If you’ve been exploring the world of green beauty, you’ll know that brands are a dime a dozen with a new one seemingly cropping up each day. Yet there are the lines that have transcended the noise and de Mamiel is one of them. Admittedly, not as covered Stateside, this British brand is what I consider to be tops in gentle luxuries. Their cleansing balm remains one of my favorite products thanks to a beautiful buttery texture and seriously mood lifting aromas. In fact, I’d say this is the line where each product smells divine in the way that manages to be euphoric, captivating and totally relaxing simultaneously.
Now some real talk: I’d never been a huge proponent of powder cleansers until I experienced Tatcha. My early experience with May’s Clean Dirt left much to be desired and other green powder cleansers I had used simply made me feel as though I was using an incomplete or flawed product. But then BeautyHabit had a sale & I couldn’t quite shake the temptation of a pink powder cleanser with actual rose quartz, so I happily purchased de Mamiel’s Brightening Cleanse & Exfoliate.
So how do I put this…. this is everything a powder exfoliating cleanser should be and perhaps what I consider the gold standard for this type of cleanser. Not surprising considering de Mamiel also makes one of the best cleansing balms around. What I really love about de Mamiel is the thoughtfulness that goes into each product. With de Mamiel, the quality is to be experienced even if it’s not as talked about. Case in point, Brightening Cleanse & Exfoliate is a lovely shade of pink with an other-worldly aroma that harkens to pure happiness. It almost reminds me of those cute scented erasers that we all seemed to collect in elementary school, if anyone can recollect.
Now the performance: yes this is an exfoliator or a “polish” product so there is a physical texture that will grind around the skin surface.I tend to use this type of product on lazy mornings before slathering on a very rich, nutritious mask. My personal experience is that it is a lot more gentle and tame compared to May Lindstrom Clean Dirt so if you used that and want something similar but easier on the skin, this is a good option. As far as effectiveness goes, this does get the job done and with my once a week use (twice during summer), I’ve found it to be great for keeping my pores clear despite all the heaviness summertime can bring.
There are two ways that deMamiel’s polish can be used: alone or mixed with a cleanser. When used alone, it’s a pure exfoliating scrub, combine with a cleanser (I like the Kahina Facial Cleanser for a cream base and the Yuli Halcyon Cleanser for a gel base) and it’s a stimulating, exfoliating, deep cleanse – think of it as a suped up version of Tata Harper’s Regenerating Cleanser (the one with the ground Apricot scrub).
The Ingredients
Moroccan rhassoul clay, Montmorillonite clay, French Pink clay, Colloidal oat powder*, Sodium bicarbonate, Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) powder, Pearl powder, Red jasper gem powder, Raw cacao powder*, Alaea Hawaiian sea salt, Buttermilk powder, Honey powder, Cucumis sativa (cucumber) powder, Santalum album (sandalwood mysore) powder, Aloe barbadensis (aloe) powder*, Camellia sinensis (green tea) powder, Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) powder Chrysantheum indicium (chrysanththeum) powder, Rosa damasena (rose) petal powder*, Boswellia carteri (frankincense) powder, Commiphora myrrha (myrrh) powder, Cedrus deodara (himalayan cedarwood) powder, Panax ginseng (ginseng), Althaea officinalis (marshmallow) root powder*, Rose rubiginosa (rosehips) powder, Vanilla planifolia bean*.
*Organic
deMamiel describes the composition of the Brightening Cleanse & Exfoliate as follows: healing clays, plant and gem extracts to smooth and polish skin to reveal its natural radiance and glow. A few notes: one of the reasons this works for me is the lack of spices, instead we have calming ingredients like oat powder, cucumber powder, green tea powder, and aloe powder. The ‘enlivening’ ingredient comes from ginseng which promotes circulation in place of the spices which is wonderful as it also contains lots of antioxidants. One of my favorite new ingredients, pearl powder is also in this which promotes a luster effect when applied onto skin (and is also in Lina Hanson’s new balm).
Baking soda is in this formula which I don’t love (see May Lindstrom Problem Solver review for more background on this ingredient). Now while I know that Vitamin C is supposed to mitigate the alkaline pH issue, I’ve seen beauty bloggers confirm that the pH of the Problem Solver (which also contains Vitamin C) was around a 8 pH which is definitely too far off from the ideal 5.5 pH that our skin should be at. What this means is that I always go over my skin with a acid-toner afterward just to get everything back in balance.
Overall I find this to be a very high quality product from a line that I’ve come to love for their ability to make natural botanicals work together like a symphony. In the US, deMamiel can be purchased at the following locations:
The Detox Market
CAP Beauty
Net A Porter
Integrity Botanicals
