I raved about the Bioderma Crealine H20 Micellar Solution late last year, a French makeup remover that feels exactly like water. It's a great product but it's only sold in limited quantities here. Bioderma is also expensive for those who are used to drugstore makeup removers, which begs the question: what's an equally good, or (dare we hope) better alternative that's easy to find locally?

Friends, meet the Bifesta Cleansing Lotion (P419), a Japanese water-based makeup remover that's exactly like Bioderma. I believe that this brand was called Mandom before, but the whole line is now repackaged, reformulated, and renamed.

It comes in four handy variants for different skin types: Moist (dry and sensitive skin), Sebum (combination-oily), Brightup (dull and flaky), and Agecare (mature). I've been using the Bifesta Sebum Cleansing Lotion so it's the one I will review for now!

First things first: I love this stuff. This feels like you're just applying water to remove makeup. It's fairly simple to use, just squirt a full pump per cotton pad, wipe off the gunk on your face, repeat until 100% clean, and rinse. You can actually just leave your face like that and proceed to moisturizing if you wish. Bifesta cleans so well, that is can be both your facial wash and toner in one fell swoop!