LUSH Fresh Farmacy Skin Cleanser Review

The Verdict:  Meh. Didn't do much for my skin and I won't be buying Fresh Farmacy again.

Just the Facts:  A few years ago when I discovered LUSH I fell in love with a few of their haircare products and to this day swear that they helped me to finally grown my hair out with success.  So thinking that LUSH could do the same for my problem skin, I gave a few of their skin care products a try with mixed results.  One of those products is Fresh Farmacy.

Fresh Farmacy is a facial cleansing bar that is made of calamine, chamomile, elderflower and essential oils which are supposed to calm troubled skin of all ages.  As someone quickly approaching 40 and still breaking out like I'm 14, I decided to give it a try hoping for some improvement. I wasn't looking for a miracle or the "radical transformation" stated on LUSH.com; just an improvement in the number of breakouts and the redness of my skin.

I first tried Fresh Farmacy about 3 years ago.  I stopped using ProActiv and switched to Fresh Farmacy.  Within a week had broken out horribly for some reason.  Not sure if it was all those essential oils or something else but I broke out and was not willing to stick it out to see if there would be any improvement so I went back to ProActiv. 

About six months ago my dermatologist put me back on oral antibiotics to control my breakouts.  She also suggested that I start using a more gentle facial cleanser to get me away from the harsh peroxide blends I had been using.  That's when I decided to give Fresh Farmacy another try.  This time it worked OK for me, but I feel that that is only because the antibiotic was keeping the skin acne free and not so much the soap.

Fresh Farmacy is a nice soap.  It cleanses well, its scent is very lightly tinged of chamomile and calamine, and it lathers nicely.  When I cleanse with it my face feels very clean and when I use toner afterward there is absolutely no dirt or makeup residue on the cotton pad.  However I get the same result from Dove, Basis, or any other gentle soap that is a quarter the price.

In addition to all of that, Fresh Farmacy forms sort of a crust on the outside when it is not used often.  Not that it gets oogy and nasty, but it calcifies or does something that causes the outer layer to become very hard and the only way to remove it and get down to the soap again is to scrape it off with a knife of scrub it with a Buf Puf.

Closing Argument:  3 stars.  The only radical transformation I had from using this soap is when it made me break out the first time I used it.  The 2nd bar I bought was used in combination with antibiotics and it was the antibiotics that kept me clear and not this cleanser.  While it is pleasant to use, there are other soaps that work just as well for me that are way cheaper and not so high maintenance.  As much as I love LUSH, I won't use it or rate it highly just because it is LUSH.