Product review: Tea tree skin clearing facial wash from The Body Shop

I don't quite remember when I first started using this product, but it had been my basic facial wash for a very long time. What I do remember is that a friend recommended it to me and since I was pleased with some other products from The Body Shop I was looking forward to trying it out. 

The facial wash has a rather strong, but pleasant scent of tea tree oil. I usually used it once a day in the morning. I noticed that it suds up nicely and gives your skin a nice refreshed and clean feeling. It did not over dry my skin like many face washes for acne prone skin tend to do (though it still left a bit of a dry feeling to my skin afterwards). I am not sure I would recommend this to people with dry skin. Mine is rather oily and it seemed to do ok for my skin type. I do not have much problem with acne, just an occasional break out or two, but this face wash seemed to decrease the break outs so I was pretty happy about this. Also something that I observed is that my skin had a really smooth feeling to it after using the tea tree oil face wash. The 250 ml bottle also last a long time as you only need to use a very small amount off the facial wash at a time. Here in Belgium a bottle of the facial wash cost me 9 euros, and if I remember well it cost $10 in the US. Personally I never used it together with other products from the tea tree line (such as tea tree face mask, toner, pore minimiser etc.), so I can not say much about this. 

One thing that does concern me is the ingredients list, which contains some products which I am not very fond of ever since I have gotten interested in natural cosmetics. For those who do not mind using products such as SLS (sodium laureth sulfate) this is not alarming, but with time I have turned to doing my own tea tree oil facial wash instead. Also the use of colorants is not something I am very fond of. 

All in all I think the tea tree skin clearing facial wash from The Body shop is a good product, which can be used everyday by people with oily skin. It leaves the skin smooth and with a clean feeling. It also reduces or even eliminates break outs, without over drying the face. If you are not aiming for 100% natural beauty products I think this facial wash is worth recommending. 

A few words about tea tree oil....

Tea tree oil is an essential oil taken from the leaves of a tree found in Australia. It has a pale yellow color and a strong camphor like smell. It is effective against bacteria, fungi, and viruses and stimulates the immune system. It is known to have great healing properties and can be used for all sorts of skin problems such as sunburns, acne, rashes, and others. It can also be used as a mouth wash or added to a toothpaste. It can additionally be used as an antiseptic applied on cuts and burns, and added to a shampoo to treat dandruff and dry scalp.