days when I am pressed for time. After trying a few brands, I was excited to find Neutrogena made some - like I said, I have really enjoyed testing many of their products. Having had previous "cloth experience" I pretty much knew how to use them, the general prices, and what to expect/what I desired.

Neutrogena Deep Clean Cleansing Cloths fell short of the mark in every single area I can think of. They are, to date, the worst cloth I have tried.

About The Product

The cloths come 30 to a pack and measure 7.25" x 6" (18.415 x 15.24cm) - about an average size for the other cloths I have tried. They come in a sturdy plastic box and the cloths are dry and folded inside. The box can be refilled when empty easily, and works much like a baby wipe box (just take out what you need, close, use, etc). In these areas the Neutrogena Deep Clean Cleansing Cloths measured up about equal to the other cloths.

Ad then I tried one ...

This is about the worst combination of ingredients I could have tried. I admit, I was more thinking about the product name then I was what was in them, I just assumed they'd be okay for my skin (can you say impulse purchase?).

The ingredients listed are:

Ingredients:
Water, Glycerin, Sodium Laureth-13 Carboxylate, Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate, PEG-8, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Polysorbate 20, Salicylic Acid, Menthol, Trisodium HEDTA, Citric Acid, Fragrance

Salicylic Acid has worked well for me as a gentle exfoliant and acne control product on my skin. Menthol however has done nothing but upset my skin. I don't know if I was thinking that it was far enough down the ingredient list not to matter or what. Actually I don't even remember reading the ingredient list well (atypical for me) until I started to think about writing this review.

The directions for using this product are as follows:

"Directions:
Use daily for the deepest feeling clean:

1. Wet face and cloth with water.
2. Rub cloth together for rich lather.
3. cleanse face with cloth.
4. Rinse face thoroughly.
5. Throw away cloth (do not flush).

I did all that, and it was not a pleasant experience. First the white cloth, pretty non-descript looking, doesn't really take on or hold water. Nor does it really rub together to make a lather - and I laugh at the idea that the lather was rich. It was virtually non-exsistant!

Rubbing the non foaming cloth over my face, it felt like mild sandpaper. Really. I kept thinking maybe I didn't use enough water so I kept running my cloth under the faucet. The Neutrogena Deep Clean Cleansing Cloths just never seemed to hold water well, and always felt a little itchy and dry (part of this may be attributed to the ingredients also). The cloth, when wet, felt a little rubbery, kind of like a wet Clean & Clear blotting paper or a piece of rubber tubing.

I had to refold the cloth into 4's and just use one little section at a time to try and wash my makeup off. I felt I had to scrub for a while, longer than with the other cloths I had tried. I never really felt like it got all of my makeup off - both foundation, powder, and all of my eye makeup. Yes, I tried this product on my eyes, and surprisingly it did not burn, but also it didn't work very well to remove the makeup easily. I still had to follow up with a liquid cleanser on the days I used these cloths. I don't know if it was how little the cloth seemed to work, or how little I might have rubbed since it hurt my face so badly.

That's right - they hurt.

It's been a while since I have tried a product that has actually felt, almost instantly, that it was burning my face. I used these cloths for 4 days, and even took a break of a few days after the 2nd one - and every time I got horrible results in both look and feel. After the 2nd day my face itched so bad and felt so irritated that I had to lather on a goopey mask (Estee Lauder's So Moist) as a facial and let sit on my face for 30 minutes! Neutrogena Deep Clean Cleansing Cloths has got to be one of the worst things I have came into contact with in quite a while.

Though they were easy to find and purchase in my local Walmart, I have also seen them at local drugstores, as well as they can be purchased at similar stores on-line. Still, I don't recommend buying them - if you really have to know how they work maybe see if someone you know owns them and will let you test one. For the price (priced similarly to other cloths of its kind) and the horrible ways these cloths have worked I'd say they are not a bargain.

The Neutrogena company leaves the following information about this product:

" Instantly works three ways to exfoliate, deep clean and refresh.
Neutrogena Deep Clean Cleansing Cloths are the first exfoliating cloths with beta hydroxy that instantly work three waysĘ for the deepest feeling clean.

* Effective beta hydroxy formula proven to penetrate deep down into the pores to remove dirt, oil and makeup.
* Exfoliating texture sweeps away dead surface skin.
* Cooling menthol refreshes skin.

Its rich foaming lather rinses completely clean leaving skin soft, cool and refreshed with no pore-clogging residue."

I have tried other cloths that have worked better, or at least not hurt my skin so much. Noxzema's 2 in 1 new cloth had a nice textured size and foamed well, but was irritating to my eyes and a little too drying. The Oil of Olay for normal to dry skin were a little lacking in the cleaning and durability part - though they were foaming and refreshing, I am more curious how their normal to oily counterpart would work.

Whatever this product has or claims to do, I don't want any part of it. I have not finished the box - the remain cloths are being tossed into the garbage. Not only would I not recommend them to anyone, I wouldn't even pass them on to anyone to try. While enjoying many of the Neutrogena face products, Neutrogena Deep Clean Cleansing Cloths seems to be a clear one to avoid.




Recommended: No