Benta Berry G-1 Review: Moisturizing Face Cream

Benta Berry, a French skincare brand, was recently launched in Singapore a couple of months back. Marie-Pierre Schmitz, the founder of Benta Berry was inspired to create a skincare line for her son when store-stocked lines didn't do. I was at Benta Berry's launch, and it seemed to hit all the right notes: it's a brand for young skins (age 12-24, which I guess makes me just out of their age range), it's based on natural ingredients, claims to have been rigorously formulated, and the backstory about Marie-Pierre (who, by the way, is a stunningly gorgeous woman) starting the brand to develop suitable skincare for her son was such a sweet one. And to emphasize the youthful image of the brand, their brand ambassadors are all young people, including a dance group and an army guy.

If only the products worked as well as the marketing. Now not all the products are bad of course - like any brand Benta Berry has its hits and misses - but as a blogger, I feel like I owe it to my readers to relate my experiences with the product honestly. And sadly, I can't recommend the Benta Berry G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream for Boys and Girls. I just didn't like it when I tried it.


Why didn't I like the Moisturizing Face Cream? Well, the ingredients for starters. The ingredients list is pretty long, but since ingredients are listed in order of descending amount, I typically look at the first 5-7 ingredients on the list, since they make up most of the product. Here's the first 10:

aqua/water, glycerin, phytodiol esters (propanediol dicaprylate), tribehenin peg-20 esters, caprylic/capric triglycerides, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, calophyllum tacamahaca seed oil, hydroxyethyl acrylate, sodium acryloyldimethyl taurate copolymer, etc etc

First off, the product has coconut oil (bolded) as the 7th ingredient. Coconut oil is highly comedogenic, so I'm not sure why it's in a product meant for young adults and teenagers, who ate probably at a more breakout-prone stage in their life. But since it's in 7th place, perhaps the concentration of coconut oil isn't large enough to really exacerbate or cause acne. Still, if you have sensitive and acne-prone skin, like me, this isn't a good sign.


Next, the product wasn't very cosmetically elegant to use. When I put it on a dry, cleansed face, the G-1 Moisturizing Cream started to ball and peel in some areas, leaving me with this small bits of white residue on various parts of my face. Ugh. Sometimes balling/peeling occur, but it usually happens when two products are layered (e.g. when a moisturizer doesn't want to be friends with my sunscreen). It doesn't usually happen when the product is applied alone to a dry face. So I didn't really like it for that reason - I had to spend an extra few minutes blending the little white film into my face. The strange thing, though, is that when I tried testing it on the back of my hand, I didn't get such balling/peeling. I'm not sure why.


The good thing about this product, though, is that it's got a nice texture (other than the balling/peeling part), because it's creamy in texture, but still light enough for everyday wear. If it didn't ball/peel I would have said it would probably work well under makeup. Another good thing is the tube packaging, which is not only travel-friendly and sleek, but also more hygienic than jars.

So, would I recommend this? Well, maybe, if you're not sensitive to coconut oil, and if you can cope with the balling/peeling. Otherwise, while I liked the marketing and sleek packaging, I found it hard to love this product. The price point (S$33.90 for a tiny 30ml tube) didn't help either.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company. Obviously, since the PR folks sent me something to review and I said I didn't like it!)