DHC Deep Cleansing Oil

Why is my DHC  Deep Cleansing Oil hanging outside?  As I was walking my dogs this morning I was surprised to see several flowering trees in full bloom.  It's January 21st and a balmy 70 degrees outside and apparently where I live thinks it's spring.  I'm not complaining, but it is a little weird. 

I discovered DHC about 6 years ago when out of the blue I started receiving their catalogs.  In each catalog they include several samples, which gave me the opportunity to try this unknown to me line. DHC is a Japanese skincare and makeup company that direct sales through their catalog and web site here in the United States.  Apparently in Japan they are huge, with 180 retail stores and a presence in over 32,000 convenience stores.  Yes, you can buy quality skincare products at the equivalent of a 7-Eleven in Japan.  I'm jealous.  Deep cleansing oil is DHC's top selling product worldwide and the first of their products that I purchased.

Cleansing oils are big in Asia, but relatively scarce in Western markets.  While it may seem counter intuitive to use an oil to remove your makeup - especially for those of us with oily skin where the idea of adding more oil provokes fear and loathing - it works.  I mean REALLY works.  The process is simple, just squirt some in your hand, rub all over your face for about 30 seconds, and then rinse.  Makeup and dirt, including waterproof mascara, are gone.  There is zero oily residue due to its water-soluble formula and skin is left soft and clean thanks to olive oil and vitamin E.  Seriously, if I had to restrict myself to one facial cleanser for the rest of my life, this would be it.  It's gentle, effective, and relatively inexpensive at $26 for a 6.7 oz. bottle.  Two bottles will get me through a year of nightly makeup removal.

In the ingredient list, the only two I  recognize are olive and rosemary leaf oil, so I looked up the others at a couple of cool sites that list cosmetic ingredients - Chemical of the Day and Cosmetics Ingredient Dictionary.  Caprylic/capric triglyceride is fractionated coconut oil (which keeps it from becoming solid), and is considered an unadulterated natural ingredient because there are no solvents used.  Sorbeth-30 tetraoleate is an emulsifier and pentylene glycol is a solvent or slip agent, and neither had high risk ratings.  Phenoxyethanol is a common cosmetic preservative that is considered one of the less irritating ones to use in formulations, but one site did list it with an Environmental Working Group (EWG) risk score of 4 due to animal studies that show it to be a reproductive toxin.  However, the EWG's Skin Deep Database is no longer online, so I'm not sure what's up with that.  Tocopherol is the naturally occurring (vs. synthetic) form of vitamin E.  Stearyl glycyrrhetinate is the fatty acid form of the anti-irritant glycyrrhetinic acid, which is derived from licorice.  Looking up ingredients can be an eye opener, but I feel good about both the effectiveness and safety of this product.