Bioré Light & Smooth Cleansing Serum Review

Happy September! New goodies from Bioré!

While I was in Japan, they were heavily promoting Bioré Light & Smooth Cleansing Serum, and for good reason, as it was so hot!!! I thought the Japanese summer was gonna be easy peasy given that I’m coming from the Philippines, but boy was I wrong. It really is much hotter there that all skincare offerings need to be lightweight, non-sticky, and non-greasy. Most of the skincare offerings were in gel and serum formats, and Bioré’s cooling wipes were the holy grail wipes of a lot of people.

So yaaay here’s a review after a few weeks without one!

Bioré Light & Smooth Cleansing Serum (Php490 for 230mL, available at Lazada and Shopee) is Bioré’s makeup remover in a serum format. The product promises quick and easy makeup removal but with a clean, non-sticky feel after makeup removal. Compared to Bioré Perfect Oil, this is lighter in feel and barely oily, while compared to Bioré Micellar Water, this is more viscous and has a stronger effect on waterproof makeup.

This is the back portion. As seen here, it’s described as: “This lightweight serum texture spreads easily onto the skin and is effective in removing waterproof makeup. It frees the skin from makeup residue, leaving skin feeling clean and fresh.” It’s also described to have a refreshing aqua floral fragrance, which I cannot confirm nor deny because I have really no idea how to describe how it smells like…

For those wanting to see the ingredients and warnings, here’s a zoom in:

When it’s pumped out, it’s got a runny texture. It’s not like makeup remover milk or gel cleanser which will stay put to some degree.

I wanna show how it does in removing various makeup!

From left to right, I have Maybelline Hypercurl Mascara, Etude House Dear Darling Tint, Urban Decay Lipstick, and Maybelline Hypersharp Liner.

Using a cotton pad with about 2-3 pumps of the product, this is what I was able to remove in exactly one swipe.

As seen here, the mascara still is there, and the eyeliner has not budged at all…

But after repeated swipes, everything eventually came off except for the tint.

I also roadtested the feel for myself!

Here’s me still with a full face of makeup:

I started by using a cotton pad saturated with the product on my eye area. I have my eyelashes permed right now, and I cannot use oil on it, so subsequently I can’t use mascara on my upper lashes. I felt safe using this because it’s really serum-like in feel. It didn’t feel like baby oil at all.

This is me after getting makeup off of half of my face. What I thoroughly appreciated is that my skin really didn’t feel greasy, oily, nor sticky after using the product. While I still did wash my face after this, it’s as comfy as micellar water that should you forget to wash your face, or if you’re too tired to do so, this will already suffice.

But the hard part, as seen in my swatch trial, is that this takes quite some time to remove waterproof eye makeup. It did melt away the Maybelline Hypercurl mascara I had on my lower lashes and eyebrow hairs eventually, but it did take some time and effort. If your priority is to get as much waterproof makeup off in as little time as possible, you’re better off with Bioré Perfect Oil.

BUT if you are like me and have such a hard time using oil on your eyes as it clouds your vision after, then this serum is the way to go, my friend!!! I was so amazed that I had no stinging sensation on my eyes, no blurring, no clouding, no weird feels. My eyes felt exactly the same that it’s like I didn’t even remove that much makeup!

Overall, at Php490 for 230mL, it’s already got good value for money. I feel that the average user will be able to use this for up to 6 months, especially if the user does not use waterproof makeup, so the quantity is good enough. I recommend this for people who usually do school or office makeup, and want a quick and easy way to effectively remove all sorts of makeup at the end of the day. This is not really the product designed to remove heavy makeup looks––there’s Bioré Perfect Oil for that.