Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm review

I am slowly - sooooo slooowly - approaching the bottom of my jar of Clinique Take The Day Off (TTDO) cleansing balm, and I cannot tell you how glad I’ll be to see the back of it.

Since featuring on lovely Caroline Hirons’ blog a time or three and being inducted to the Hirons Hall of Fame, TTDO has picked up something of a cult following and is regularly sold out on Clinique counters across the UK and Ireland.

And I can see its appeal, I really can. I mean, obviously I can; sure didn’t I buy a tub of it meself? Suitable for all skin types, TTDO is a bland, very inoffensive cleansing balm, free from mineral oil as well as potential irritants like essential oils and fragrance, that dissolves a day’s worth of make-up, including waterproof eye make-up and sunscreen, with ease. 

It’s a waxy solid in the jar, softens on the fingertips, and then melts silkily across skin, providing plenty of massage-friendly slip on the face. I use a facecloth wrung out in warm water to remove it, and have not once had an issue with any rogue post-cleanse residue clinging to skin.

TTDO does exactly what it says on the jar - and for a very reasonable price, too, especially considering that you need only use a teeny amount at a time and that it lasts for bleedin' ages. I bought mine at the very beginning of October, have used it every day since, and am still not quite finished it.

With all of that going for it, why am I so down on the stuff? Why am I counting down the days until it’s gone?

Well, my big - and, to be fair, only - problem with TTDO is that it is so. deadly. dull.

It turns out that cleansers not having a fragrance is a real turn off for me. I like cleansing to feel a bit special, a bit indulgent, and it seems I equate that with cleansers having a lovely smell. A fragrance-free product, even one as efficacious as TTDO, takes cleansing from fancy to perfunctory and, for me, means that cleansing feels more like a chore than I think it ought.

Still, if you don’t much care for smellz in your skincare, have skin of a sensitive disposition, or are just looking for a really good, back-to-basics balm cleanser, I’d say this is definitely worth a punt!


Ingredients: Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Sorbeth-30 Tetraoleate, Polyethylene, PEG-5 Glyceryl Triisostearate, Water, Tocopherol, Phenoxyethanol

Clinique Take The Day Off cleansing balm, £22 / €29 for 125ml. Bought with my very own spondoolix.