REVIEW | Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water

Ever since covid-19 started getting worse, we never left the house without face masks. Thus, I find myself putting on less foundation and blusher, a little bit of bronzer, and setting it with loose power and setting spray. It feels uncomfortably bothersome to have the mask touching my face for hours whilst having all these makeup on so yea, that’s why I ditched foundation etc. I only stick to a super simple lip and eye makeup with just lipstick, brow pencil and mascara.

This entails less needing of cleansing oils for me. Instead of cleansing balm or cleansing oil, I realised that I mostly use micellar water or cleansing water since March 2020. I tried and explored many types of cleansing waters and one of them is the Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water.

Ingredients

Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Water, Water (Aqua), Butylene Glycol, Dipropylene Glycol, Glycerin, 1,2-Hexanediol, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil, Polyglyceryl-6 Caprylate, Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate, Sodium Chloride

This cleansing water only contains 10 ingredients and I like that. First ingredient is tea tree leaf water so you know it really is a Tea Tree Cleansing Water and not just in the name. There is only one cleansing ingredient or surfactant used in this Cleansing Water which is Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate. It is also used in Illiyoon Ceramide Micellar Water, Sulwhasoo Gentle Cleansing Water, Etude House Soon Jung 5.5 Cleansing Water, and more. This formulation is slightly acidic so it is really friendly to the skin (highly alkaline situation can damage skin barrier). This cleansing water is formulated for acne prone skin and tea tree leaf water and tea tree oil act as astringent to fight blemish while soothing the skin. Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water is free from paraben, sulfate, alcohol, and silicone, in case any of these is/are a concern to you. I don’t really mind paraben to be honest but I prefer a cleansing water with no alcohol since a frequent use of a product with a high alcohol content can be drying to my skin.

Texture and Smell

It has a mild tea tree scent for me. The smell is subtle and doesn’t linger. Texture is just like water and feels very lightweight.

Performance

I have (from left hand side) Innisfree brow pencil, Althea Concealer, Peripera Ink The Velvet, Maybelline Hyper Sharp Eye Liner, Maybelline Falsies Waterproof Mascara, The Balm Meet Matte eye shadow and another eye shadow also from the same palette.

At first swipe, everything is taken off effortlessly except for the lip stain and waterproof mascara. There is also a stain of the Innisfree brow pencil.

After some more swipes, everything seems to be removed properly except for the Peripera Ink The Velvet lip stain, Maybelline Falsies Waterproof Mascara, and some stain of the Innisfree brow pencil.

After a lot more swipes, this time adding in a new cotton pad, the brow pencil and the waterproof mascara is taken off. It definitely needs a lot of tugging to remove them properly. Even so, the lip stain is still there, standing proudly.

After a lot of scrubbing off.

Experience

As you have seen in the pictures above, the removal power of this Cleansing Water is not so strong. Can I say that it has a medium removal power? This is because it still removes the waterproof mascara even though with a lot of tugging and scrubbing. I personally prefer a micellar or cleansing water with a strong removal power because I love to wear liquid lipstick and lip stain daily.

The removal power is not the only thing that disappointed me it seems, I am also kinda bummed because guess what, it also stings my eyes sob sob. It really stings my eyes to the point that I can’t open it without the help of cotton towel and rinsing it off under running water. I am so glad that I only bought the mini size so it doesn’t really go to waste much and it doesn’t cost as much as the big one.

Other than that, this feels gentle on my skin and does not strip off my skin natural moisture as it doesn’t feel drying or giving my face a taut feeling either. It also doesn’t leave a sticky or filmy residue so the skin is comfortable after using. There is also no itchy feeling. I also experience no bad reaction to this such as breaking out, redness, tiny bumps, or rashes. I really wanna like this Benton Tea Tree Cleansing Water but the formulation sadly lets me down.