Paris Honoré Champs de Lavande Face Cleanser Not Such A “Champ”

Just two weeks ago, while driving from New York City to central Texas en route to our new home, my husband and I kept spotting signs directing us to cities with European names: Dublin, Virginia; Scotland, Virginia; Moscow, Tennessee; Paris, Tennessee; Hamburg, Arkansas; Florence, Texas; and so on. “Now we can say we’ve been to Paris, Florence, and Dublin,” we joked. “We’re clearly so well traveled!” Maybe it was the exhaustion of driving for hours-long stretches in a cramped U-Haul truck, our 12-year-old son wedged between us, but the whole phenomenon seemed hysterical to us. I’m relating this anecdote because, despite the name of the brand I’ll be discussing today, its roots are very much American.

I was recently introduced to the organic skincare brand Paris Honoré which, again, despite its name, was actually founded in St. Paul, Minnesota. Why the peculiar name choice then? Well, I can’t very well answer that particular question though I’m hardly one to quibble over name choices (this site’s name, after all, is a reference to a Biggie Smalls song). Perhaps the name is an attempt to conjure up images of luxury. Maybe the name is a play on the idea of the skin’s pH level (the company logo, after all, incorporates the first letters of the words “Paris” and “Honoré”). Or perhaps the formulations were inspired by French ingredients or skin care practices. Whatever the story behind the brand name, what’s truly important is the philosophy that guides the company and whether the brand’s product offerings actually meet the high standards established by its founders.

Founder Cyndi Frick was inspired to launch Paris Honoré after becoming a mother and, in the process, developing a keen awareness of the ingredients lurking inside bath and body products. Wanting to protect herself and her children from the harmful toxins and allergens often found in cleansers, lotions, shampoos, and conditioners, she set out to develop a line of skin care and hair care products that were effective but contained no artificial preservatives and potentially harmful additives.

Since I, too, gravitate towards products that are free of parabens, sulfates, artificial fragrances and dyes, and synthetic preservatives, I was excited to test out one of the brand’s most popular cleansers : the Paris Honoré Champs de Lavande Face Cleanser ($111 for 100 ml at ParisHonore.com). The low-lather cleanser has a clear, almost gel-like consistency reminiscent of a serum so that it’s virtually weightless without being so fluid as to drip between your fingers or trickle down your arms. Once you dole out a few pumps from the cleanser’s silver-colored bottle and rub the dollops in between your hands, adding a hit of water to create a light lather, you can massage it onto your face for a gentle cleansing experience. Given that there are no artificial surfactants, the cleanser won’t produce a rich foam or bubbly suds, but these are actually no reflection of the depth of the cleansing experience — in fact, they’re merely meant to create the illusion of a thorough cleanse when, in fact, the ingredients that cause this frothiness can strip the skin of essential oils and hamper the skin’s barrier function. I actually appreciate how the cleanser lathers, making it easier to distribute the product all over the face, without all the unnecessary suds. Once you rinse off the cleanser, your face won’t feel tight or dry — at least not instantly. But we’ll get back to that.

Simplicity was clearly a priority when formulating this cleanser. When you look up the ingredients in the formulation, you won’t find dozens of items but a handful of carefully selected components: a proprietary extract of saponin (a type of phytochemical with foaming, detergent-like properties and antioxidant benefits); deionized water (water that has been purified via a chemical filtration system and hence had mineral ions from calcium, sodium, iron, copper, chloride and bromide removed), citric acid (a natural preservative), and fragrance. The problem? The cleanser doesn’t contain any skin-nourishing, collagen-boosting, soothing, softening, or brightening ingredients. As a consumer, I can’t imagine purchasing such a costly cleanser knowing all if contains is a natural surfactant and water (deionized water, for the record, hasn’t been shown to have any extraordinary skin benefits). Even when selecting a simple, bare-bones cleanser, I expect to at least find some vitamin-packed, fatty acid-rich natural ingredients like algae extract, green tea extract, camellia oil, aloe leaf juice, chamomile oil, or evening primrose oil. But this cleanser seems to contain nothing besides water (which, even if it’s been deionized or distilled a hundred times, is still just water) and a mysterious saponin extract (for the record, there are different types of saponins but most are known primarily for their emulsifying properties). Also, the cleanser’s scent is problematic for me — first, there’s no indication as to whether the ingredient listed as “fragrance” is of synthetic origin or whether it’s naturally-derived. In this case, it’s particularly perplexing since the cleanser has a strong lavender aroma but lavender extract isn’t listed as an ingredient. Now, my skin isn’t overly sensitive to fragrances (even of the synthetic variety), but I do struggle to understand why an organic skin care brand would incorporate a non-natural fragrance or why, if the scent is indeed derived form plant ingredients, it wouldn’t herald that fact. As for the scent itself, it does have the soothing and relaxing aromatherapy benefits attributed to lavender, but that has little bearing on the condition of the skin.

Here’s the odd part about my experience with the Paris Honoré Champs de Lavande Face Cleanser: within a week of using the cleanser, my face started to itch, indicating I was having a subtle reaction to the product. I didn’t develop a rash or any severe redness, but I did feel surprisingly itchy — nothing a severe as when you have chicken pox or you’re exposed to poison ivy, but just an uncomfortable and pestering itch that came and went. I thought it unlikely that the cleanser could be causing such a reaction, so I kept on using it for two more weeks until, finally, I concluded that something about this cleanser wasn’t sitting well with my skin. It’s possible I had a slight reaction to the fragrance or even to the saponin extract in the formula but, either way, my itchiness subsided within days of ceasing to use this facial cleanser. Once I began using one of my go-to cleansers — the L’Occitane Immortelle Intense Cleansing Foam — everything returned to a state of normalcy.

All in all, then, I can’t say I recommend this cleanser — particularly given the lack of high-performance actives and the exorbitant price.