gavee gold gold citrus cleanse

Reviewed by Monica on October 18, 2014

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I'm 28, and I tested the Gavée Gold Gold Citrus Cleanse ($38). This was a new brand to me, so I did some research, but all I could find was that Gavee Gold was on Indiegogo.com as a crowd-funded project and that Tiffany Anderson, the founder, had a TV show airing in Las Vegas. However, now — about six weeks after my original search — there are a good number of product reviews available, which likely means that Gavee Gold is ramping up product distribution and visibility.

As a stage 4 cancer survivor and a holistic health practitioner, Tiffany seems to firmly believe in her line of spagyric (a distillation process, often used in alchemy and holistic medicine, for separating/purifying ingredients in order to extract minerals) products and says she follows the guidelines of the Environmental Working Group and the European Union for Safe Cosmetics. She, uniquely, involves a number of old alchemical processes and ingredients, which is pretty ingenious in a world where the Paleo diet is a trending topic.

The Gold Citrus Cleanse bottle is absolutely gorgeous — possibly the most attractive packaging I’ve seen on a facial cleanser, with its eye-catching, shimmering gold top and bottom. The bottle has some heft, which is always nice, since I tend to knock things over constantly. However, beyond Tiffany’s heart-rending history and the product line’s attractive packaging, I wasn’t impressed with the Gold Citrus Cleanse. A few reviews I’ve read state that the product is far more impactful when used as a full skin care line, rather than using just one product. Perhaps that’s where my problem arose, with me trying only the cleanser. But regardless, after six weeks of use, I would not purchase this cleanser, not even to use with the entire product line.

When the bottle arrived in the mail, I was disappointed to discover that the pump to supply the cleanser is difficult to use, you need to use a good amount of the cleanser to wash your entire face (I used two to three pumps), there’s little-to-no “citrus” scent (though this isn’t necessarily bad, just a bit confusing with the name including “citrus”), and worst of all, it didn’t seem to do anything special. My face never felt particularly clean after using the Gold Citrus Cleanse — granted, I’m a person who really likes lather, tingles or anything that lets me know a product is working, none of which the Gold Citrus Cleanse provided. The icing on the cake was reading the product description on the Gavee Gold website that called the Gold Citrus Cleanse “a rich foaming cleanser.” This is just incorrect as there was absolutely zero foaming in my product.

On to the more positive aspects of the product: the unique ingredients, including oil of gold, cell salts and grapefruit extract. Oil of gold is a skin care ingredient exclusive to Gavee that is aged for 30 years in a highly labor-intensive process. It’s believed to be worth the lengthy purification and distillation process, though, as the final product is purported to firm and tighten skin, reduce skin inflammation and help age spots. Gavee reports that it also ages its cell salts for 20 years, and these cell salts include the 12 minerals needed for healthy cells and skin. Grapefruit extract adds vitamin C, folate and potassium to the cleanser to continue adding nutrients to the skin cells, and this extract is also supposed to give the cleanser its citrus scent (I didn’t smell any scent). The process that goes into making the Gavee product line is really interesting, and if you’re interested in skincare with holistic impact, a great back-story, and products that purport to have no toxins whatsoever, do some research and try the line!

I did not find the product terribly effective — but I also did not have any problem with it. It did not cause me to breakout, I had no negative reactions, it didn’t smell funny — but, for me at least, it was just a mediocre cleanser. However, if you’ve tried the cleanser, or better yet, are in love with the Gavee line, please tell me what I missing or doing wrong! I want so badly to love the product and Gavee Gold after researching Tiffany’s history and motivation for the products…but I just can’t figure out how to do this after my lukewarm experience with Gavee Gold Gold Citrus Cleanse.