Lipton Green Tea with Passionfruit Mango

I thought I’d give it a try and am glad to report that it’s much better than the White Tea with Raspberry bit won’t be replacing the Green Tea with Citrus from my shelves. I can’t really detect the undertones of the tea to find the common ground with the citrus and the passionfruit is also overshadowed by the mango. This isn’t a bad thing, really, because the mango is quite tasty. It does seem stronger as an aftertaste.

There’s still a bit of the artificial watered down taste, though. It’s not as apparent but it seems to grow, the more I drink. Perhaps that’s just the nature of tea as a water-based drink. Still, as far as teas go, Lipton seems to be doing pretty well with these products. I’ll probably swap my citrus for passionfruit mango once in a while.

Now, the folks over at the company are pretty happy with their products. They offer a money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with your products after using them for no less than 30 days but no more than 60 days. I thought I’d give it a go. I received three products from Skintactix, a wash, an exfoliator and a topical poultice; the set I was given is geared for normal/combination skin.

Everything seems pretty okay in the beginning. The anti-bacterial cleanser was a thin, clear liquid that reminded me of my grandma’s kitchen. The scent was reminiscent of herbs but sometimes reminded me of pickles. Odd, I know, but I had the same thought every time I used it. The product is pretty slippery and a little goes a long way.

Skintactix perhaps uses incorrect wording for their glycolic exfoliator. That makes consumers think of physical scrubs but this is actually a chemical toner that you lightly apply to skin and allow to dry. The chemicals remove dead cells to leave your skin fresh and dewy looking and to prevent build-up that can occur from said cells. I’ve used similar products but I’ve been using a cleansing scrub lately, which I prefer to using two separate products.

The green tea poultice is actual a topical treatment that you apply directly to blemishes and out-breaks. It’s a thick, dry cream that is gray in color and smells like herbs and nature in the beginning but it doesn’t take long for one of the ingredients–sulfur–to make an appearance. No matter how thinly I apply the poultice, the smell overwhelms me. I become self conscious that others can smell it and, the very first day, I couldn’t figure out what the burning smell was. Ugh. =/

At first, the products seemed to be working well. I was washing every morning, in the shower, and applying the toner afterward. If I have blemishes, I would use the poultice morning and night. Truth be told, I wasn’t sticking to the regimen as I should be. The instructions say to use all the products morning and night; although, they say to use the poultice more liberally at night (because of the smell?). I found that a little hard to stick to myself. I’m not good at making new habits.

There was no moisturizer with this set of products. Most of the skincare products that I’ve used include a moisturizer in addition to the face washes and/or toners. I continued to use the green tea moisturizer that I’ve been using for quite some time.

About a week and a half after I started using the products, I broke out like crazy–and it wasn’t the normal type of break out I experience. My acne was big and painful and it just didn’t respond to the poultice at all. It was really difficult for me to apply it twice a day with the smell but I kept hoping it would help clear up my blemishes. I’ve used a topical treatment in the past that really worked well (although, oddly enough, also smelled awful..).

I gave up on the Skintactix products about a week or so later. The problem is, if I really need to use it for 30 days before I see any improvement, I need to make sure that I can hide out for an entire month without showing my face. It’s really not realistic for me–or anyone else, I would imagine–to dedicate myself to 30 days of it-gets-worse-before-it-gets-better, especially with something as obvious as break outs.

Since then, I have been using my regular, store-purchased cleansing scrub and moisturizer. It took about a week for my skin to clean up. In the mean time I still did continue to use the green tea poultice, but only at night, when I was would be less bothered by the smell. It seems more effective and this could be because I was using too much of the toner–the instructions do say that it may not work as well if you use too much of the toner but it seemed to work itself into my skin well enough.

Overall, I prefer to see results much quicker than Skintactix promises with its products. Waiting for my skin to clear up for a week is preferable to 30 days but, even then, seems like forever when you’re trying to hide your break outs. If you stick to the regimen exactly, you may be be in a position to see results sooner but it’s more convenient to use a combined cleanser and scrub than separate products and Skintactix really needs to do something about the smell of the poultice which, as far as I can tell, is the most effective product in the line but is horrid to use.

Thanks to Skintactix for this opportunity!

This time, I tried regular Lipton Green Tea with Citrus which, as I said, is available in a 20 ounce bottle. It’s a light yellow colour, akin to vegetable oil. It definitely tastes sweet and that strange taste which I dislike about other teas still exists but is not as strong. Maybe it’s because it is green tea specifically or purpose just the addition of the citrus flavours. There is a sligtly citrus taste to this tea; it’s not necessarily orange or lemon or lime but just.. generally citrus-y. Sometimes, the taste reminds me, ever so slightly, of the zebra striped chewing gum I had a kid. You know, the one with the temporary tattoos. So it’s definitely fruity but the smell doesn’t give you any indication of how it will taste. You just have to taste it yourself.

Despite the fruity taste, this green tea is still quite crisp and refreshing. It’s not thick or syrupy but doesn’t taste like watered down Kool-aid, either. It actually enjoyable. I do not especially recall how much carbonation was in the drink; I am sure there is some but not so much that it is unpleasant as is the case with most soda.

Compared to sodas and other convenience drinks, Lipton Green Tea with Citrus is better for you. The website claims it is actually good for you but I’m not sure how true that is. It does have the same amount of calories per serving (and there are 2.5 in the bottle) as my other drink of choice, Mt Dew: 240. The bottle lists it as low sodium with 75mg per serving. In addition to this, there are 61mg of antioxidants per serving which are pretty good for you. It does contain caffeine, however; so folks who need to watch their caffeine intake should still be wary.

I am pleasantly surprised with how much I recommend this green tea and it will probably become my healthier-choice fallback!

When it comes to use, Infusion’s Eye Make-up Remover is decent. Two swipes usually takes off the majority of of eyeshadow. However, mascara (especially waterproof) requires more scrubbing and a little more make up remover added to the cotton ball. At the end of the routine, my eyes look bare but I can still swipe a clean cotton ball over my lid or lashes and find traces of make up so it’s not 100% but it’s good enough, especially before bedtime. If you want to change your makeup, however, the Green Tea Eye Make up Remover may not be effective enough.

Unfortunately, there is one major drawback to this product: it’s oily. I mean really oil. From a few uses, the bottle has become slippery and greasy. The feel of the product on my lids, lashes and skin is incredibly greasy and makes my skin feel dirty. I have to wipe it off with a tissue or a small face pad and, if I’m going to do that, I might as well use the face wipes to clean off my make up anyway. I’m not a big fan of oily products and having used make up remover wipes, baby wipes and similar products – none of which were greasy in the least – I find this feeling to be unpleasant. Aside from the oiliness, however, this make up remover hasn’t caused any excess drying or other irritation. It just feels heavy.

For a free product, I can’t much complain. I wasn’t using any make up remover at all before. In fact, I’m usually so lazy that I don’t remove make up at all, to the detriment of my skin so Infusion’s Eye Make up Remover is definitely a step up but I would make sure to step it up even further if I were buying a product specifically to remove my (eye) make up.