SKINCARE | Double Cleansing with Stoic Beauty Gemini Cleanser Alpha and Beta

 

Press samples

I am back with more from Toronto-based Stoic Beauty! I fell in love with the brand at the beginning of the year when I got a chance to try their serums and then again with their body oil and butter. This year, I have really been into trying out different cleansers and as an advocate of the double cleanse, Stoic Beauty's Gemini Cleansers immediately jumped out at me!

There are two Gemini cleansers intended to be used together as a double cleanse duo though you can most certainly use them on their own. You can see from the very straightforward ingredient list below that the Alpha cleanser is an oil cleanser with an extremely subtle citrus scent. This is "plump" and full-feeling oil cleanser that does a decent job of emulsifying sunscreen, face makeup and eye makeup. Waterproof mascara needed a bit of extra work with having to cleanse my eyes twice. The only thing I did not like about Alpha was that I was expecting it to rinse off in that classic milky Asian way, but this is a true oil so you will definitely need a second cleanser after this or you will need to remove it with a warm face towel. The skin does feel pretty plush upon removal though and almost MORE hydrated than before you started cleansing!

INGREDIENTS: VITIS VINIFERA (GRAPE SEED) OIL, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE, COCO-CAPRYLATE, POLYCLYCERYL-3 OLEATE, LEMON ESSENTIAL OIL, TANGERINE ESSENTIAL OIL

For the second part of your cleanse, look no further than the Beta cleanser which was actually my favourite of the two as I quite enjoy the scent of tea tree oil which is what this cleanser smelled like! It also uses a very cool plant called holy basil hydrosol or tulsi which is often used in traditional Ayurvedic treatments for awakening, purifying and awakening. It also brightens and brings radiance to the skin. Um, yes please! There is also soothing aloe vera extract, cucumber extract and tamanu seed oil to calm irritated skin so you can see why I liked this cleanser so much! I felt like it was much more multi-purpose. 

The texture was gel-like and a little bit foamy, but definitely not stripping. When used with Alpha, my skin felt clean, balanced and soft. The only thing I did not like about this cleanser was how aggressively the product shot out of the pump! Sometimes it was hard enough to push existing product out of the palm of my hand, but this is all fairly minor compared to the beautiful ingredients list!

INGREDIENTS: OCIMUM SANCTUM (HOLY BASIL HYDROSOL), AQUA, COCO-GLUCOSIDE, GLYCERIN, CUCUMIS SATIVUS (CUCUMBER) EXTRACT, CAMELLIA SINENSIS (GREEN TEA) LEAF EXTRACT, SODIUM COCOAMPHOACETATE, LAURYL GLUCOSIDE, CALOPHYLLUM INOPHYLLUM (TAMANU) SEED OIL, SODIUM COCOYL GLUTAMATE, SODIUM LAURYL GLUCOSE CARBOXYLATE, HYDROXYETHYLCELLULOSE, GLUCONOLACTONE, SODIUM BENZOATE, ALOE BARBADENSIS (ALOE VERA) EXTRACT

I don't know why I thought this was a useful photo, but here I have Alpha (oil) on the right and Beta (gel) on the left. 

Final verdict: Together Alpha and Beta work beautifully together, but I enjoy using Beta a lot more because of the texture and how versatile it is on its own. I think the price for both the cleansers at $20 each is very fair considering these are water-safe and made in Canada. I have my eye on more from Stoic Beauty (the Morning Mist!) as I do like the simplicity of their formulas and that they use ingredients we don't see all the time in skincare. 

You can find the Stoic Beauty Gemini Cleanser Alpha and Beta at www.stoic-beauty.ca!