Today’s review is about Lee Ji Ham’s Tea Tree 90 Essence (or is it Lee Gee Ham? I keep seeing different ways of spelling her name on the Internet). I purchased this for KRW 26,000 at my local Lalavla, formerly known as Watsons. I bought this in conjunction with their Mist Toner, as well as a moisturiser (review coming up).
What it is
This is a clear, unfragranced essence, housed in a matte glass container. It comes with a lovely dropper that helps you dole out the product as carefully or as heartily as you like.
How it applies
Like most essences that I have encountered so far, this is watery and runny but with a bit of viscosity at the same time. As you massage and pat it in, it becomes rather sticky, forming a bit of a protective film on your skin that is not unpleasant. I found myself using a fair bit per application for it to feel good on my skin, so a little did not go a long way for me and it was used up relatively quickly.
How it smells
It smells of nothing, actually. I was expecting a herbal or perhaps a medicinal smell, seeing as this supposedly contains 90% tea tree extract, but actually, I was not able to detect much of a smell at all.
How I felt about it
Hum. It did moisturise a bit but not much else. I had been expecting it to calm active breakouts or to prevent acne, and it did neither. It felt good on my skin and it did not break me out. My skin definitely felt moister after using this – though I must say, I have a whole host of products in my arsenal that are more moisturising, at lower price points per application, than this essence.
Final Thoughts
I have seen mixed reviews on the blogosphere. Some are waxing lyrical about this, some felt that it did not do much for them. If you have acne prone skin, do try it for yourself and let me know how you got on. As for me personally, I would not repurchase this as it did not seem to do much in the way of treating nor preventing acne.
The Empties Diaries 