REVIEW: AROMATICA 95% DAMASK ROSE SOOTHING GEL AND TEA TREE PURIFYING TONIC

June 28, 2015 By fanserviced 5 Comments
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Peach & Lily, the US-based online kbeauty shop, offered to send me some things to review and I turned them down a few times like “naw, P & L, I can buy my own drinks, but thankssss.” *dances off to View*
As time went on I started to regret my decision, especially when looking at their selection of Aromatica products, so I hit them up and asked if maybe we could make it work after all. What can I say, sometimes love takes time.

One question: why hasn’t this brand blown up? I mean, let’s review the facts: the products smell INCREDIBLE, they’re free of a lot of stuff that people don’t like, they’re very popular in Korea among consumers and with magazine editors, and they work. Also, THE SMELL. The brand name is no joke–I’ve now sniffed a bunch of Aromatica products and the smells are natural and pleasing, but also potent and distinct. It’s a really amazing sensory experience.

I got so irritated about the lack of Aromatica attention that I dragged my contacts at Peach & Lily to coffee and told them their own business. Namely, that this brand should be a THING. I see a lot of media play regarding Korean beauty brands and it really irritates me when a legit great line flies under the radar. Aromatica deserves to be a Thing and I believe that enough to put my money where my giant, loud mouth is: I’ve bought two more
Aromatica skincare products that seemed interesting to test. I’ll check back in after I’ve had some time with them.

I decided to write this review right now because Peach & Lily is doing something that I love, which is offering free two-day shipping on all orders–no minimums. I go wild shopping with Sephora and Amazon due to my two-day shipping memberships–there’s something about fast free shipping that makes me spendy. I love the idea of a kbeauty retailer offering this, even for a limited time. If you’re also feeling spendy, you can use my referral link to take $10 off your first order of $50 or more.^^ My order today was for a bottle of Aromatica rose soothing gel for my mom (she needs to try this omg) and Aromatica’s Rose Absolute First Serum, which I’ve wanted for ages. EEE!!!

AROMATICA 95% DAMASK ROSE SOOTHING GEL

I’ve posted about this product on my Instagram flagrantly because the smell gets me worked up.

This is basically like aloe gel that isn’t sticky after it dries and that smells like actual roses. Not rose fragrance, but actual roses. Likely this is due to the gel containing 95% damask rose extract. So, yeah, moisturizing gel that smells like real roses. I don’t see anything not to like unless you’re allergic to roses either figuratively or literally (I see you Unboxing Beauty *wink*).

I use this the same way I do aloe gel: slather it on anywhere I need a moisture boost. It works particularly well as a non-sticky body moisturizer. I’ve also used this as a face moisturizer and it works well although you shouldn’t expect it to take you from dry and flaky to dewy. I’ve also used this on raised angry little bumps on my hand (due to testing cleansers–my skin doesn’t like certain sulfates) and it did soothe the rash and make it look like the rest of my skin.

Overall, this is a really pleasant-to-wear version of a necessary summer staple. I keep mine in my skincare fridge to maximize the soothing.

And how good does this smell? To put things in context, I find less than 10% of the perfumes in Sephora decent enough to wear and I have to apply/smell this each time I think of it. That good, in my opinion. Good enough to buy my mom her own bottle rather than having to share mine. That good.

AROMATICA TEA TREE PURIFYING TONIC

On Instagram I called Peach & Lily out for sending me this because I was trying to figure out if they were trying to shade my hair or something–I mean, I said that any hair products would be fine to send me, but I was thinking shampoo or conditioner, not wrecked scalp rescue! ahahaha They assured me that they didn’t mean anything by it and I shifted my eyes from the side to forward-facing and got down to testing this.

To apply this I part my hair about seven times from nape to forehead and spray this about five inches away from my scalp, hitting each parted section about three to five times, to make sure that the solution can hit my scalp as much as possible. Then I run my fingertips through my hair and lightly massage the tonic into my scalp to make sure everything gets a coating. I add some extra tonic to itchy spots and then let it air dry.

My first impression was that this hit my scalp like a Mack Truck: it’s invigorating and it certainly smells like tea tree and peppermint. It smells really fresh to me and my cat likes to rub her face in my hair when I use this, so that’s a plus. One day I made the mistake of going on the subway before letting this tonic dry (imagine spraying a bunch on one’s scalp, throwing hair in a bun, and then running out of the house, yeah) and I swear I must have been trailing the scent of peppermint-tea tree all over NYC. LOL Word of advice: let this dry before leaving the house. Second word of advice: take care not to accidentally spray this in your ear; it won’t be happy.

How does one test a scalp tonic? Well, as ridiculously as possible, honestly, or else the review will be pretty flat lol. I decided to test this to see if I could use it to go without washing my hair for a week. Yes, I straight up did not wash my hair for a week to see if this stuff can do a few important things: control itching, control flakes, and keep everything smelling nice. Somehow this made the oil in my hair feel less nasty, too.

A week is a damn long time to go without washing one’s hair. Out of consideration for my chemical-damaged hair I usually wash it every other day, so by about day five I was going pretty crazy. I sprayed a bunch of this on my scalp (I mean a BUNCH) to stop the itching and it actually worked. I repeated that daily, and while I wouldn’t recommend the experiment, it wasn’t a total nightmare. The scalp flaking that would have otherwise been really obvious was kept to a minimum and my hair, once dried, didn’t smell bad (one of my favorite jokes from the kdrama City Hall involves the smell of week-old unwashed hair and I kept thinking of that).

I can think of two reasons beauty fans would want to buy this: to treat persistent but not doctor-/dermatologist-worthy issues with scalp itchiness and flaking or to help one’s scalp through the process of wedding-season updos. Bridesmaids etc. are often told to skip washing for about a day before getting an updo (unwashed hair is easier to work with), and this could help ease the irritation of living with unwashed hair. TEST IT FIRST: I don’t want to see anyone in the comments crying over how their unknown allergy to rosemary oil set off a disaster at their third cousin’s wedding at The Plaza.

As much as I was like “wtf P & L, harsh” when I saw this, I now use it on my scalp even when I’m not attempting to do a marathon no-wash and really like it.

Overall, I’m really excited about Aromatica and I hope that I like the things that I bought myself as much as I like these products Peach & Lily sent me to review. If you happen to catch this review before 2pm EST on Monday, 29 June 2015, you can get free US two-day shipping on any order and–if it’s your first order–you can take $10 off with my referral link.

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source: http://www.fanserviced-b.com/review-aromatica-95-damask-rose-soothing-gel-and-tea-tree-purifying-tonic/