Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash Review

Hi Everyone,

This is going to be my first product review and I hope you all like it. Today I’ll be reviewing one of my favourite skincare products, the Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash. I have been using it for the past 5-6 years and it has helped keep my sensitive, oily and acne-prone skin blemish-free. So lets get to the review and see why its my favourite facewash.

Product Claims:-

Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash is an alcohol free cleanser that provides deep cleaning without over-drying your skin. It penetrates deep to clean pores to help prevent pimples by removing excess oil and surface buildup. Special ingredients soothe and condition skin, leaving it clean, residue-free and never oily.

Price:-

Rs 499 for 175mL

A Brief Info:-

Mostly, one out of these ingredients is used to treat blemish-prone skin types- Benzoyl Peroxide or Salicylic Acid. While BP works by killing the acne-causing bacteria and drying the skin, salicylic acid works by sloughing off the top layer of the skin. There are some good and bad points to each of these chemicals and in my experience, usually one of these ingredients suits a person more than the other. It takes a little trial and error to check which one of them will suit you better.

My Review:-

The Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash comes in a clear plastic bottle with a pump and is the only thing I do not like about this product. The bottle is fine until you have to travel with it. There is no lock mechanism to prevent spillage of the product and you will have to transfer the facewash in a more secure travel bottle to take with you while travelling. The packaging is so defective that even if you drop the bottle by mistake, the pump starts to leak.

Anyway, coming to the product itself, the facewash is a light-orange colored clear liquid with a faint medicinal smell. It has a medium consistency and is not runny. I like to leave it on my face for about a minute before washing it off to increase its effectiveness. It leaves my skin oil-free, residue-free and glowing. It does leave the skin a little bit dry so I would suggest anybody who uses it to follow up with a moisturiser.

The Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash comes with 2% salicylic acid, a chemical very similar to aspirin. It is the main ingredient to fight off problematic issues associated with an oily skin type. I have tried some other drugstore and high-end brands but none of them handles my skin issues better than this does. It is hands-down the best facewash I have come across for my skin-type!

The Good:-

1) It does what it claims. Keeps the blemishes under control.

2) Leaves the skin squeaky clean with no residue.

3) Other than keeping the blemishes under control, I have also found that it has a calming effect on the skin. So if you suffer from any facial redness, this could work for you too.

THE Not-So-Good:-

1) The pump leaks if the bottle is not kept upright; is not suitable for travel.

2) It might cause a little dryness, esp. in winters. But its nothing  a follow-up moisturiser cannot fix.

Overall Recommendation and Rating:-

Highly recommended for oily acne-prone skin types. Also, do keep in mind that not everyone benefits from salicylic acid ,so if you feel you haven’t noticed any benefits do give benzoyl peroxide a try.

4.5/5 (-0.5 for the defective pump)

Thanks for reading my review. Until next time! 🙂