Review: Tosowoong Tea Tree Natural Pure Essence AC Control Treatment

 

I've been satisfied enough with my Benton Snail Bee Essence to accumulate several empties but lately my troubled skin has been angrier than ever so I've needed to branch out and find a more acne-targeted one.  Tea tree oil/extract, popular ingredients in acne skincare, have always scared me off with their strong plant smell, but a little online research led me to pick up Tosowoong's Tea Tree Natural Pure Essence, a product that promised to deliver "AC Control" without the overpowering tea tree odor.

Tosowoong is not a Korean brand I'm too familiar with but everything I've come across online gives it positive reviews so I was willing to take a chance on this essence.  It turns out they have many skincare lines centered around an active ingredient (like snail, green tea, propolis, aloe, etc.) and everything is reasonably priced so definitely not a bad way to start exploring beyond my usual snail goo.


A closer look at the ingredients reveals more than just tea tree water (70%) & extract (3%), but a few other awesome additives.  We've got the popular niacinamide that's brightening/anti-inflammatory, fermented players (adenosine, Bifida & Galactomyces filtrate) that moisturize and also tamp down inflammation, the reliably hydrating (sodium hyaluronate), antioxidants (too many fruit extracts to list) and the ones that promote cell renewal/wound healing (EGF, centella asiatica).  All super promising!

The straightforward 60 ml pump bottle is a hygienic way to dispense the clear gel essence and there's no discernible smell (yay =).

A little goes a long way and the absorption is relatively quick, although a slightly tacky feeling is left behind.  I'm not too hung up on the stickiness of a product because it's not something I physically feel unless I'm poking at my face (and why would I do that?!) so this isn't a negative in my book.  In terms of hydration I get a modest boost for 30-60 minutes but the moisture level drops back down afterwards so an additional lotion or cream moisturizer is necessary.

I recently obtained a digital analyzer for skin moisture/oil percentages and have gone a little nuts with testing out various spots on my face (forehead, upper/lower cheeks, nose, chin, etc) with and without different products added at different time points post-cleansing.

The skin analyzer shows a water/moisture % plus an oil %

My skin type has graduated from pretty dehydrated/dry to mostly normal over the past few years and it's great to see numerical evidence that my products are helping!  My homemade graphic below illustrates the testing points I usually use (don't laugh!).  One side of my face is clean and acts as the control while the other side will get loaded down with product.  Then I lightly press my digital analyzer onto the test points, add some sound effects ("pew pew pew!" a la Star-Trek phaser) & write down the digital values.

This Tosowoong tea tree essence is the first that I've subjected to such testing and the graphs below are the results.  (I double cleansed with my usual Clinique oil cleanser and Tosowoong's Enzyme Powder Wash beforehand.)

 

I know I went overboard with this digital analyzer toy (my new preciousss) so this will probably be my one and only review to use it again in such an extensive way.  First, it was torture to NOT apply anything to half of my cleansed face for 60 minutes in order to have a control for comparison.  My skin begin itching and feeling tight around 30 minutes but I didn't want to end the experiment early because the overall trends were becoming clearer and dangit... I wanted just one more data point!

To summarize, my upper cheek got the most moisturizing boost from this essence and my chin the least, but all areas started moving back towards the baseline "no essence" moisture levels by 60 minutes.   Given that I'm trying this product for its acne-fighting ability (and not for hydration) this is perfectly acceptable.  I'm obviously going to add more lotion and heavier moisturizers over any essence product so the hydration is only a side benefit.

As to actual performance...

I used this essence 1-3x per day over 6 weeks and I am sad to say I did not experience a significant decrease in the number of breakouts or an improvement in their healing time.  All my acne-prone areas continued to feature their monthly visitors at the same rate.  Whether it was for my closed comedones, cystic bumps or other blemishes, this essence was unable to put a dent in my skin troubles. =(  I do want to mention my spots are stress/hormone-related and mainly appear on the lower half of my face.  For folks with milder acne they may still like this essence but I can't recommend it for others suffering issues like mine.

Perhaps the tea tree concentration is too low for me or I'm not sensitive to this ingredient.  I've got my eye on Leejiham's Tea Tree 90 Essence Serum now because its tea tree extract is at 90% as opposed to the measly 3% in this Tosowoong version.  It's significantly pricier but hopefully this is a "you get what you pay for" situation.  I'm also considering trying the Tosowoong Propolis Essence because it has 75% propolis as its active ingredient and I've always responded well to bee products.  At any rate, I will use up my Tosowoong Tea Tree Essence because it's a cheap moisturizing agent I can layer onto my face after cleansing but I definitely won't repurchase it.

Summary

• Packaging:     4/5 (hygienic; functional; pump is a bit cheaper plastic)
• Smell:             5/5 (no obvious smell, yes!!)
• Performance:  3/5 (nice bit of extra hydration, minimal effect on my acne)
• Value/Price:    5/5 (~$10-15 for 60ml on RRS, eBay, etc)
• Recommend? No (there are better acne products out there)
• Repurchase? No