white tea & plum roses

Two reviews in two days? Well, 2015 is starting out productive for now. As a person who needs to wear make-up to work almost every day, a make-up remover is obviously a must have. Ever since I've started work, I've moved from one make-up remover to the next. I still am on the hunt for the perfect eye make-up remover. Recently, I ran out of my Innisfree Soy Essence Mascara Remover and needed to find a replacement quickly. I scurried to the closest place after work to see if they had the Etude House one in stock but alas, sold out, of course. Holiday season is the worst for shopping. I decided to just go and check what TonyMoly had at the time and picked something up for 10% off.

The TonyMoly Blast FRESH Lip&Eye Remover (100ml), was what I decided on after mulling over it for ten minutes in the store. They had this remover and the Clear Water Lip&Eye Remover which was slightly more expensive, but the packaging was definitely more convenient with the pump and it had 65ml more of product. The reason I went with this Fresh one instead is because the Clear Water one had methylparaben and I didn't particularly like the smell of it. I'm not usually a stickler for paraben products, but my eyes are a little more sensitive so I try to avoid that for that area of my face. I actually asked the sales associate there about the two and what the difference was and which one was better but she was unhelpful. She just suggested I try them out myself in the store, and I did. Let's just say neither of them particularly impressed me with removing their waterproof eyeliners. The Fresh remover smelled a bit better and, from what I could make out from the back (which is almost fully Korean), is free of six types of additives in which paraben is one.

It was so hard to capture this in the right light because of the translucent packaging text.

It took me so long to actually find a full english description for this product after I got home. It does come up but it seems like the other version, Perfect, tends to be a bit more popular. I believe they have overall the same formula, save the oil layer that only the Perfect version has. From all the research and translating, I gathered the below general description for the Fresh remover. Please correct me if any of this information is wrong.

• Mild water type lip and eye remover to deliver smooth, moist, neatly sweeps away even point make-up for sensitive skin
• Major ingredients include; Jojoba Seed, Lavender, Olive, Argan, and Avocado for nourishing the skin, and also Baking Powder to thoroughly remove dark make-up and impurities
• Free of six additives; parabens, mineral oil, phenoxyethanol, benzophenone, triclosan, and artificial colour

The first time I tried it, I didn't really like it because it didn't immediately remove my waterproof liquid or gel liner off my eyes and even left a dark cast. I had to use what was left of my other remover to completely clean the rest of my eye make-up off. The next day, I shook the product a bit and it worked a little bit better, but I wasn't wearing the same type of eye make-up.




In the photos above, I used my Innisfree Lip Mousse #4, thefaceshop Make Me Star Waterproof Gel Liner #2, Etude House PLAY 101 Pencil #1, and Innisfree Powerproof Brush Liner #1. As you can see in the second and third images, it is not very good at removing waterproof gel liners very gently. I had to scrub really roughly to get my Etude House liner off. It did leave my skin smooth and fresh feeling with a very clean scent, but slightly red from rubbing. I'll probably try to move on from this remover quickly or grab another one to use with it when I have to wear more waterproof make-up.

I think this remover might be okay if you're using it to fix your eye make-up and not thinking of thoroughly removing it. I can see myself using this to fix the wings of my liner or clean up smudges since it isn't greasy at all. However, as I said, I'm not satisfied with it and it is highly unlikely I'll repurchase this remover.

Pros:
- Leaves skin feeling smooth and fresh without greasiness
- Clean, fresh scent
- Free of additives

Cons:
- Does not gently remove sturdy waterproof eye liners
(I think that reason itself is a glaring flaw.)