Last week I had my first trip to Toronto’s famous Detox Market on Queen and Spadina. This hidden gem is nestled snugly along Richmond Street and Spadina – and although the doors are deceptively small, the basement location holds hundreds of SKUs of endless indie makeup and skincare. It was love at first sight, needless to say.
I had to dash before I could make a purchase, but I made a mental list of products that are on “Must Buy” list for my next visit to the city!
Before I left, a very kind sales associate named Mindy hooked me up with a small sample of Odacite’s Black Mint Cleanser, which I have been steadily using for the past few days. The website says that the cleanser will “Purify your skin with this ultra-fresh minty gel cleanser that lathers away excess oil, makeup, and impurities. Perfect for oily and congested skin types, this cooling formula contains rhassoul clay and activated charcoal to absorb grime, tea tree and peppermint to treat and invigorate, and apple amino acids to cleanse without drying.” Sounds good to me! Amino acids are like whatever the opposite of kryptonite is. My skin positively glows when I incorporate some types of aminos and omegas, but I was a bit skeptical of the mint and the charcoal, as charcoal can be quite drying on me.
My skin type is quite dry, but I am prone to bouts of breakouts. My favorite cleanser type is usually oil based or fluffy cream, since gels can sometimes overly strip my skin. As always, patch testing is key, even though I did bend the rules a little and dove right in using this product.
The first thing I noticed about this cleanser is that it is quite cooling! That minty feeling is not false advertising! It doesn’t tingle the same way that, say, a menthol lip balm does, but it definitely feels like an alpine breeze on the skin.
I didn’t mind it, actually. In the summertime it will be a great way to refresh the skin. When I washed it off, I noticed that it did a great job of taking off my makeup – I had on a full beat both days that I was using it, and it took off every trace of my makeup besides my mascara (which is fine, since it was waterproof anyway).
My only concern is that it did leave my skin feeling a teensy bit tight and stripped of oils. When I went over my face again with micellar water, I noticed a few dry patches on my skin, and was a bit hesitant to use my tretinoin retinoids, for fear of drying out my skin further. In that way, I’d say that maybe this product is best suited for more oily skin types, the same way that many gel cleansers are better suited for that particular skin type. In a way it’s quite similar to Youth To The People’s Kale Cleanser, but not nearly as sudsy, which is probably good for your skin. For a similar price point, I think I recommend the Odacite.
My skin is positively radiant today. That charcoal sure put in the work – I’ve definitely noticed that the pores around the bridge of my nose have lessened!
I am decidedly a fan of Odacite. It gets the Sarah stamp of approval. I can’t wait to try more from the brand!