It's Skin Green Tea Calming Cleansing Oil: It's Cheap, but... [Review]

Ahh, the It's Skin Green Tea Calming Cleansing Oil. I have mixed feelings about this product. On the one hand, it's cheap and works well enough. On the other, I certainly don't find it very calming, for reasons I'll get into below.

I bought this in search of a cleansing oil to replace my beloved Banila Co Clean It Zero Purity, which tragically is kind of expensive and also contains polyethylene. I was hoping for a cleansing oil that was cheap, effective, and pleasant to use. Reader, this is not that cleansing oil... To be fair, my decision making process for buying this went: search "cleansing oil" on Jolse, sort by price low to high, quick google that first result does not have a ton of negative reviews, purchase! Perhaps my expectations were unfairly high.🤔

Packaging 
It comes in a cloudy but translucent pump bottle, and a pump stopper is provided in case you want to travel with it. No complaints about the packaging; it's pretty standard.

It's Skin Green Tea Calming Cleansing Oil in action: one pump on my hand, rubbed in, emulsified with a splash of water, and rinsed clean

Application

Okay, this is where things get rough. I feel like I need to really slather this product on to get it to spread smoothly over my face - I use about 3 pumps of oil each time. This gets it to spread nicely, but then I have way too much oil on my face. If I want to leave it on my face a bit before washing it off to let it really sink in and get things moving, the oil starts to seep down my face and into my eyes. This BURNS. Like oh my god, it really BURNS. If I don't go rinse my eyes out immediately, they get really red and puffy, and I start tearing up. I'm not sure what would cause this, and I don't think I have particularly sensitive eyes. But wow, the burning is bad, especially when the product needs to be applied in such a high amount that dripping is a possibility. I never had this problem with the Banila Co. Clean It Zero Purity, which was much less runny but still spread easily. I've also had it sting my eyes when I'm rinsing it off, but that's not as bad since I'm already rinsing my face. If you're going to use this, keep your eyes squeezed shut!

I have also had the problem of this seeping onto my lips and then getting a taste of it, and wow, it is nasty. This is obviously not as bad as it burning my eyes, but it's another unpleasant aspect of using this product.

Texture
It's a cleansing oil, so not much to say here. Switching from a balm to a liquid oil cleanser, you'll notice it's much runnier (as you might expect LOL). I wish it spread more easily, but it's workable.

Results
The Green Tea Calming Cleansing Oil effectively removes sunscreen from my face.(I don't wear much makeup, so I can't speak to how well it performs in that area. But dear god, please don't use it to remove eye makeup.)  It does leave a light but noticeable residue, so I would definitely not use this without following up with a low pH cleanser second cleanser.

Value
I started using this 5 months ago, and I'm only have a couple uses left. It's currently listed at $8.91 on Jolse, which has free shipping. By comparison, the Banila Co. Clean It Zero Purity lasts about the same amount of time but costs $20. So yes, I definitely have to give the Green Tea Calming Cleansing Oil points for being a very cost-effective choice.

Overall Rating

For all my complaints, it does work and it's very cheap, and that might be exactly what you need! For that, I give it credit. But for me, the burning in my eyes and the less than great application are major negatives. I would only recommend this if you want a very cheap oil cleanser, and you're not planning to leave it on your face more than a minute or two. Otherwise, I'd say spend a little bit more to get a cleanser that's more pleasant to use. You clean your face everyday, you might as well enjoy it (or at least not be paranoid about burning your eyes!).

2.5/5

Where to Buy
Jolse, currently $8.91