Akita is a skincare company founded in Turkey specializing in rose water and rose oil skincare. They have four different product lines; rose, lavender, cacao and unscented and use natural plant-based ingredients. I bought a number of Akita’s rosewater products, and the 100% natural face wash with rose water was the first one I tried.

Ingredients: Aqua, potassium oleate, glycerine, rosa damascena flower water, potassium salt of coconut fatty acid, olive oil, potassium citrate, rosa damascena flower oil, panax ginseng, salicylic acid, glycolic acid, green tea extract, potassium sorbate

A bit more detail on some of the ingredients – Potassium oleate is a salt and a fatty acid that prevents ingredients from separating. The rosa damascena flower water is rose water made from distilling the petals. Rose water is apparently anti-aging and moisturizing, smooths fine lines is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Potassium citrate is the salt form of citric acid used to naturally preserve products and adjust acidity. Panax ginseng can help tone and brighten skin. There is salicylic acid and glycolic acid, BHA and AHA respectively. Salicylic acid helps breakouts, blackheads and skin texture as it can clean deeper inside the pore and glycolic acid can be effective in treating fine lines and uneven skin texture and tone.

I like the ingredient list and was hopeful this would become my go-to cleanser. This product claims to clean dirt and oil from deep within pores while not over-drying skin. The website says this cleanser is oil-free, but it does contain olive oil and rose oil.

This cleanser is a very pale yellowish color and smells like those small bottles of body wash one would find in an economy hotel (not the best smell). It doesn’t suds up too much. As a cleanser, it does its job well.  On the first use as I was rinsing I was struck by how much friction there was between by fingers and my face. It was actually difficult to trace a smooth line across my cheek with my finger without the pause of the friction; there was definitely a very squeaky clean feeling (not in a good way). The cleanser seemed to rinse well, so I was unsure if this friction was due to leftover residue or if the cleanser stripped my skin that much. Once my skin was dry there was still the squeaky feeling, which mostly went away after spraying my face with a toner. I used this in the morning and evening and by about the fifth day my skin felt very dry and by the seventh day the skin on my nose started flaking. I used it for three more days and then had to give up using it as a face wash. I tried using as a body wash, but this also made my skin feel dry and overly squeaky on rinsing. So unfortunately, this rose water cleanser did not work for me. I have since used Akita’s hand cream, roll-on deodorant and 100% pure rose water which I quite liked (the hand cream is a new favorite).