Tuesday 5 February 2013

Waitrose Bottom Butter, a really good cleanser: for your face






£2.89. Bargain.


I am a huge fan of oily cleansers. They seem counter intuitive but they work to dissolve dirt and make up and also don't dry out the skin. My favourite such cleanser is Eve Lom's, but it starts at £40 for 50ml. The Eve Lom cleanser is thick and solidy but melts when in contact with your skin. It's main ingredient is mineral oil and it also contains parabens. I can't afford it anyway so I use Simple Cleansing Lotion, which probably also contains all sorts of things I'd rather not know about.

But now I've found a cleanser to rival Eve Lom's. That delivers that same, solidy at room temperature, melts on the skin quality. That leaves skin feeling soft.


This is the balm close up, I hope you're enjoying my photos.

It isn't actually a cleanser at all and I didn't actually discover it. It's a balm for baby's bottoms and my nine year old discovered its cleansing properties.

Waitrose Bottom Butter was in the news a few years ago as lots of people found it to be a great moisturiser for adult faces too. I don't really like it too much as that, it's too oily for me but my nine year old uses it as a moisturiser and in fact it was her who discovered it's great cleansing qualities.

My eldest suffers from occasional eczema and dry skin. Like a lot of people with children with eczema, we've tried many things. When the seasons change from autumn to winter, her skin can get especially dry so I give her a little facial twice a day, along the lines of the great Dr Erno Laszlo's principles (which uses hand-hot water splashing to get the blood to the skin).

One day she said she wanted to try this little cleansing regime on her own, so she did and she used the Bottom Butter as a cleanser.

This got me thinking, so I tried it. And it is indeed brilliant.

I wouldn't use it on my eyes, but if you are a fan of cleansing with water and flannel (as many people are, and as opposed to wiping cleanser off with cotton wool, which I think is a useless way to cleanse), give this a go.

Just apply it as a cleanser, massage it in really well (which is also good for the skin as it gets the blood to it), then wipe off with a flannel dipped and wrung out in hand hot water (repeat this a few times). If you like the Laszlo method of splashing, too, you can do that. It's brilliant in hard water areas, as it doesn't dry your skin out. Then just carry on with your usual routine. I'd recommend using eye make up remover on your eyes.

(It's also really helpful if you get dry skin in the shower or bath, apply a thin layer before you go in.)

All thanks to my eldest.

This bottom butter contains only only olive oil, hydrogenated olive oil, vanilla and chamomile oil. It smells lovely.

And it costs £2.89 for 125ml.

4 comments:

bushra said...

i'll have to give this a try and suggest it to my 11 year old niece, she loves using a muslin cloth to clean her face.

Anonymous said...

And if you miss the cloth that comes with the Eve Lom, buy Lancashire dishcloths, which exfoliate just as well. You get 10 for a couple of quid, so can throw them in the wash after each make-up removal.

Annalisa Barbieri said...

Ooh thanks. Will look out for them. Do you buy yours anywhere in particular?

bushra said...

must feed back on this. my skin has taken a beating this winter and i've really been too busy to apply fancy creams etc. i put this on as a night cream last night, it did feel a bit cloggy but my skin appears to have absorbed the lot and i looked a little more alive this morning. thanks for the tip! i'm guessing this cream could have multiple uses not only like the Eve Lom cleanser but also like Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream.