Kate Somerville Goat Milk Cleanser Review

You know the feeling when you really really want to like something but ultimately it disappoints you by being a bit rubbish? If I was to give you an example, I’d say most of my first dates start out this way.

And what also started out this way was my relationship with Kate Somerville’s Goat Milk Cleanser.

You see, I’d heard such great things about it, again like most of my first dates, but this time from the great Caroline Hirons. And, as CH is basically god in the world of skincare, I end up purchasing many of her recommendations (only the ones I can afford, mind).

Kate Somerville’s Goat Milk Cleanser was one of these such products. It wasn’t yet available in the UK so I took advantage of being in the states over the summer and excitedly grabbed a bottle to try.

Product name: Kate Somerville Goat Milk Cleanser, $36 (ships to UK, available in shops over here at some point in 2017)

Product info:‘An innovative creamy, moisturizing cleanser that gently removes impurities and makeup without stripping skin of essential moisture.’

It’s basically sold as a hybrid of a cream and oil cleanser, which I’d most certainly agree with, and I’ll tell you why later.

Ingredients: Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Lauryl Glucoside, Polyglyceryl-2 Dipolyhydroxystearate, Water, Moringa Oil/Hydrogenated Moringa Oil Esters, Manuka (Leptospermum) Honey Extract, Goat Milk Powder, Lactose, Milk Protein, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Bisabolol, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Tocopherol, Fragrance, Lactic Acid, Citric Acid

How to use: apply a small amount morning and/or evening to a dry face and massage well. Remove with water or, as I’d recommend, with a flannel.

What I reckon: I so wanted to like this. SO WANTED TO LIKE THIS. On one of my trips to New York last year I skipped into Sephora and this was the first product I made a beeline for (as well as Tata Harper’s Cleansing oil which I will re-purchase for years to come). Having heard the hype I was mega excited to try a product that was so *special* it wasn’t even available in the UK.

I’m sad to say I was more than a little disappointed.

Straight up, I think I got a bad batch of this product. Within just a couple of weeks use the formulation had split, leaving an oil trickling out of the bottle with a tough, wax-textured product. I figured this might just be how it was meant to be used, but it’s literally impossible to mesh the two textures back together.

This makes it really hard to use, and for some reason it means little sweet smelling bits of the formulation make a bee-line for my mouth. Which for some weird reason (given my love of Goat’s cheese) makes me freak out and hop around the bathroom like my feet are on fire.

It didn’t do anything it promised to do: it wasn’t pleasant to cleanse with, it didn’t remove my make-up and it left an unappetising film of oil on my face. I persisted for a few weeks, but it wasn’t long before this was relegated to the back of my beauty drawer and then, eventually, the bin.

I wouldn’t buy this again. I’m still tempted to try the other products in the range – particularly the moisturisers – but I’ll stick with cleansers I know won’t split. This melting cleansing gel from Clarins does the job I imagine Goat Milk cleanser is supposed to do and comes in at £21 – I reviewed that here.

Update: Since writing this review I’ve learned that this separation issue was known and a problem for many customers. Kate Somerville subsequently stopped selling this cleanser, but didn’t pull the products from Sephora. This all went down in May 2016 and I bought mine in September, so I’m slightly disappointed I was allowed to buy a product that was defective. Not cool. It’s still showing as out of stock on their website.