Shu Uemura Fresh Pore Clarifying Gentle Cleansing Oil

I first tried a Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil back in October. At that time, I was using a free sample from the company. That sample was for the Anti-oxi Skin Refining oil and while it didn’t have any kind of negative impact on my skin, it also didn’t clean it as thoroughly as I wanted.

Shu Uemura offers a number of different oils and I thought that perhaps the Fresh Pore Clarifying Gentle Cleansing Oil, which is promoted as “ideal for normal to oil skin types and acne-prone skin,” would be a better fit for me. But since it retails for over $70 (Canadian), I wasn’t about to buy a bottle to find out. So I was quite happy to see a deluxe-sized sample of that exact product in my November Topbox.

I started using this oil to wash my face soon after I received it and, having now used it once-to-twice a day for over a month, I can say that it does do a better job at cleaning out pores than the Anti-oxi Skin Refining oil. However, it doesn’t do such a good job that I’ll be purchasing it.

According to Shu Uemura, “this cleansing oil minimizes pores by eliminating excess sebum and visibly smoothes the skin’s surface.” It also is suppose to “effectively remove make-up and impurities inside pores while maintaining the skin’s necessary moisture level.”

This oil did do a good job at removing most makeup (some mascaras and shimmery eye colours were an understandable challenge) and it didn’t dry out my skin or cause any other kind of irritation. But when it came to cleaning out pores, some days it did a better job than others. It also did nothing to prevent or fight pimples or other blemishes.

Shu Uemura describes this face product as, “a lightweight cleansing oil that leaves the skin clean, fresh and refined” and I don’t disagree with this; after using this product, my skin did feel all three of those adjectives. But when I looked in the mirror, I could almost always see more than a handful of clogged pores. Initially, I thought that I just needed to use this product for a little longer but as the weeks past and I still had clogged pores, I realized that while this is a decent cleansing oil, it’s just not the cleansing oil for me.

Would I buy this product: No. If I’m spending over $70 on a face cleanser, I want to get pores that are 80%-90% dirt free.

Should you buy this product: If you’ve struggled with cleaning out your pores in the past (like me), skip this product, it just can’t get in there and clean things out fully. But if your pores are already in okay shape and you just want to clean them up a bit or keep them cleaned out, and you’ve got cash to burn, you might want to check out this cleansing oil.