WiseWays Herbals Neem Skin Care Facial Mask 2 oz

I bought this product elsewhere, but it is worth sharing my experiences with fellow amazon shoppers. This product is a thick, dryish black paste, highly herbal, highly botanical, which on opening has a layer of oil on top--mix it up a bit before your first use. the smell reminds me of those very dark botanical shampoos that are healing to the scalp. you can smell the neem, as well as all of the various plants and roots that went into it. on that note, the paste was entirely full of twigs and sticks (not just a few--the entire thing was sticks and strands of stems, with bits of paste clinging to them), which I ended up wearing on my face or picking out, one by one, specially around my eyes, nose and mouth. being someone who can't help but be a squeaky wheel when anything goes sideways, I seriously thought about contacting amazon and wiseways, but I actually grew to love this product. I needed healing in the moment, and would have felt very stupid not trying what was already at hand. having tried it, I found that it is extremely effective. twigs or no, this paste works wonders for dermatitis, insect bites, rashes, and whatever unsightly skin ailment I could think of that was looking red and angry and just not responding to normal washing, salves or tee tree oil applications. if there is anything in those twigs that needs to be in there, the wiseways folks really should find a better way to grind them up, because most folks will think twice about using a product that might be abrasive and physically harsh on whatever they are trying to treat in the first place, let alone how bad it looks for a skin care product to have twigs in it (it seriously looked like someone had picked up a mound of dirt from under a tree and scooped it into the jar). being that this remedy is wild crafted and handmade, and probably not milled or refined with the use of industrial equipment, I am not really that upset by the roughness (in fact, I will not even tell you the stuff my own family was raised putting on and in themselves as folk remedies--that's a horror story for another time and place). I am a low-maintenance gal looking for healing (not pampering), and this product worked. I am taking one star off because of the twigs (because of course it would be better without them), but I am still recommending the product with high marks. this stuff does what it is meant to do, and that is saying a lot. all other skin products I have come across that have featured "neem" have had it as a very minor and hardly discernible ingredient, and have not worked for me at all. they've been money drainers, purchased from reputable and often high end face care sources. they have also all used sesame oil as a carrier with neem, which is usually not that great for certain skin conditions. I recommend this product highly, but please keep in mind what it is. it is an old world, rustic indigenous formula, and not a beauty product you would ever find at sephora. don't expect it to make you feel pampered. and please don't get stuck, mentally, on it smelling too medicinal. you would not walk out of the house with a black paste on your face or on your body, sticking to your clothing, so nobody is going to be smelling you either. and the fragrances that are put into products to mask their scents have no beneficial effects, nor does diluting a product's effectiveness to avoid offending our delicate sensibilities on smell. most companies mask their own practices of holding back on expensive and beneficial ingredients by marketing their products as high-end and precious, all while lining their pockets on the attraction of featured ingredients that are barely there, and yet purchased in good faith. in the end, we all get suckered in on such exquisite, spa like "treatments," and end up wearing nothing really all that special or effective, for our money. this is not a spa treatment--it is real medicine.