It's been a few months since I bought this product, but seeing as I have now finished it up I thought that I'd best give it a review. I had high hopes for this cleanser; from the description, it had the potential to become holy grail material. However, whilst it isn't a bad product by any means - it didn't break me out or anything like that - it unfortunately didn't meet my expectations. It's such a shame because I wanted to love it so much! Keep reading to find out why I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

REN is a skincare brand that I'm a fan of in general - I enjoyed using their No.1 Purity Cleansing Balm, Active 7 Eye Gel and Global Protection Day Cream, and have read many rave reviews about their Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask. I love how all of their products contain no synthetic fragrance, mineral oil, petrolatum, sulfate detergents, synthetic colours, animal ingredients or parabens (Phew!). That's a very impressive list, yet despite leaving out all of these things the brand manages to create a line of products that work well and work out to be quite reasonably priced. There are other brands out there that use these in abundance yet charge extortionate amounts - it's refreshing to see a brand stick to its guns. So, with all of this in mind, I made it my mission to try the Hydra-Calm Cleansing Milk.


As part of my skincare routine, I used this both to cleanse in the morning and as a second cleanse at night. The cleansing milk is dispensed via a pump, which was quick and easy and gave me the perfect amount to use every time. Inside the tube, you can make out a bag inside - as the product was being drawn out, the bag was being sucked in so by the time I was finished, pretty much every last drop had been squeezed out. I loved this - more brands should take note of this style packaging because it really works! When spreading the cleanser out across my skin, I noticed a faint herbal smell; which normally I don't like, but this one was quite pleasant and almost soothing. It felt creamy and smooth, and spread easily without the need to pump out any more product. I liked to leave it on for a minute or so whilst doing other things in the shower, and then wash off using a flannel and lots of warm water.


This product was created for sensitive skin, and REN says this cleanser leaves it "purified, calm and soothed". Given that my skin usually feels quite tight after cleansing, I wanted a cleanser that did just the opposite for a change. However, whenever I stepped out of the shower and dried my face, I noticed that my face did still feel a bit tight - not so much as before, but the feeling was still there. However, my skin did feel smooth to the touch and it didn't aggravate any redness that I have. My nose, my constant problem area, unfortunately did not appreciate this cleanser; it stayed just as shiny as before, and within twenty minutes or so created a lot more oil than I was used to. Saying that, this product makes no claims for oily skin so I guess I expected a bit too much. The main problem that I have with this is that it's just ok - it cleansed my face, did a decent job with any residual make up and didn't make my skin worse - but I didn't see any improvement either, and that's why I've ended up being quite disappointed. For the price, I expected much more and sadly it's not the one for me.

REN Hydra-Calm Cleansing Milk (Now called Evercalm) is available from their website for £16.