Review: Skinfood Lemon Tea Salt Mask Foam

I was sick for the latter part of last week so I didn't get much blogging done on the weekend. But after sleeping 17 hours out of a possible 24 hours (by skipping class ha ha ha...), I feel much better so here I am! I usually don't buy things I haven't tried before in full size. The reason I made this an exception was because I've had great success with Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam, and somehow I thought that since the sugar worked so well, maybe salt would work just as well if not better! Yes, it makes no sense..I know.

Description (taken from eng.theskinfood.com):

• A foaming cleanser infused with lemon tea and Himalayan salt that gently exfoliates dead skin cells while washing away dirt and oil. Leaves skin soft and supple, like a facial mask does.
• Dispense an ample amount onto wet palms and lather. Massage skin and wash off with lukewarm water. Splash with cold water for astringent affects.

My impression:

Skinfood also has two more cleansers from this line. There's Lavender Tea salt, which from the official website seems to be for moisturizing and Green Tea Salt, which is for detoxification. I chose to try Lemon Tea Salt, which is for exfoliation, because I have quite a few blackheads on my nose that need cleaning and I use daily exfoliation to brighten my skin from the dirt and impurities I acquire throughout the day.

I used this nightly for 3 weeks. I usually use Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam in the morning and Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam at night. So basically it replaced my usual night cleanser, and as you may expect I'll be making some comparisons between the two in this post.

For those who have tried Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam will realize that the cleanser has such a high concentration of so many fine sugar granules, I don't even see the cleansing foam. It doesn't break me out or scratch my skin though, because the granules are fine and melt once you start massaging it on your skin. The Lemon Tea Salt has a much lower concentration of salt, it's mostly the concentration you'd expect from any drugstore exfoliator cleanser. But the salt granules are much more coarse than the sugar granules in the Black Sugar Scrub Foam. I used the same "force" to massage my face as I do with the Black Sugar Scrub Foam and I ended up causing red spots on my space the first few times. After that, it was okay.

This cleanser exfoliates well. My face feels smooth afterwards. It's also effective in that I didn't get any pimples or break out. However, the blackheads on my nose increased and seem to be trending towards what my nose used to look like before I started using the Black Sugar Scrub Foam. Also, I didn't feel as much of a brightening effect on my face.

Also, for the past week that I've used this, my nose has been a bit dry since I've been blowing my nose from my cold. It's a bit red but I've had worse colds where I blow my nose like every 10 minutes. But when I use this cleanser, it HURTS! I guess because it's salt.. but it wasn't like my nose had an open wound or anything. So for those with dry flaky skin, with allergies that cause you to blow your nose often, or with pimples that may have a small opening to the skin.. you may not want to use it :S Conversely, I used Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam and I guess sugar is fine on dry flaky skin because it didn't hurt at all.

This didn't impress me. It works, but it won't be replacing my Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam.

Summary:

Effective cleanser, no pimples
Effective exfoliation, smooth skin
Doesn't clean blackheads as well as Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam
Doesn't brighten as well as Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam
$16 for 170ml

Quality: 4/5 because it works as a cleanser and exfoliator but there are better options, namely Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam

Value: 3.5/5 because it doesn't work as well but is more expensive

Repurchase? I'll finish it but no I won't be buying this again.