Tuesday, February 27, 2018

[Benton Review] Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water

Price: NA [Benton Site]
Verdict: 9/10
Repurchase:  Probably

Brand & Product 

I have been a fan of Benton products for a while, so when they put out their feelers for people interested in trying out their Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water, I was, of course, super keen on getting my hands on it! I'm lucky enough to be chosen as one of their reviewers, so here I am! 
Benton is inspired by and named after the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", in which Benjamin Button grows younger with time. It's one of my favorite movies which I will probably never want to watch again because it's not one of those feel-good movies. It's a movie about a man who ages backwards, growing younger and younger, which is where Benton comes in, aiming to restore the skin back to it's healthy condition with healthy recipes. 

Benton Tea Tree Cleasning Water is infused with Tea Tree Leaf Water and Tea Tree Leaf Oil which are made in Korea. The cleansing water gives a refreshing & calming effect on tired skin while mildly cleansing. It also revitalizes irritated, stressed out skin with redness. 
According to their description, Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water is designed to combine cleansing and tea tree treatment in order to ease the inconvenience of those who separately was their faces with tea tree essential oil diluted water. The product only has 10 clean ingredients, which is less of a burden on the skin. 
This cleansing water is recommended for those with skin that is tired from impurities and external stressors/ oily and acne prone skin, and skin that wants a naturally derived cleansing water. 
Personally, my skin has been breaking out from a number of factors recently, so I'm really keen on trying out a mild cleanser that wouldn't react badly with my skin. The clean ingredients, free of PEGs, Sulfates, Fragrance and colorant as well as the limited ingredients means less chances for my skin to freak out from anything, which I am all for. 

Packaging and directions

As is with most Benton products, they opted with a simple design as its packaging. It is a plastic bottle with a small opening at the top of the bottle to allow for easy dispensing onto a cotton pad. 
Instructions are as follows: 
1) Use this cleansing water as a makeup remover or a morning cleanser. Wet a cotton pad with the product and gently wipe the entire face.
2) Place the wet cotton pad for a while on the parts that need thorough cleansing and then gently wipe. (Using an eye makeup remover is recommended to erase eye makeup). 

Ingredients

Ingredients are Melaleuca Alternifolia Leaf Water (Tea Tree), Water, Butylene Glycol, Dipropylene Glycol, Glycerin, 1,2-Hexanediol, Melaluca Alternifolia Leaf Oil (tea tree), polyglyceryl-6 Caprylate, Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate, and Sodium Chloride. Running this through cosdna is a pleasure. The only possible acne trigger is the butylene glycol and even then, the warning sits at a low 1. 
The main highlight here, is the Tea Tree Leaf, of course, with the water covering 70% of the product. Tea tree leaf has been used as infection treatment for having antibacterial effect. It also has calming and deodorizing properties. It has many benefits on the skin, including skin soothing, hydrating, astringent, and anti-blemish effects. 

Texture and Fragrance

Being a cleansing water, it comes as no surprise that this is really watery. It doesn't smell like tea tree, which is quite a surprise considering it's ingredients, but it doesn't smell like anything at all. That's a good thing, I suppose. The product soaks into cotton pads easily enough, since the bottle opening is large enough that water comes out at an alarming rate. Lol. I sometimes overestimate where the water would end up and soak my floor with it. 

Performance

I've been using this two ways, one as a morning cleanser, which I really enjoy, and the second as a makeup remover. 
I have multiple makeup removers despite not being big on makeup myself. One product that comes to mind, which I'd compare this to, is The Saem's Healing Tea Garden Tea Tree Cleansing Water, which has comparable ingredients and is quite refreshing to use. On the other hand, I found that The Saem's Tea Tree Cleansing Water didn't really cleanse my skin well enough, so I've forgone the use of it most days.
Because of my prior experience with tea tree-based cleansing water, expectations for this cleansing water isn't particularly high. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that it's not the same case with the Benton Cleansing Water. 
As you can see from the pictures, I used two cotton pads in order to remove all of my makeup for the night. And that's including my waterproof eyeliner, which I'm quite surprised with, frankly, since it usually takes a lot more effort to get that off. In addition, it says in the instructions itself that it's not meant to be an eye makeup remover... That could be also because it hurts like nobody's business when it does get into my eyes. T.T Regrets. 
So, as a makeup remover, it does a really good job! I've forgone oil cleansing in favor of using this cleansing water for days when I use sunscreen and am satisfied that it can get most of my sunscreen off as well. 
As a morning cleanser, I got to admit I'm satisfied too. It's a very mild cleansing water, and just a single wipe over my face is enough to leave my skin feeling soothed and clean. I was kind of hoping this would work something like a toner, where I don't have to rinse my face after, but it's a necessity as it does leave something of a film on the skin. 
I've been using this  for the past week or so quite consistently and I find that I'm reaching more for this in the morning before I hop into the showers instead of washing my face with the Cosrx low pH cleansers in the morning. Speaking of which, I tested this with a pH strip and found that it lies somewhere between 5-6  on pH level, which isn't as low as I'd like my cleansers to be, but is good enough too. 
Overall, I have to say I'm quite satisfied with this. In terms of long term use, I'm not quite sure yet, since my skin can take a while to decide whether it loves or hate a product. I have my fingers crossed that this isn't the cause of my sudden cystic acne breakout though. :( Seeing as this is the only new product I've introduced to my skin lately, it could be a possibility. For now, I will stop using this, and reintroduce it some time in the future once my skin's healed. I will report back with results. ^^ 

Price: NA [Benton Site]
Verdict: 9/10
Repurchase:  Probably



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