Dehydrated Skin Will LOVE Tatcha’s ‘the Essence’ 💧💛💜

Winter has now come to an end here in Aus (it’s now Spring time, yay! 🌸🌼🌻) and even though our Winter days were very mild and even one would say warm, the nights were cold and heating was a must. This meant that my skin went a little nuts and was seriously dehydrated. Heating means the air is dry, while Sydney during the day even in Winter can be humid. It’s a yo-yo effect for your skin. Dehydrated skin means your skin is lacking in water not oil. Hence you can still experience breakouts and acne flare ups whilst having dehydrated skin 🙋‍♀️😥 Dehydrated skin is usually caused by environmental factors and hence products that were usually great at keeping your skin hydrated and comfortable all of a sudden fall short in keeping your seriously thirsty skin hydrated enough.

When my skin is dehydrated, it soaks up any product (especially moisturisers) I apply to my skin, but shortly after, it still feels dry and really uncomfortable. My skin then becomes more red and irritated as a result. So what’s a girl to do? Usually the moisturises I use in the evenings are rich in lipids and oils, which for the day time (and warm days) can be too much, especially if I’m wearing makeup. You want to make sure that you are adding more water and humectants (ingredients that absorb water from the atmosphere and bind them to your skin, ingredients like hyaluronic acid, sodium hyaluronate or glycerin) onto your skin, so oils and lipids wouldn’t have helped much in the long term. I took out Tatcha’s ‘the Essence’ from my beauty cabinet without expecting it to be the ‘cure’ for my dehydrated skin. I wasn’t using an essence or hydrating toner at the time, so I thought it may help a little. I couldn’t have predicted that it would be the saving grace for my dehydrated skin but it was 🙌🏾 Bingo! 🌟 I hadn’t used an essence since trying La Mer’s the Treatment Lotion and since that essence wasn’t a good fit for my skin, I wasn’t dying to try another essence ASAP. I probably picked up Tatcha’s essence because it’s a relatively new product of theirs and my skin generally loves Tatcha products. Despite being expensive, Tatcha utilise a lot of scientifically backed ingredients in their skin care products and they really pack in the antioxidants 👊🌱 So let me tell you all about ‘the Essence’ and what makes it so good!

Why It WorksA daily 7-second ritual to reveal your softest, most youthful skin, delivering:

1. Anti-aging: Pure, 98.7% Hadasei-3™, a concentrate of nourishing Green Tea, Rice and Algae, Japan’s three essential nutrients for skin health and youthful radiance.

2. Smoothing & Resurfacing: The natural fermentation of these nutrients produces lactic acid, helping to increase cell turnover for improved skin texture and a smooth luster.

3. Plumping Hydration: Instantly doubles skin’s natural moisture content, above and beyond the results from a moisturizer, softening & plumping fine lines & wrinkles.

4. Maximizes Performance of All Skincare: Skin’s channels are flush with lasting hydration, creating a pathway to deliver treatments that follow more deeply, amplifying their effectiveness.Oil-free. Non-comedogenic. Non-irritating. Non-sensitizing. Dermatologist tested. Cruelty-free.

What first surprised me with this essence is how short the ingredient list is. If the ingredients are picked well, this is a good thing because it means the Essence is concentrated with goodness!

INGREDIENTSSaccharomyces/Camellia Sinensis Leaf/Cladosiphon Okamuranus/Rice Ferment Filtrate*, Propanediol, Soy Amino Acids, Yeast Extract, Aqua/Water/Eau, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium Dilauramidoglutamide Lysine, Phenoxyethanol*Hadasei-3 Complex

The first ingredient in this Essence (and there’s only 8 ingredients in total!) is Tatcha’s signature Hadasei-3 Complex, which is made up from saccharomyces (yeast extract used specifically in skin care products because of it’s ability to improve absorption, add beneficial nutrients, decrease irritation and optimise cellular oxygen consumption), Uji green tea (sourced from Kyoto; it’s prized for being one of the finest green teas in the world!), Okinawa Red Algae and Akita Rice Ferment. I would describe the Hadasei-3 complex to be an antioxidant power bomb for you skin, the ingredients are certainly anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic (thank you green tea!) and photo protective against UV cellular damage. I love that Tatcha doesn’t scrimp on this complex, it’s the largest portion of the Essence which is amazing 🌟

Propanediol (ingredient number two) is a glycol that acts as a solvent (helps dissolve other ingredients), emollient, humectant and occlusive agent (creates a light film on the skin preventing water evaporation and loss). It has the ability to soften and soothe skin. Soy amino acids are amino acids derived from soy proteins. Amino acids are like building blocks for your skin. Nicki from Futurederm explains this best and also goes through the 20 most common amino acids out there, but essentially they help your skin to produce collagen, elastin, proteins, fibres etc. Because these are structural components of the skin, they are essential for keeping skin firm, bouncy and healthy!

Yeast extract on the other hand, helps skin retain moisture (biosurfactant) and soothes the skin. We know what water or aqua is of course (ha! 💧) and the other ingredients in the Essence help to bind the water to the skin and it’s deeper layers. Ethylhexylglycerin is a preseravative, which we certainly need if we want our Essence to last without growing funky stuff! Sodium Dilauramidoglutamide Lysine on the other hand is an emulsifier. 

The Essence has the consistency and looks just like water. You add some Essence onto the palm of you hand and then using both palms, you press it into the skin after cleansing. If the Essence was a slight gel (a little like the Jurlique Activating Water Essence) it would be a little easier to apply, because the Essence does run through your fingers a bit. It’s still best to apply it this way however, as you don’t want to waste most of the Essence by using cotton pads (the cotton pad will soak up most of the Essence). It feels just like water on the skin and it has no scent which is great (let alone artificial fragrance).

At first you might be tricked into thinking, what exactly does this Essence do then?!? The effects may not be so obvious the first time you use the Essence, but you will notice quite soon after using the Essence daily that your skin feels comfortable, is more hydrated and plump. This Essence alone (together with my regular day time skin care products which by themselves weren’t enough) rebalanced and hydrated my skin so that it wasn’t dehydrated anymore! For me this was amazing 🙌🏾 I’ve always hated hyaluronic acid serums because they would always leave my skin feeling sticky or like it was covered in cling film (glad wrap bahahaha) – the Essence however, doesn’t leave any residue on the skin and isn’t sticky. It feels like water which means it’s super light and doesn’t change the consistency of other skincare products. It’s the perfect base for your daily skin care routine.

Above: Some of the skincare products I am currently using in the morning!

The bottle is plastic but it’s still quite heavy, so it feels luxurious. The white curved bottle has simple yet elegant clean lines. The bottle has a stopper on it, which means you can control quite easily how much Essence you dispense onto your hand. You get 150ml of product – quite standard for an Essence. I use my Essence in the mornings mostly and I’ve only gotten through half the bottle in about two months. Yes, it is expensive, but seeing as it is so concentrated with the Hadasei-3 Complex (98.7% of the formula!) I think it’s worth the pennies. I probably don’t use it everyday subconsciously, because I want it to last forever lol

The 150ml Essence can be bought from Mecca Cosmetics for $140 AUD. Yes, it’s a lot. It’s more expensive at the moment because our Australian Dollar isn’t fairing so well against the US dollar 😭😭😭 It’s still cheaper than the La Mer Treatment Lotion though, which costs $190 for 150ml 🤗😛 On Tatcha’s website you can pick up the Essence for $95 USD.  A trick I use is to order Tatcha products directly through their website when everything is at least 20% off, ordering $250 dollars worth in order to secure free worldwide shipping. I do this only once or twice a year and this saves me some pennies.

So that’s it Beauties! I hope you found this post helpful. Are you into Essences? They can be confusing but they certainly add a ‘boost’ depending on your skins needs. Finding the Essence which is perfect for you (and your skin at the time) is the challenge 😊 As you can see from the photo above, I am also using the Tatcha Violet-C Brightening Serum. That review will be coming to you soon 😉

Catch ya next time!

Beauty Bee~

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