Sample Saturday: TATCHA

I emailed their customer service and got a reply a few hours later telling me that they offer sample sets for $1.95 shipping charge. The sets include six sample-sized essentials and three beauty blotting papers. Click here to buy.

TATCHA products are completely free of mineral oils, synthetic fragrances, sulfate detergents, parabens, PEGs, PPGs, urea, DEA, TEA or phthalates.

A few days ago I finally got a chance to try most of the products, and although they are all one or two use foil packets I can already share some first impressions. Naturally, moisturizer and serum have to be tested in the long run, but with cleansers I could tell right away.

PURE One Step Camelia Cleansing Oil
According to the instructions, I applied this cleansing oil with dry hands onto my dry skin, massaged it a little bit and washed off with warm water. As with most good cleansing oils, this one doesn’t make my face look greasy afterward and the skin felt pretty soft. The scent was very neutral and barely noticeable which is great for people with fragrance sensitivities.

POLISHED Gentle, Classic and Deep Rice Enzyme Powder
These cleansing powders ended up being my favorite products in the kit. Following the instructions, I poured about a teaspoon of powder on my wet hands, added a little water and created a foamy lather with my palms. I then applied that foam to the face and gently massaged in circular motions for about 30 seconds, and washed it off with warm water. My face felt very clean and polished, I thought each one of my pores was breathing again! These powders come in three “flavors” according to their exfoliating strength, they also appear to be unscented. My skin ended up liking Classic one the best.

RADIANT Deep Brightening Serum
It’s really hard to tell with serums and moisturizers what they’re really like unless you have enough time to test them. And since I only have one small foil packet, from my short experience I can say that this serum made my skin feel comfortable. I applied it right after I used the exfoliating powder and it took 5 minutes to absorb into the skin. It didn’t absorb completely though, leaving a little bit of creamy residue which wasn’t that bad because it felt like a moisturizer. As for the brightening properties, I obviously don’t know but based on the ingredients it should do a decent job since it contains at least two skin brightening ingredients that I know of – licorice root extract and rice extract.

SUPPLE Moisture Rich Silk Cream
At first I thought this cream was too heavy for me since I have combination skin, but it absorbed almost instantly leaving my face super soft. It just feels really nice and comfortable, just like the previously mentioned serum. I would describe this duo as comfort food for the skin!

PETAL FRESH Original Aburatorigami Beauty Papers
These are probably the fanciest blotting papers I have ever used. These little masterpieces are handcrafted from abaca (a species of banana) leaves and contain little gold flakes. Honestly, they did as good of a job as my usual cheap blotting papers, so I don’t think I will be buying them anytime soon. But it was still nice to try something different that I didn’t even know existed! I mean honestly, how often do we get to wipe our face with banana leaves and gold flakes? 🙂

The verdict: I feel like buying this sample kit was totally worth it. My order was processed really fast and arrived only 2 days after I placed it. Although the samples are all small foil packets they contain enough product to give a general idea about the brand and what it has to offer. The cleansing powders alone made it worthwhile, now I’m trying to figure out how to fit them in my monthly budget because I would love to buy a full-size of the Classic one.

Here is a little breakdown of the raw product value in this kit, I think it ended up being a great deal considering I only paid $1.95 fee for shipping and handling:

Disclaimer: I bought this.