Benta Berry G-1 Facial Wash: Gentle and Basic

Benta Berry is a French skincare brand that has recently come to Singapore. The brand has a very interesting backstory - apparently the founder, Marie-Pierre Schmitz, created Benta Berry to provide a skincare line for her son when store-stocked lines didn't do. And the brand seems to have taken the idea that it was created for youth to heart with its marketing.

Of course, the backstory and marketing is one thing, the actual product itself is another. And although I was less than keen on the Benta Berry G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream for Boys and Girls, I actually like the Benta Berry G-1 Facial Wash for Boys and Girls much better.

Like the G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream, the G-1 Facial Wash also comes in the same sleek, small tube. The G-1 Facial Wash is a gel cleanser, that looks slightly yellow out of the tube.


The gel is slightly heavy in texture, and feels kinda like Cetaphil or similar cleansers, in that it doesn't foam much because it doesn't have very strong surfactants in it (surfactants are the ingredients that create the foam in your face wash, and this includes ingredients like SLS and SLES). This makes it pretty ideal for sensitive skin. (Yes, when I review skincare I go into the ingredients because I'm crazy like that. :P You know me by now!)


Since we're on the oh-so-fascinating topic of ingredients, let's take a look at the ingredients list, shall we? (What, you don't like reading the ingredients list? Too bad! :P Muahaha!) The good thing is, if you look at the main ingredients that make up most of the product, it actually isn't too bad:

aqua /water, sodium cocoamphoacetate, glycerin, cocamidopropylbetaine, carbomer, coco glucoside and glyceryl oleate, caprylhydroxamic acid, etc


The surfactants used (primarily sodium cocoamphoacetate, cocamidopropylbetaine, and coco glucoside) are mild, and the company does seem to try to live up to its "natural ingredients" billing by putting plant-derived ingredients (all three surfactants could be derived from coconut and other plants) . The rest of the main ingredients (carbomer, glyceryl oleate, caprylhydroxamic acid etc) serve other functions - as thickeners, emulsifiers, chelating agents and so on.

So I guess essentially you're getting a good basic face cleanser that's gentle on the skin, won't cause pimples, and won't dry out your skin, but not much more - don't expect bells and whistles on this! This was also borne out by my own use of the product - looking at the ingredients list, I can see why the product works the way it does.

So would I recommend this product? If you want a no-nonsense, no-frills basic cleanser that's gentle and won't dry out or clog up your skin, and is made of natural ingredients, the Benta Berry G-1 Facial Wash would b worth looking at. But given the price point (S$20 for a measly 30ml), I feel that you'd get more bang for your buck buying Cetaphil or a similar product (that is, if you don't mind that Cetaphil and other alternatives use less natural ingredients..

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company. Obviously, since you can tell from this review. )

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!)