Washing our faces is an important part of our daily hygiene routine, especially for those who wear makeup. I have been a long time user of Oil of Olay Face Wash but decided to try something different on a recent trip to the store as I think it is a good idea to periodically alternate facial cleansers as well as shampoos and conditioners and other toiletry items. I picked up Dove Cool Moisture Foaming Facial Cleanser and decided to give this face wash a try, and compare it to my typical Oil of Olay Gentle Foaming Face Wash with aloe.
Oil of Olay Product Details:
Oil of Olay gentle foaming face wash is enriched with aloe, is 100% soap free, fragrance free, dye free and oil free, as well as pH-balanced. The product label states that it is designed to “gently remove dirt, oil and makeup without over drying” as well as “help your skin retain its natural moisture as it cleans. Directions state to wet hands and face, dispense product into hand, work into a foamy lather, massage gently onto face and rinse with warm water.
Dove Cool Moisture foaming facial cleaner both refreshes and cares for your skin by combining ¼ hydrating lotion with the scent of cucumber and green tea in its foaming facial cleanser, which according to the package, “leaves your skin feeling clean, fresh and very hydrated. Directions state to gently lather on wet hands, massage on damp face and neck in a circular motion, and rinse with warm water.
Oil of Olay and Dove are both comparable at around $4.00 in most stores that I have seen.
Product Side by Side Comparison:
Both Oil of Olay and Dove state their product is safe for daily use. Both contain softening properties such as aloe or lotion to help keep your skin moist and hydrated. Dove has a shorter ingredient list, but both use similar ingredients with water and glycerin being the first two ingredients, respectively.
Dove Cool Moisture has a wonderful scent to it of cucumber that is very pleasant to smell in the bottle, while washing and after washing as the scent remains on your face. Oil of Olay’s scent is much less distinguished but it too is pleasant and the clean scent remains on your face even after washing. It is clean smelling and not medicinal or full of perfumes. Oil of Olay has an added bonus of being 100% fragrance, dye, soap and oil free as compared to Dove. The lack of additional oils and dyes are appealing when it comes to our faces; most of us do not want excess oil or other products on them. As far as fragrance is concerned, this would be a personal preference. If you hate the smell of cucumber, Dove Cool Moisture is not for you; if you prefer fragrance free products, then Oil of Olay gentle foaming face wash would be preferable. While I really like the scent of the Dove Cool Moisture facial wash because I do like the scent of cucumber lotion, I had to be very careful to stay away from my eyes and mouth while using this product.
The main problem I had with Dove Cool Moisture is that if this product gets into your eyes (and it is sometimes hard not to when you are trying to remove makeup) it burns. Badly. After getting this face wash into my eyes, they stung so badly that I was unable to even open the eye I got the cleanser in for several minutes to rinse it out with water. Then, for the next few hours, that eye was red and hurt. It also has a terrible taste to it should you get any on the corner of your mouth. Oil of Olay does not have this issue and my eyes have never burned if I got the product in them or near them in all the time I have used it. This did surprise me as I expected most products from Dove to be pretty mild. I assume that Dove must have some type of soap product in it, hence the burning of the eyes while the Oil of Olay states it is 100% free of soap.
With regards to use of these products, Oil of Olay has a silky texture to its face wash that feels cool and smooth against your skin. My skin has never dried out or resulted in blemishes as a result of using this product. The cleanser appears milky, almost pearly white but when applied to your face it seems clear and takes a little while to become a white lather. Dove Cool Moisture foaming facial cleanser also has a silky quality to it, but the cleanser is white and appears to be a little bit thicker than Oil of Olay’s although it gets into a lather faster and feels less thick on your face. Oil of Olay becomes more foamy than Dove in the sense that you can see a few bubbles in the lather as compared to Dove, where I saw no evidence of foam, although it lathers quicker.
When the products are applied to your hand and compared side by side, Dove Cool Moisture withstands the test, holding steady even after a minute, showing no signs of budging while Oil of Olay begins dripping after 4 seconds. Both products must be rinsed well to ensure all the facial wash is removed as they are thick with lotions or aloe contained within them. It seems to take the Oil of Olay slightly longer, although not much longer to be rinsed as it feels more slimy in a sense but this is most likely due to the aloe in this product. If you have ever felt natural aloe from a plant, you will have an idea of how this product feels. The quality of the foaming cleanser is good for both of these products, but Dove’s product lathers directly onto your face quicker as you are massaging the cleanser while Oil of Olay takes a little bit longer to get going into a lather. Both products leave your skin feeling clean, smooth, soft and not dry or blotchy. Neither resulted in any breakouts or skin issues such as rashes with use.
I used both of these products after wearing the same amount of makeup to determine which product was the better one, if any, for removing makeup and dirt. To test this, after washing my face using the products as directed (done on several different evenings), I then used an astringent rubbed cotton ball and examined the cotton ball after wiping it on my face. I expected to get some dirt and perhaps residual makeup for both but wanted to know if one of them removed more dirt than the other, which therefore to me would be the better cleanser. With Oil of Olay gentle foaming face wash, there was hardly any dirt and makeup left on the cotton ball, indicating a thorough clean from this product. After using Dove Cool Moisture, there was a considerable amount of dirt and makeup on the cotton ball. It was clear the product worked to cleanse my face but clearly did not do as thorough a job as Oil of Olay. It is possible that Dove Cool Moisture is not specific for removing makeup, as the bottle does not indicate any ability for it to remove makeup, oil or dirt, while Oil of Olay’s product label states that this is what this product will in fact do. However, I think the typical consumer of face wash would assume facial cleansers are helpful to remove oil, dirt and makeup. With regards to eye makeup, neither products came out on top. Removing eye makeup, in particular mascara is not a specialty of either of these products.
Overall, both of these products are good ones with their good and bad points. However, I would recommend Oil of Olay gentle foaming face wash over Dove Cool Moisture. Apart from the face that Oil of Olay’s gentle foaming face wash does not actually foam (unless a few bubbles means foam), it provides an excellent deep clean, leaves my skin feeling smooth, cleansed, hydrated, removes almost all of my makeup (except for eye makeup), smells clean and pleasant, is inexpensive and does not burn my eyes or taste bad if any brushes my lips. Dove Cool Moisture, while having a wonderful scent, horribly burns the eyes and tastes bitter if it touches your lips, and while it does provide a nice clean without leading to breakouts, it still does not remove all my makeup as Oil of Olay does. Now perhaps if Oil of Olay will come out with some fragrances for its gentle foaming face wash, such as Cucumber, more consumers might find it even more appealing. Oil of Olay gentle foaming cleanser is also available in sensitive skin and normal/combination skin formulas.
