Product Review: Happy Tea Time Cleansing Foam (Green Tea)

If you have read the About page as well as my dermatologist experience, you probably already know that the only skin care routine I had adopted in my younger days was cleansing the face. As a teen, I used to just wash with a bar soap - any bar soap that I was using for my body. Pretty economical, yet a major facial skin care flop. Then, I somehow upgraded to a bar soap especially made for the face. It was good enough to deal with my acne, but it became too effective for fighting off my zits that my skin became overly dry. 

A few years more, I upgraded my cleansing product again. This time I switched to a facial cleanser. It was a big improvement because my pimples didn't have to experience getting accidentally squished by a hard bar of soap. Later on, I followed my cleansing with a toner and moisturizer as additional steps to my skin care routine.

Over the years, I never seemed to get contented with a single facial cleanser. I would switch from product to product to see which works best. In the midst of my experimentation with my face, I found this product from Etude House. What I liked about this is the very affordable price tag. It's Php 148.00 price tag is equivalent to a huge tube of facial cleanser. Not bad.

Product Name: Happy Tea Time Cleansing Foam (Green Tea)

Price and Availability: Php 148.00 (Etude House), Amazon  / 150ml

Ingredients: water, glycerin, potassium stearate, potassium myristate, peg-30, myristic acid, hydrated silica, potassium laurate, cocamidopropyl betaine, camellia sinensis leaf extract, lauric acid, disodium edta, peg-100 stearate, benzoate phenoxyethanol, ci 42090, ci 19140, fragrance (Note: According to cosdna.com database, myristic acid and lauric acid have comedogenicity scale of 3 and above out of 5.)

Introducing, Happy Tea Time Cleansing Foam - Green Tea:

Review:

The consistency of this product is very very thick. During my stay in Singapore, I brought this along with me. I needed to transfer some amount in a smaller bottle for portability. I had used a hard clear plastic bottle with a screw-on cap, and got a very difficult time to dispense a small amount whenever I washed my face. In fact, even if I flipped the container upside down overnight, the cleanser barely got influenced by gravity - that's just how thick the consistency is. 

Yeah I know, the container I used was a wrong choice. Good thing that the original container is a squeezable tube, take note though that as the content becomes less, squeezing becomes more difficult as well. I just hate to see the cute plastic tube become deformed.

Before buying this product, I've already read a few reviews. According to these bloggers, they need only a few amount of the product for each wash. It's very economical that way. For me, for some reasons, I needed more squirts in order to get the desired result - as much as the amount I used in a toothpaste (How many pea-sized amount is that?). Later on however, I used less and less amount. I realized that I just needed to mix in a little water with the cleanser for foaming to occur. I wish I had learned that earlier because my product is already running low.

I had expected a green tea scent, which should have been very soothing. But no, I did not smell anything of that kind, but the fragrance ain't that bad anyway. I like the idea of green tea taking it's action for fighting bacteria and stabilizing the free radicals on my face. Sadly though, the green tea I love is way below the ingredients list, meaning it is only used in small concentration within the formulation. The product did perform a good job in removing grime anyway. I notice my skin brightening up immediately after every wash.

While using this product, I still get breakouts every now and then, and more often around my period. I presume this is hormonal and has little to do with the cleanser itself. Happy Tea Time is not a drying formulation. It did not dry out my existing pimples which other cleansers are good at.

Overall, still, this is a pretty good cleanser for me, only because I don't put heavy makeup on my face. I am using a BB cream, but not daily, and I'm not confident that this product alone is enough to remove any BB cream residue. Whenever I use this to wash off my BB cream, I would still find some brownish stain from the tissue I use to pat my face dry. Without my makeup, I do think though that the cleanser is mild enough to effectively clean my oily face.

So here are the pros and cons to summarize everything about Happy Tea Time Cleansing Foam:

Pros:

- mild yet removes grime

- cute packaging

- economical

- doesn't give me breakouts

Cons:

- contains fragrances that sensitive skin might not love

- product is very difficult to dispense

- might not be effective to remove makeup (using additional makeup removers is a must)

Verdict:

The verdict? I will buy this again especially when I'm on a tight budget. I will skip using this though on days that I would wear makeup.

Rating:
3.5/5

Also available, Happy Tea Time Cleansing Foam (Aloe):

How about you? Are you using this product? What do you think of it?