Review: Neogen Green Tea Real Fresh Cleansing Stick

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Good morning!

I'm smitten with sticks. Things in stick form, to be specific. A few weeks ago I wrote about switching from bringing liquid foundation to stick on travels and it made me kind of wonder - why couldn't more of my makeup/skincare products be in sticks? It'd certainly make for easier packing, less liquid products to shove in that tiny quart size bag when I fly. Suddenly I wanted everything in a stick, including cleanser. That led me to Neogen Green Tea Real Fresh Cleansing Stick.

There's quite a few stick cleansers available right now, you might have heard of Urban Decay's Meltdown Makeup Removing Oil Stick, tarte's Frxxxtion Stick Exfoliating Cleanser, or the Belif True Tincture Cleansing Stick, just to name a few. Another contender was Su:m37's Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick, but I dislike rose scents immensely. In the end Neogen Green Tea Real Fresh Cleansing Stick won because it was $12 on Amazon and I usually quite like tea based products, this one had bits of leaf embedded in it.

A cleanser AND gently exfoliating tea leaves? Thoughts raced through my head. I could leave my gel cleanser at home, it'd save me the time of decanting Glossier Milky Jelly into a pump, not to mention the hassle of cleaning out the small container when the trip was over. Perhaps even cleansing oil could be left behind, if this stick was effective enough. Not only that, but I could skip my enzyme powder for sure, rely on just the leaves for a light scrub.

I was only thinking about the products that this Green Tea Cleansing Stick could replace, how easy it would be to toss in a packing cube and be on my way. While I had skimmed quite a few reviews, I didn't pick up on how bulky the packaging was, relative to the weight of its contents (2.82oz). I'm really not saving any space by bringing this along, it takes up as much space as a spray bottle. Actually for my last 9 day trip, this Neogen Green Tea Real Fresh Cleansing Stick weighed more than the rest of my skincare put together, and took up almost as much room. I was expecting something along the size of a large glue stick (I really should watch those demo videos to get a sense of size). Also, the scent is stronger than I anticipated and I'm not finding it pleasant. It has a heavy artificial tea fragrance (and it lingers), very similar to The Face Shop Chia Seed Soothing Mist Toner, shown here side by side to really drive in the point that this tube is pretty large.

Left to right: LORAC Snake Charmer Palette, Catrice MidNude Season, Jordana Fabuliner, The Saem Cover Perfection Tip Concealer

A bit of liner and concealer are left.

It lathers well, better on my hands than directly on my face. If a bit of light cushion/BB cream/tinted moisturizer/what have you is your only makeup, you could get away with this being your stand alone cleanser. Eye makeup and high coverage concealer is a bit more touch and go. The exfoliating tea leaves hurt more than I anticipated, so I've taken to foaming up this product on my hands and not directly gliding it on my face. It rinses away nicely, you get a clean feeling but not "squeaky clean". According to Charlotte Cho, the pH falls within the acceptable range for those of you who prefer 'low' pH.

It's highly unlikely that I'll repurchase this tube of face soap. The size means that Neogen Green Tea Real Fresh Cleansing Stick is staying right at home, totally defeats my excuse of buying this for travel. The scent is very off putting to me. However, I'm still hung up on the idea of stick products, especially stick skincare, so there's a good chance more stick reviews are in the cards.

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