Sleepy Face Naked Facial Cleanser

As someone who lives in one of the biggest and most crowded cities in the world, my skin has had to get used to the extra helping of dirt and grime and smog that gets thrown its way almost every day. While of course not what I want, it’s a fact of life that I have to accept if I want to continue living here. However, there are always ways that you can improve the condition of your skin, and Lush’s new range of facial oils could be just the ticket.

The idea behind each of these exclusive naked discs is that you use one instead of a liquid cleanser. Simply massage across your face, with either the disc itself or with your hands; leave on your skin for five to ten minutes; and then wipe the excess product away with either a cotton pad or a damp cloth. The combination of different oils and butters that have gone into each of the facial oils not only help to clean out the pores and cleanse the skin, but also leave your skin feeling smoother and softer, and sometimes more radiant as well. 

When it came to Sleepy Face, I fell in love immediately with the little facial expression that had been carved into the surface of the disc, and couldn’t wait to try this one out on my face. The smell was also the gentlest out of the array of facial oils that I had at the time, which compelled me to use it first as my face had just conveniently broken out in spots and was in need of some serious help.

Lush describe Sleepy Face Naked Facial Cleanser as being ‘a softening blend of Fair Trade organic cocoa butter, balancing jojoba oil and gentle almond oil meets fragrant and reparative French lavender’. This should give you some idea of what the miniature disc both smells and feels like on the face, because the description is spot on, in my eyes.

A little under 4cm in diameter and about a centimetre thick, Sleepy Face is one of four facial oils in this shape. Sporting a light shade of pink, thanks to the inclusion of the beetroot juice powder, this delicate naked oil smells primarily of lavender. It’s a soft, gentle and rather simplistic fragrance that reminds me a little of both Golden Slumbers and Dream On Bath Bombs. It’s a very natural and slightly herbal aroma - offering a lavender aroma that is naturally sweet and rather graceful on the senses. Then there is the added oat milk which adds a beautiful but rather subtle creaminess to the overall scent.

Aside from the fragrance, the oat milk and the almond oil is what helps to give this facial cleanser its light but very moisturising consistency. When massaging this across my face, I could feel how gentle but very compact the oils and butters were from the start, and the product coated my skin with ease. To begin with, it did feel very slightly greasy, and I worried that my face would find the facial oil too heavy.

After leaving this on for roughly five minutes, I used a dry cotton pad to wipe the excess oils away, and I was surprised to find how much excess dirt came off in the pad. Even when I used this directly after a shower, I was still able to extract a good amount of ‘stuff’ from my skin, which only served to make my complexion feel much cleaner and clearer. 

Furthermore, my skin felt smooth with just the tiniest hint of the butters remaining on the surface. These absorbed into my skin over the course of the day and left my complexion feeling really rejuvenated and supple.

As I stated above, I also began using this not long after I broke out in spots. By the second day of using this cleanser in both the morning and evening, I found that the redness of my spots had completely cleared, and within 3-4 days the spots had completely cleared up. In addition to this, I chose to use Sleepy Face after couple of intense days in the African heat, and what I discovered was that it effectively soothed the redness on my nose and cheeks; stopped my skin from itching or peeling; and I awoke the next day without any traces of sunburn or irritation.

The only downside I found with this naked facial cleanser was that the colour seemed to fade within a few days of me using it, and white spots began to form all over the surface within a few days. I think exposure to the air is what caused this so I would recommend storing it in a container or wrapping it in something to prevent this from happening.

After using this first thing in the morning and before I went to bed, every night during my stay in Africa, I can safely say that it helped my skin to be as clean as it could be, given the amount of dust in the atmosphere. It also allowed me to prevent my skin from reacting to the intense heat, and kept my complexion smooth, soft and feeling clean. 

Nearly three weeks into my regime and the little disc has only mildly shrunk in my eyes, and I can see this little beauty lasting me another couple of months easily. Sleepy Face should definitely become a regular in the shops because I would add this to my daily regime if it did.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Fair Trade Shea Butter, Organic Illipe Butter, Organic Jojoba Oil, Almond Oil, Oat Milk, Lavender Oil, Lavender Absolute, Beetroot Juice Powder, *Coumarin, *Linalool. 

Vegan?: Yes.

2018 Price: £4.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.