My Latest Empties: Salt & Stone Body Wash and Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9
I’m back with another round of empties, and I feel completely differently about these two. I really love the Salt & Stone body wash, so I’ll start there. The Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser was my first time trying it, and I’m still on the fence.
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Salt & Stone Body Wash, Bergamot & Hinoki
Salt & Stone Body Wash, Bergamot & Hinoki
A sulfate-free body wash that leaves skin soft instead of squeaky, with niacinamide and hyaluronic acid worked in and a light bergamot-and-cypress scent my whole household got attached to.
Most body washes get you clean by stripping everything off, which is why your skin can feel tight the second you step out of the shower. This one skips the harsh sulfates (the foaming agents like SLS that do most of that stripping) for gentler coconut-derived cleansers, and it folds in skincare ingredients you don’t usually find in a shower bottle: niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and a vitamin C derivative. The sulfate part matters more than it sounds. A 1996 study in Contact Dermatitis found that SLS, the most common harsh foaming agent, increases how much moisture your skin loses afterward, and the effect climbs with concentration. Use something milder and your skin holds onto more of its own water. As for the scent, it’s bergamot up top and hinoki underneath, which is Japanese cypress, that warm woody-green note you catch walking into a nice spa.
For a few years before this, I was hooked on Necessaire, and I really liked it. Then I switched to Salt & Stone. I’ve tried a couple of the others, but Bergamot & Hinoki is my favorite. My skin feels softer, I like the light scent, and I like that it comes with a real pump. Necessaire comes in a pump now, but back when I was using it, it just had a hole on the top to dispense it. This is probably my eighth bottle. My husband and I both use it and both really like it, so as soon as Sephora has a sale, I buy these in bulk. They’re fantastic. I also have the Salt & Stone body lotion and oil, which I’ll review separately, but this body wash is the one I love.
Plenty of reviewers are as attached to it as I am. One called the smell “intoxicating” and said “it smells like a luxurious spa,” with a formula that’s “not stripping.” Another, on her second bottle, put the price in perspective: “Pricey, but better than booking a 5 star hotel.” I don’t know about that, but while the price tag is higher, I think it’s worth it. Some reviewers find the scent fades fast once they’re actually in the shower (though not me). One liked it in the store but said that in the water “it smells like nothing when you’re using it or afterwards.” I get a soft trail that lingers on my skin, so I land in the middle there, but if you want a body wash that announces itself all day, this isn’t it. Chance of me buying again? 10/10.
Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser
Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser
A gentle jelly cleanser that cleans without leaving skin tight. Great for a daily wash, less of a heavy-duty makeup melter. Certified cruelty-free (PETA).
Beste No. 9 is Drunk Elephant’s everyday gel cleanser, the kind you’d use in the morning or as a first pass at night. Glycerin is the second ingredient on the list, right after water, and that’s most of why it rinses clean without the tight, over-washed feeling. Glycerin pulls water toward the skin and helps it recover after washing. A 1999 study in Acta Dermato-Venereologica found that glycerin sped up how fast skin rebuilt its barrier after it had been stripped, with better hydration in the surface layers along the way. The two ingredients called out on the tube are cantaloupe extract and that glycerin, and the whole thing is fragrance-free and free of essential oils, which I appreciate in something I’m using right around my eyes and nose every day.
This was my first time using this Drunk Elephant cleanser, and it’s pretty good. It does a decent job of getting makeup and sunscreen off, though it’s truly hard to tell about the sunscreen part. I use the cleanser and then go in with a cleansing cloth to further remove any makeup, or my konjac sponge, which I’m out of now and need to repurchase (a separate post on that is coming). I’m on the fence about whether I’ll buy this one again. I really like cleansing balms, like the Elemis Pro-Collagen one, and the Korean balms have been great too. I wouldn’t not purchase it again, but it’s not a must-have the way the Salt & Stone is.
Long-time users tend to agree it’s a solid daily cleanser. One who has repurchased it for years said she “always come[s] back” because it leaves her skin “refreshed,” and another said it “removes my makeup more easily than much harsher products” without leaving her skin “stripped.” The honest caveats: it isn’t a heavy-duty makeup remover, and the label warns against using it near the eyes. One reviewer who tried anyway said “it stung and burned” before she “saw it advises against use near the eyes.” (I never had any burning…I’m not sure which ingredient would even cause that TBH.) Some people with sensitive skin also find it drying despite the gentle billing, with one noting that even used as directed “it still stripped my skin.” Chance of me buying again? 7/10.
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A cruelty-free mark means the brand is certified by PETA, Leaping Bunny, or both at the time of writing. A missing mark doesn’t mean a brand tests on animals; it just means the brand isn’t certified by these programs.
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