Packaging

Cute little plastic bottles with pump dispensers. I'm not a fan of the pump, to be honest, because the pump itself tends to fall off and it's a little inconvenient to take travelling. I like that the bottles are light though, because it's convenient and travel-friendly.

One thing some brands take for granted is making the 'straw' inside the bottle long enough so that all the product can be reached and dispensed. But as you can see in the photos below, Biore does just that - the straw reaches all the way to the bottom and even bends a little, so you can get all the product out and get the most out of your money (which brings me to my next point).

Product

These Cleansing Waters come in 2 different types - one for normal/dry skin, and one for oily skin. The Perfect Cleansing Water Soften Up (for normal/dry skin) is their star product for many reasons - it cleanses without stripping the skin, so it's suitable for even the most sensitive skin. Cleansing 'water' like this is also great for removing makeup residue and sebum from your pores, giving it a nice, deep clean so you can prevent breakouts even if you're using makeup and sunscreen daily.

Performance

I tried both these cleansing waters and have concluded that they both perform exactly the same. The only difference is that the blue bottle makes my skin feel less oily than the pink one, which is exactly what it's meant to do. If you have sensitive, red skin, I highly recommend the pink bottle, because it's gentle and great for sensitive skin.

To test the effectiveness of these products, I broke out my trusty waterproof mascara and smeared it on my arm. As I mentioned before, they both perform exactly the same so I'm only going to show you one set of photos. The first swatch is the mascara, freshly smeared. In the second swatch, I used a cotton pad doused in the Biore Perfect Cleansing water and swiped once. In the final swatch, I had to use a heavy hand and rub the area repeatedly. It's not entirely visible, but there are still traces of the waterproof mascara on my arm, and my arm is slightly red from the rubbing.

I performed the test once more and realised that if you make sure the cotton pad is soaked until it is wet with the product, and then lay the cotton pad onto the makeup for it to 'sink' in, it is much more effective. So if you're removing stubborn, waterproof makeup, make sure to wet your cotton pad with the cleansing water, lay it onto your eyes/lips and massage it in for a minute or so, and only then, start to swipe to remove your makeup. Otherwise, you'll be tugging and pulling at your skin, which could cause sagging and wrinkles.

Here's the test I performed on a full eye makeup look, including waterproof mascara, eyelid primer, eyeshadow, and waterproof eyeliner. All I needed to do was let the product 'soak in' a little bit - I left the cotton pad on my eye for 30 seconds - and it wiped everything off easily, including my difficult waterproof mascara.

As you can see in the photo on the right, my waterproof mascara was cleanly removed.

Overall, here's my product rating:

Performance: 4/5

Price: 4/5

Packaging: 4/5