[BENTON] - Tea Tree Cleansing Water

I finished using/dumping out my cleansing water and had been looking to buy a new bottle. I was recommended Bioderma and managed to snag one while on sale. But when Benton started to recruit reviewers for their new Tea Tree Cleansing Water, I just couldn't resist applying. Cleansing/micellar water is like the perfect tool for a lazy bum like me. So you can imagine that I was pretty excited to hear that I was selected! Yay! So read on for my review on the Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water.



COMPANY BACKGROUND
First up, a little background on Benton. Most people, myself included, knows about their famous Snail Bee High Content Essence. But do you know why it's called Benton?

Source: http://bentoncosmetics.com/about.html

Well, it is inspired by and derived from the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Benton is essentially first and last three letters of Benjamin Button. That's kind of cool, I never knew about that. The name is selected as the goal of the company is to help the users to rewind the clock on their skin, much like Benjamin Button. They aim to help its customers restore their skin back to its original, healthy conditions with healthy recipes made in small batches.

Now, I think most people is aware of the issues that Benton had years ago with the Snail Bee High Content Essence. If I recall correctly, this was due to issues with a small batch of products. Unfortunately I think Benton handled that situation very poorly. I like to think they had learned their lesson, in customer service and in product quality control. There doesn't seem to be any more reports of such issues with Benton products so I think it is a good sign. It makes me excited and reassured to try out all the products that Benton has been coming out with.

INGREDIENTS
The new Tea Tree Cleansing Water is quite interesting as it is a cleansing water that is primarily made with tea tree leaf water (70%) and tea tree leaf oil. These are usually used to target breakouts. Even the advertisement is slightly aimed toward acne fighting. But this product can be used by all skin type, including sensitive skin. This is in part to the short ingredients list, which only contains 10 ingredients.

Source: http://bentoncosmetics.com/product/benton-tea-tree-cleansing-water-200ml/92/?cate_no=78&display_group=1

As you can see above, the whole ingredients list is considered to be low hazard and safe to use. This is reassuring, as there doesn't appear to preservatives in the ingredients list. Check out the CosDNA page for what each ingredient does.

Now for the function of the cleansing water. Well, yes, it's called cleansing water, so the purpose is obviously to help you cleanse your skin, especially with removing makeup. In fact, the instruction says to use it as a makeup remover or a morning cleanser. But why the high concentration of tea tree?

Source: http://bentoncosmetics.com/product/benton-tea-tree-cleansing-water-200ml/92/?cate_no=78&display_group=1

Well, the aim of the cleansing water is to refresh and calm any tired or irritated skin, in addition to cleansing the skin of course. It is designed to provide convenience to those who have irritated, stressed-out skin that requires cleansing with tea tree oil diluted with water. (I never heard of that but maybe some does do it this way. Or Benton meant that it is for those who separate cleansing and spot treatments with tea tree oil products).

Enough introduction about the company and the product, let's move on to how it actually performs.

**Disclaimer** I received this product for free in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are mine.

SCENT

First of all, if you read my blog or Instagram enough times, you would know how important scent is to me. I highly dislike tea tree scent, as it smells just yucky to me. I tend to avoid the tea tree products. Since there is a high concentration of ingredients derived from tea tree, it is reasonable to assume this smells like tea tree. And let me tell you, it DOES! It is pretty strong when I first opened it. But the scent dissipate after a minute or two. After that, I don't really smell it, especially on my face. Yay for that! I can continue to use it!

PERFORMANCE
Now, let's see how it performs as a makeup remover. The cleansing water is supposed to help remove heavy makeup. So it only makes sense that I put it up against some of my best products right? I did it the following ways.
1) Arm swatch
2) Full face makeup
3) bare face

1) Arm swatch
I applied some of my liners and lip tints on my arm and allow it to dry. Then I soaked the cotton pad with the cleansing water and swiped once, twice, and on and on until it removed almost everything. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's just start with the swatches eh?

Going from top to bottom.
- Heroine Make Waterproof eyeliner (my absolute favourite, stands up against my oily hooded lids the best)
-Tonymoly cushion liner (it's honestly meh. kind of streaky but I love the packaging)
- Peripera Peri's tint water
- Peripear Peri's ink (the two Periperas are used as they are my favourite long lasting tints. I also love the ink velvets but I just didn't wanna use them up on arm swatches 😅)
- Etude House Universe My Dear Glass Tinting (It's a pretty purple shade with glitter, I wanted to see how it cleans up glitter)

With one swipe of a soaked cotton pad, you can see that Etude is basically all gone, while the rest are mostly staying put, with the Heroine Make being the strongest.

With a second swipe, the Tonymoly is basically gone, Peripera is leaving a stain but going as well. The Heroine Make is staying strong! This is why it's my HG! 😍

Third swipe with a bit more cleansing water, and voila, it FINALLY started to remove a little bit of the Heroine Make!! The rest are basically almost all gone.

A few more swipes, and a scrub with the scrubby side, everything but the Heroine Make is removed. That's pretty impressive. But that is only arm swatches, you wouldn't swipe so hard on your face though. So let's move on to the next option.

2) Full Face Makeup
Full face makeup is hard to come by for me, as I always get lazy and don't feel like double cleansing afterwards. But I decided to put on some BB cushion, eyeliner, eye shadow, mascara and lip tint. While it didn't feel like anything, I was ready to remove it after having it on my face all day.

 As you can see, it took 3 fully soaked cotton pads to completely remove the makeup I had on my face. That's not THAT impressive, as I had minimal makeup and it still took quite a bit of product to remove. It left my skin feeling a tad tight, so it can be a little stripping if you use quite a bit of the cleansing water. But I am happy that it doesn't a film feeling or any residues on my skin. So I didn't feel like I need to wash my face again with a cleanser, which is a plus in my book.

While the instructions mentioned that eye makeup should be removed using an eye makeup remover instead of the cleansing water. I was being an idiot and used it to remove my eye makeup anyways. Well. I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't "sting" my eye, but it did make it feel slightly comfortable for a couple of seconds. It also didn't remove all of the makeup. I wouldn't recommend using it on your eyes on a regular basis, but it will work in a pinch..

3) Bare Face
Bare face is usually how I face the world, so I usually think there isn't too much to remove after being outdoors for maybe 30 minutes max. But in order to test out the cleansing water, I decided to use it when I come home everyday.

Let me tell you, I was surprised at how dirty my face was!! I expecting nothing as I was only outside for maybe 20 minutes and there is just mostly snow on the ground. While there wasn't much, I was surprised there is definitely still a bit of dirt being collected on my face. Shows you how dirty our environment is and how important to cleanse every day.

I also just want to point out that I don't think this removes sunscreen well. I had sunscreen and used this to do a first cleanse before using a foaming wash. And I still ended up with bumps. Sigh. This is why I dislike wearing sunscreen even though I know I should. But I digress.

I think this cleansing water came at a good time, as I was wondering how I am going to review it for its effectiveness on irritations and breakouts. Lo and behold, I had developed quite a few bumps from a mask that my skin just disagreed with. I was hoping it will go away on its own, and it didn't. So I applied the cleansing water. Just a couple of swipes, and a couple of hours later, those bumps had drastically reduced in size. They were pretty much flat by the next day. I was quite impressed!

BUT, it isn't fool proof. I found that it didn't reduce the breakouts that was caused by clogged pores from sunscreen. So, if you get clogged pores from sunscreen, use oil cleanser to clean your skin first before using the cleansing water.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Overall, I was surprised at how much I liked this cleansing water. It does smell a little strongly of tea tree and how it left my skin feeling a little tight after too much of it. But it sinks in nicely and doesn't leave any residue on my skin. It surprised me at how well it reduced my bumps caused by reactions to ingredients, but not so much clogged pores from sunscreen. So this means that if you wear sunscreen, you would still need an oil cleanser first.

My best recommendation for this cleansing water is to either use it as recommended, as a morning cleanser. Or use it as a quick way to remove your makeup when you get home to allow your skin to breathe, but you will need to double cleanse to fully remove any products that require an oil cleanser.

I am unsure if I will purchase this after I finish the bottle. If the Korean site is an indication, this will be marked for about US$17. As this is a 200ml bottle, it can be quite heavy to ship and the postage will be relatively high. I am not sure its ultimate price point after shipping and foreign exchange will be worth it for me. Especially when I can get Bioderma for less than C$20 and I found it to be able to remove sunscreen a tad better.

Edit: Benton has launched the product and it looks like it is US$17 including shipping. At this price point, I think it is worth a repurchase since it is at par with Bioderma.

Lastly, just want to thank Benton for providing the product for me to try.

PS. I do have a gripe with the review deadline set by Benton. This was sent out to me early February, with the deadline being February 28th. This only gave me just under 2 weeks to review this product. While I know this is a cleansing water, most of the focus will be how well it removes makeup and dirt. But seeing how Benton says it will change how your skin feels with time, the change is hard to see with just 2 weeks. I just feel like there should be a tad longer review time so the long term effect can be observed. As such, I will continue to use the product and will update if I see any different results.