The Tatcha Water Cream has been on my review radar for as long as I’ve been having on-and-off oily skin. This Japanese hydrating cream promises to refine pores while promoting balanced skin with healthy aging properties. But the main reason why I haven’t been able to just let this moisturiser go without trying it is because it is recommended for oily and combination skin type like mine.

Oil Free Moisturizer for Oily to Combination Skin?

So Tatcha Water Cream is an oil-free moisturiser for oily to combination skin; created as part of the brand’s efforts to segregate products targeting at different skin types. The texture of this face cream is lightweight but not whipped. Upon disintegration during application, the product thins out in opacity into a translucent, watery finish (as Tatcha says, “water-burst cream”) that is easily absorbed when massaged in. While it does feel like the water cream checks most of the boxes of how an oily skin-preventive skincare product should feel like; alas, it brought out the worse of my sebum production. So what went wrong? Let’s dig deeper.

First and foremost, I do not have genetically oily skin. None in the lineage. So I do not necessarily have what you call ‘overly active sebaceous glands’. I blame my diet and lifestyle for my enlarged pores and dehydrated skin. I am a sugar lover; mostly from my chocolate and confectionary addictions. The sugars, especially fructose in these simple carbs, increase the testosterone level in women (it does the opposite to men which is weird) and causes the oil glands in our skin to produce more sebum, leaving our pores prone to clogging and becoming enlarged. Secondly, I do have dehydrated skin. The lack of water in my skin also leads to the over-production of sebum in order to make up for the hydration it needs, and as a result, it develops into oily skin on the surface. Here’s a video in which I’ve illustrated how this happens (at 8:43 mark) if you want to delve into the mechanics of things.

Fermented skincare products work themselves before they work with our skin. The fermenting process produces microbiomes (yeast & bacteria) that would break down the ingredients and convert them into acids (both resurfacers and protein-forming blocks – lactic, amino) in readily bioavailable molecules that work to strengthen our skin barrier which is the top layer – the stratum corneum.

Tatcha Water Cream Ingredients

At the top of the Tatcha Water Cream ingredients list (apart from water) is what they called the ‘Hadasei-3’ – comprising Uji green tea, Okinawa red algae and Akita rice proteins, all of which are native to Japan, where the product is made. This powerful trio is a proprietary complex subjected to a double fermentation process so as to catalyse the efficacy of its biologically active ingredients for quicker absorption and results as they resurface, soften and plump the skin. Now, now. I think this is where my problem lies.

An efficient product for my skin type should then be one that is hydrating and gently loosens the dead skin cells on the surface while bonding my skin barrier, so there’s no water loss like in my case.

The Tatcha Water Cream ingredients reads like the perfect cocktail of such modus operandi going on except that I think the double fermentation doesn’t double down as well as it is suppose to on my dehydrated skin type. I’m no expert but I read that the science behind this secondary fermentation does not only multiply the active nutrients, but also increases the rate of enzymatic exfoliation and the bioavailability (absorption and metabolism) as a whole. That could be one reason why my skin became overwhelmed in the process. While the product says ‘oil-free’, the accelerated fermentation also produce high concentration of ceramides, which are essentially epidermal lipids. So now you know my skin type is moisture-deficient stemming from deeper skin layers (dermis through epidermis) yet accumulating oil on the surface, one might wonder if the catalytic function of lipids (no doubt naturally-occurring) ends up further cluttering my pores instead.

Water based Moisturiser but Is it a Skin quencher?

Tatcha The Water Cream is considered a water based moisturiser since its first and largest ingredient is water. And then there’re three main ingredients featured by Tatcha Water Cream (usually listed from the largest to the smallest components). You go down the list just after ‘Hadasei-3’ and you have Leopard Lily, or Blackberry Lily (belamcanda chinensis) that is responsible for oil-control, Japanese wild rose (rosa multiflora) for calming, hydrating and smoothening of the skin. The rest that goes down the line are Houttuynia Cordata extract for reducing inflammation in acne-prone and sensitive skin, and Sophora Angustifolia root extract for inhibiting melanin in that sequence. From the scheme of things, It does seem that hydration wise, the ingredients work more as a moisture retainer rather than a booster. To top it all off, there’re dimethicone and dimethicone crosspolymers. While they work together to seal in moisture, they can also repel moisture, so then water can be retained but I do not expect the cream to be supercharged with water. Dimethicone is also not oil-soluble. This means the sebum my skin produces is likely to stay on top of my skin surface and ending up clogging my pores. So even though Tatcha Water Cream states that it is non-comedogenic, the use of dimethicones is a causative factor. This makes sense why my face is all shiny after a few hours.

The Tatcha Water Cream is a mixed bag of things to me. But introspectively, I feel that the dehydrated skin environment is just not the right ecosystem for this moisturiser to work in. Perhaps the Tatcha Water Cream is rightfully for oily skin; just not the type that dehydration gives rise to.

Price & Where To Buy

The Tatcha Water Cream retails at SGD$108.00 for 50ml at Sephora Singapore online store and outlets.

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