This review has been a long time coming! The Face Shop’s popular Rice Water Bright Cleansing Light Oil is the first Korean cleansing oil I ever tried. I’ve been using it off and on over the last year and a half, and I think it makes a very good starter cleansing oil if you have never used on before.

First of all, it is quite inexpensive. I paid a little under US$8, shipped, on sale at Cosmetic Love (link in the sidebar) back in 2015. The price has gone up a bit since then, but it’s still available for under $10 at Jolse. If you’re in Canada, the official Face Shop site has it for CA$18. There is a non-Light version available, as well (CA$15).

The packaging has also changed a little bit, but I think it’s just in the labeling. The bottle and its very nice pump mechanism appear to have remained the same. Here’s the new package:

Get pure, fresh skin with our Rice Water Bright Light Cleansing Oil. Enriched with jojoba oil, it dissolves impurities found on your skin’s surface while hydrating the epidermis.

Compared with the first cleansing oil I ever used, Josie Maran Argan Cleansing Oil, this cleansing oil feels super lightweight! It’s so liquid-y—I’d say a little bit too liquid-y, since it has a tendency to run off my hand as I’m applying it to my face—but this does mean that it spreads across the skin very well, with no dragging.

It works well enough to remove makeup, and it emulsifies nicely when water is applied. I would not say it rinses off very well, so I learned to always use a second, non-oil cleanser afterward. Even a simple micellar water works well, here, if I don’t feel like doing a full second cleanse. Otherwise, traces of oil—and of course any makeup and grime stuck to it—are left on my skin.

The product does have a floral scent, so if you’re bothered by fragranced skincare, skip this one.

The only reason I would not repurchase this product is because there are so many more options to try, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the world of cleansing oils! Ideally, I think I would like a cleansing oil with a viscosity somewhere in between Josie Maran’s thick oil and The Face Shop’s runny oil. (However, I think I’m starting to lean more to the cleansing balm side, so I may not really try that many more cleansing oils. I will just have to finish up a few that I have in my stash, which are by Julep, MAC, Skinfood, and Yves Rocher.)

Ingredients:

Isopropyl Myristate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate, Polyglyceryl-10, Diisostearate, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Water/Eau, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Extract, Saponaria Officinalis Leaf Extract, Parfum/Fragrance, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Hydroxycitronellal, Limonene, Linalool

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The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Light Oil contains 150 mL and retails for around CA$18, though it can be found for less from Korean online stores.

The Face Shop was launched in Seoul, South Korea, in 2003. Today it is one of the largest cosmetics companies in that country, and has hundreds of stores worldwide. In 2009–2010, the company was acquired by LG (yes, the home appliance maker).