Mid Week Masking with Purlisse

I’ll be honest, Purlisse is one of those brands I like but tend to forget about. I actually tried all of the items in their Blue Lotus line and the item that I remember the most was the moisturizer. For me it was the perfect level of moisture for my sin in the Spring and Fall. It was the kind of transitional formula I could wear when the seasons started changing. It was light enough that I could wear it as both a day cream and as a night cream, occasionally adding in a night mask.

I did not realize how strange it looked that my shirt matched my hair band until I looked at the pictures. It is a bizarre and unintentional matchy-matchy, please ignore it

It has the same scent as this Blue Lotus + Seaweed Mask actually which is what brought it to mind even more than the brand name. I have used this mask before as well. It is a good solid sheet mask. The scent is fresh and light. It leans slightly floral, but it is so light that it barely registers as a floral and mostly just smells like clean skin care.

According to Purlisse…Each essence-soaked mask is infused with Blue Lotus, Seaweed, Mulberry and Anise Fruit to deliver intense moisture, soothe redness & inflammation and visibly reduce signs of aging.

In general I find that this sheet mask is really good after I have been in the sun. I actually really like them after I have been in the garden sweating it out actually. I will wash the sweat and sunscreen remnants off my face and then apply the mask. I think that not only does the sun leave me feeling icky from the sweat/sunscreen mix but through sweat I lose salt and other minerals. So a rinse off of the residue and a sheet mask really help keep things balanced.

This mask is one of those cloth feel masks that adheres really well to the skin so it is easy to put it on and then go running around the house doing a few little things while you wear it. The masks do come out of the pack extra juicy. I tend to wipe off some of the serum just by running my fingers over it before unfolding it.

This sort of gets the serum that was just placed inside the pack to keep it from drying out off of the mask while leaving the absorbed serum. Which means it doesn’t drip. There is still plenty of excess serum in the packet if you want a little more after masking.

After fifteen or so minutes has elapsed, the mask is peeled off and discarded. It does take a few minutes for the rest of the serum to absorb and the skin will feel a little sticky until it does all sink in. Then once it does, the skin feels refreshed and replenished. It is a great, post sun, post workout refreshing mask. It is naturally cool, even without being put in the fridge. I find it too cool if I put it in the fridge, but my mom loves doing that. For me it is too intensely cold. On it’s onw the Blue Lotus + Seaweed Mask from Purlisse is refreshing and it works as a great summer skin pick me up.

Mid Week Masking with a glass of red and Tonymoly

That’s right the grand sheet mask purge continues. I have one box of sheet masks but it is no longer a bursting sheet masks and in truth some of them are repeat purchases that I always keep on hand. I am going through the singles that I have to see if they are worth keeping around and reordering. I tend to prefer non-sheet masks in general so I realized I was just putting the sheet masks in a box and forgetting about them. This is my attempt at using up and evaluating.

It is slow of course as there are only so many sheet masks you can use at a time.

Today I went with the Tonymoly I’m Red Wine Pore Care mask Sheet. I found this especially interesting because while it is sold in a sheet mask form, there is a tube form so I could buy this same mask as a non sheet mask. Which to be honest, unless there are some sort of problems with the sheet mask, I might do just for comparison’s sake. I am always curious as to how sheet masks and regular face masks compare. But to get back to the mask at hand. The description…

Tighten, tone, and sculpt your face with our I’m Red Wine Pore Tightening Mask! This wash-off mask starts as a smooth gel and tightens as it dries, leaving your skin visibly lifted and firmer. The innovative formula is packed with powerful ingredients like Red Wine Extract and Centella Asiatica Extract to diminish the appearance of pores, soothe irritation, and increase collagen production.

I know this is the description of the non-sheet mask, but on the Tonymoly site it was the one offered. They no longer had the sheet mask, even though it is still offered for sale at Ulta. This link will take you to Ulta (not an affiliate link, just a shopping one, although so is the tonymoly one if you get down to it as I have no affiliation with them either.)

Out of the pack, the face mask was juicy. It was dripping all over the sink and I was concerned there would be dribbles all over the place once i put it on. Surprisingly there wasn’t an issue. I think all of the excess serum just came out with the mask when I slipped it out of the packet. The masking material is a little stiff so it didn’t hug the contours of my face all that well on the edges. it covered my face, but sort of hung off my chin instead of curling under and sticking to the underside of my jaw. The eye holes were a little small for me so I could see the edges of the mask out of the corner of my eyes.

In all though, odd as it was, I didn’t mind it as much with this mask, because usually the eye holes are so large that the area around my eyes doesn’t really get a lot of the sheet mask benefits. so odd as it was, I didn’t find it problematic once I got used to seeing the edge of the mask. I didn’t move around a lot when I was wearing the mask, mostly because it did affect my peripheral vision. It is a mask I put on and then wore while sitting at my desk.

The scent of the mask was interesting. From the red wine image and name I expected a winey, fermented sort of scent. What i got was a lightly grape juicy sort of scent. It was slightly sweet and reminiscent of fresh grapes, but it was a very light and fresh scent that faded quickly. Which I appreciate not only because it did smell lovely, but because I don’t really want to smell like I have saturated myself with wine while sitting at my desk.

After fifteen minutes I removed the mask. It was still damp and there was serum still on my skin. I patted the serum in and waited. It took about two minutes for the remaining serum to absorb. while damp it was a little sticky feeling, but as soon as it dried the skin was no longer sticky and was soft and hydrated. Oddly enough, this is one of the better sheet masks I’ve tied recently. My skin does feel smooth and hydrated and while I won’t say it is a miracle pore reducing mask, I will say that I can see my skin looking nice enough from this one application, to want to try future applications. I expect with repeat applications I might see more of an effect. I am certainly willing to give it a try. Once my current masking trial ends that is. I think this Tonymoly I’m Red wine Pore care mask is definitely one to try again.

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Mid week masking with Starskin VIP 7 second Luxury All Day Mask

Have you ever tried a product and your first thought was, ‘Oh, I see someone had an IDEA.’ For me that was my first reaction to the Starskin VIP 7 second Luxury all day Mask. It is a 7 in 1 Miracle Skin mask pad. The description is quite interesting.

7-Second Luxury All-Day Mask™ VIP is a 7-in‐1 beauty innovation that combines the ultimate 7-step skincare routine into one easy-to-use, super-charged mask pad to deliver instantly fresh and dewy-looking skin – within seconds! Use when your regular skin care routine won’t do the job or when you’re short on time and need to prep for a special event.

That’s right, this little masking pad will massage, exfoliate, tone, apply serum, moisturize, serve as a mask, and work as a makeup primer. That’s quite the claim. I am usually suspicious of anything that tries to do two things at once, so seven is a bit of a stretch for me, still I am game to try just about anything.

The mask requires that you wash our face and pat it dry first. So We CLEANSE!

I’m actually using the Kate Somerville Gentle Goat Milk cleanser right now. I really enjoy it. In fact of the Kate Somerville products I have tried it is one of my top two. The other is the ExfoliKate exfoliator, in case you were wondering. So cleansed and patted dry, I opened the mask.

The little mask pocket fit well on my two fingers. To use I am supposed to used the bumpy side all over my face for seven seconds and then flip the masking pad over and use the smooth side to pat in the remaining serum. And so that is what I did. I went over my entire face with the bumpy side. I may have used it for a bit longer than seven seconds. I then flipped it over and tried to pat in the serum.

textured side post use , minor exfoliation

Here is the thing. There is a lot of serum and both sides of the little masking pad were saturated. using the smooth side to pat the excess serum in was like patting your face dry with a dripping wet wash cloth. It doesn’t work. So the flip side was pointless. I just let the serum on my skin sink in naturally.

Which took about twenty minutes. However while my skin was dry after 20 minutes, it was also sticky. I am guessing that this is the makeup primer aspect. The think is that not all of y face was sticky. Some parts of my face absorbed the serum really well and were only ,mildly tacky while others had that full on gripping primer stickiness. Which means any makeup I apply is going to be uneven in it’s application. A little moisturizer over the mask took down all of the stickiness and made me feel much better.

before masking (I spilled water down my shirt while washing and changed shirts, in case you are wondering about the difference

So let’s look at the mask. It is supposed to massage. I am not entirely certain how much massaging you are going to get in seven seconds but it did feel good to glide the masking pad over my face so sure, we’ll go with that. It is supposed to exfoliate. while I am willing to think that it might have a chemical exfoliant in the serum makeup my skin did not feel particularly exfoliated and the pad showed no signs that anything was exfoliated. I am guessing that instead of a chemical exfoliator the exfoliation is due to the textured surface of the masking pad. The reason I am guessing this is because there is no call to rinse the mask off and I can’t see any chemical exfoliator being left on the skin all day as a makeup primer. It seems like that might cause issues.

post mask with serum starting to sink in.(light changed while I went to change shirts

I also didn’t see, smell or feel anything that was toner like. What I did feel was a serum infused face mask that instead of being in a sheet mask was rubbed into the skin. Quite honestly there is nothing wrong with that. The serum is a lovely serum and even with the stickiness my skin felt hydrated and pampered. I liked the concept of using a masking pad instead of a sheet mask actually. That was a good idea. I would in fact really enjoy keeping these Starskin VIP Seven second Luxury All day masks around, just for that. I can easily see a day where I don;t want to sit with a full sheet mask or a regular jarred mask. I can see those days popping off to the bathroom, giving my skin awash and then using this quick face mask.

Especially in the summertime actually.

Because here is the thing. In the summertime I do switch the hours of my walking. I will either start going earlier to beat the sun or going later after the day’s heat breaks depending on my day or the heat level. But I will still walk all summer and I will still sweat after a certain point. And thee will be moments throughout the day when I am outside and even ten minutes in the great out doors will cause me to sweat. And I will wash my face in the middle of the day. I try to stick to morning and night, but when I sweat I feel gross and just so that I don’t feel gross I will rinse my face and occasionally use a gentle cleanser. Having a mask like this around to use after a sweat removing rinse would actually be really good for my skin. It would ensure that my skin wasn’t overly cleansed.

But it is not a seven in one product. This mask is a good alternative to a sheet mask. It has a really nice serum that hydrates well and the bumpy texture of the pad may remove some surface contaminants. Follow with just a dab of moisturizer and it is the perfect mid day skin pick me up. That is what this Starskin VIP 7 second Luxury All day Mask does and it does it well. It is not a replacement for a full skincare routine, but it is a good quick substitute for a sheet mask and I honestly would like to use it again.

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Hello Ganic, It’s time for mid week masking

As you know I am trying to whittle down my collection of sheet masks, determining which ones I want to purchase in larger packs and which ones just need to be cleared out before they go bad. At this point I have to admit that a lot of the sheet masks left in my collection are rose infused or rose scented.

While I don’t mind rose, I am picky about the type of rose that I like. You can give me pretty much anything rose scented from the brand Nuxe or even Dior and I am fine with the scent because it is light and tends to smell more like skincare that was placed near something rose scented for a while rather than actually infused with the rose scent.

When I went into the sheet mask box today, I found that because I tend to avoid the rose scented masks, I have a lot of them. I wasn’t feeling rose today so I dug through the box and came up with a non-rose scented sheet mask. And then I saw that it was a pore refining mask and I got happy. A lot of the masks left are also hydrating, and while I like hydrating masks it is nice to have a change so double win today.

Well win if I like the mask.

This is the Helloganic 1 a day Grain mask. Finding information about it was interesting. There were a couple of UK Sites that offered it The only place I could find it for sale in the US was on Amazon so that is where the links and product information are from. If you are reading this outside the US you may have better luck finding it. So according to Amazon…

Vegan Certified : HelloGanic is a 100% vegan green market and lifestyle beauty brand that brings healthy energy to everyone with carefully selected fresh raw materials and refreshing imagination. Eucalyptus sheet : Sheets are made from eucalyptus trees. Since eucalyptus grows well in the tropics and dry plains, we focused on an idea – “Tree that gives life.” We have developed products that provide a feeling of freshness and moisture. Strict quality standards : Each mask is produced according to very strict quality standards and excellent technologies such as a natural preservation system and low-temperature aging method. Full of GREEN ingredients : Just as a daily nutrient is required to maintain our health, Helloganic masks are filled with freshness and nutrients from green food needed for our skin every day.
Amazon

I really like that these are made with eucalyptus sheets. It feels like cotton and to be honest, I thought it was cotton. if they can make wood feel like cotton power to them. It even says eucalyptus sheet on the packet although any UK sites I looked at claimed it was cotton. Since what is on the package says Eucalyptus I will go with that as the mask material.

Don’t you just hate when there is conflicting information?

Regardless, the mask lays across the skin well and adheres to all of the cures of the face without bunching up or sticking out. which is the goal regardless of base material. The scent of the mask is interesting. While the sheet mask lists Adlay Black Bean as the main ingredient it smells vaguely like oatmeal to me. Perhaps it is that I do not know much about the Adlay black bean.

A quick search for the Adlay Black bean netted me information about the ingredent…Adlay traditionally has long been used in China for the treatment of warts, chapped skin, rheumatism, neuralgia, and inflammatory diseases. – National Library of Medicine

All of the other searches listed teas and even black bean burgers.

So it smells a bit like oatmeal and a bit like skincare. Which is fine for a sheet mask. I like both oatmeal and skincare. The mask is juicy when it comes out of the pouch and I did have to wipe a bit of serum off of my hands and neck After that it didn’t seem inclined to drip.

As I wore it I could feel a cool tingling over my skin. It wasn’t unpleasant but it was a noticeable thing. I wore the sheet mask for fifteen minutes while sitting at my desk answering e-mails. After fifteen minutes I returned to the bathroom to remove the mask. The part of the mask under my nose dried down and I could tell it was not cotton. When dry it simply didn’t feel like cotton.

The rest of the sheet mask was still damp but it was clear my skin absorbed most of the serum. What little remained I patted into the skin. My skin felt very chilled. It actually felt as though I had been standing in front of an open fridge peering into the depths for the last fifteen minutes. The coolness remained for a full ten minutes after the mask was removed. It was well after the serum absorbed in and my skin was dry. It still remained cool to the touch.

As often i will use cool things like jade rollers to calm inflammation and irritation down without recourse to actual items from the medicine cabinet, I think if I had been suffering from any irritation this would have significantly reduced it merely through the cooling effect. beyond that my skin felt really soft and smooth. The serum was a little sticky before it dried down and was fully absorbed. That took a few minutes after I removed the mask to fully soak in. If you can put up with the slight stickiness for that length of time then there is a nice pay off of soft nourished skin.

I enjoyed this mask far more than I expected to. I honestly wasn’t certain what sort of effect beans would have on my skin, but in this mask it works. I will happily repurchase this Helloganic sheet mask.

Mid Week Masking Glam up with Revitalizing Japanese Sake

Don’t worry I haven’t taking up drinking at first light. I am still working through my accumulated sheet masks and today it is time for the Revitalizing Japanese Sake Sheet mask from Glam up. For some reason the only place I could find these for sale was Amazon. They do sell a ten pack for $11.48 should you be interested. Amazon also has a variety of products from Glam up even though I can find the brand no where else either.

The details are pretty bare bones. It is a revitalizing mask in the shade Japanese Sake and the scent Cherry. According to the listing. The mask itself lists it as being Japanese sake and to be fair there is a slight floral scent to it that dissipates pretty much as I put the mask on. It has that slight cherry blossom scent with a back note of something that I think smelled fermented.

It is oddly a very clean skin care scent.

This mask is very juicy. There was a lot of extra serum that came out with the mask and unfortunately I do mean came out with the mask. I pulled the mask out of the foil packet and it was as though I released a gusher. I did open it over the sink though so it was less of a mess than it could have been. The sheet mask itself is of that thin cotton cloth like material.

I personally really love the masks that are made of this because I find that it is easier to get them to adhere to the skin. Plus they sort of seem to dry as my skin absorbs the serum so it makes me feel like I can see it working. I know a lot of it is just the make being released into the air, but it makes me feel good.

This mask however wouldn’t dry off If I wore it for a few hours. It is well saturated. I wiped a few drips off of my neck when I first applied it but after that I didn’t really have any issues with it dripping down my neck. To be honest, I was a little surprised by this as it is quite juicy. But the serum didn’t run. The mask adhered well.

While the initial scent, whether cherry blossom or sake, didn’t stick around long, by the time my timer went off and it was time to remove the mask, I sort of got a put of a soapy sort of scent from the bit of the mask that was under my nose. I don’t mind that, I just thought it interesting as I thought all the scent dissipated.

while I am scent oriented, it isn’t the most important thing. The way my skin feels after this mask is. So I niffed the soap scent until the timer dinged and then went to remove the mask.

As you can see it was still quite juicy when I took it off (I had it on for 20 minutes, mostly because as my timer went off an e-mail came in that I had to answer. I did and then took off the mask.). There is quite a lot of serum left on my skin. I patted it in and let it absorb. I was surprised that it wasn’t sticky. Usually the remaining serum is sticky until it dries. This was not, it just felt like water and after it absorbed in my skin felt extra hydrated.

I will also say that I do feel refreshed. My skin feels hydrated, but I feel more awake and ready to go on with my day than I was before. To be honest that is one of the reasons I love revitalizing or energizing sheet masks. I don’t sleep well, and while nothing is really a good substitute for sleep, a sheet mask like this in the morning before I get on with the rest of my day really does help me wake up and feel brighter and more ready to face the day.

Also I do notice that after a session with a sheet mask, my makeup does apply a lot more smoothly. even the foundations that tend to settle take longer to settle than usual because things are temporarily plumped.

While I couldn’t find much information on Glam Up as a brand, I think I will certainly put this Revitalizing Sake mask on my repurchase list. It is inexpensive and a great morning pick me up for mornings when I am feeling a little draggy. it is like a shot of caffeine for my skin, without actually having to brew the pot. Over all two thumbs up.

Midweek Masking with ID.AZ Water-Fit Mask

While I have been going through my single sheet mask packets trying to whittle them down so that I can reorder the ones I like and say good bye to the ones not worth the repurchase, I couldn’t resist opening this pack of five Water-Fit Sheet Masks from ID.AZ Private Doctor Line that came in the January Boxycharm Premium box.

It isn’t just that it is a set of five so I could try them repeatedly and see how they perform over time that drew me. It was the name. I am certain that I have tried something from this brand before but I simply can not remember what it was. I have a vaguely positive impression of the brand. i also remember rolling my eyes at the name. I know ID.AZ is a play on Ideas. It is cute and possibly clever but I will still roll my eyes every time I see it. It is an automatic reaction. If it makes anyone feel better I have the same reaction to Will.I.Am even though I love the Black Eyed Peas.

(I also get twitchy when people don’t conjugate verbs and leave out apostrophes, just so you know. I won’t call anyone on it, but it will always make me twitchy)

So I decided to try out this sheet mask for my midweek masking and try to recall what it was from the brand that i tried before. i still can’t recall even though I have searched the brand page up and down. It is not the easiest website to find things on. There are several familiar things, I just can’t remember if I tried them.

But to this sheet mask!

Each mask is individually packaged and because the masks are very fine rice paper like sheets, they come with a net like backing that you peel off. I actually like this better than some of the paper backings that are used for the same thing. It comes off very easily, sliding away from the mask. It is nice when you don’t have to wrestle the backing and risk folding the mask in on itself. This was nice and easy to separate and the mask went on well.

It is a juicy mask. the material adheres well to the skin because of it. There is also plenty of serum left in the foil packet. it is a well, even over saturated mask. When I first put it on, there were drips running down my neck. And while i will concede my neck needs serum too, this was not the way to get it. I dabbed it with a wash cloth and then all was well. I was able to sit at my desk and work while wearing the mask for the fifteen minutes.

There is no scent to the mask and while it feels wet, there is no slimy feeling to it that sometimes serums get. There were no real ingredients lists on the site, but I will say the mask certainly felt hydrating and maybe a little cool on the skin. After 20 minutes I did remove it. The mask was still wet, and given the amount of serum saturating it, that was not a surprise. There was however not too much serum left on my skin. There was a little and I did pat it in and let my skin dry. I was worried there would be too much serum and i would have to wipe it off. This proved not to be the case. My skin absorbed what was left and felt soft and very hydrated.

Over all this Water Fit Mask was a very hydrating mask. While I think that each time I used it my skin would receive additional hydration, I don’t think this is a mask I need to use every couple of days. My skin is in the normal/combo range. In the summer I lean towards oily without being fully oily and in the winter I lean towards dry without being fully dry. For me I think that a once a month burst of hydration or whenever I feel like my skin is too dry would be the right time to use this. I think it is an excellent mask for those times, but I don’t think my skin needs the level of moisture it provides on a consistent basis. This is ‘check your skin before applying’ mask for me. I am however happy to have it around for those times as it performed beautifully. I will keep the rest of these Water Fit Masks on hand for when I need them and consider repurchasing when I run out.

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Mid-week masking with the Patchology Rosé Sheet Mask

Welcome to the mid week-masking! I did try to get my sheet mask collection down before the end of the year, but I just didn’t quite make it. And then in December this Patchology Rosé Sheet mask came in my Glossy Box. I figured why let it linger? So I am continuing the Mid Week masking.

I will admit that when I saw Rosé my thoughts immediately went to rose. But then I checked the fine print and this face mask is scented with strawberry. So I immediately thought I would be surrounded by the scent of Strawberry Shortcake (does anyone remember the scent of those dolls from the 1980s?).

When I opened the mask there was the light scent of strawberry. It smelled a bit diluted somehow and then I looked at the package and thought it did smell almost like an effervescent strawberry flavored water. It is a more natural scent rather than the super industrial strawberry flavoring. Personally I liked it. Which is good because it stayed with me for the duration of wearing the mask. It faded a little, but I think the mask would have to dry completely before the scent faded totally and this was a juicy enough mask that it wasn’t going to dry completely in fifteen minutes.

I am really starting to enjoy Patchology sheet masks. They are made from, a cloth like material that really adheres well to the skin. With a lot of sheet masks getting it to stay pressed against the skin is kind of the trick. The individual masks are only about $5 on the Lovely Skin website which is where I purchase them (at the moment though they are on sale for $3.75 so if you are looking to stock up, you might want to jump) when I wear them I never have any issues with them slipping.

The Patchology masks are always fully saturated with serum,. Which is the point of their existence really. This one was plenty juicy but it wasn’t dripping. I unfolded it and applied it to the skin, patting it in place and then went back to my desk to work on some e-mails. Fifteen minutes later I went back to the bathroom to peel it off. The mask never really dried down and there was plenty of serum left on my skin. I patted some of it in but had to pat my skin dry with a dry wash cloth. There was simply too much of the serum left behind.

My skin felt a little sticky after I patted the skin dry but after my skin dried completely the stickiness was gone. It was only there when the skin was damp. I know there was Hyaluronic acid in the mask and I hope that it will eventually plump up the skin, but to be honest I wanted to like this sheet mask more than I did. I love the material and the scent and the thought, but over all this sheet mask was a bit underwhelming. My skin was a bit more sticky than plumped and while it is more hydrated, I can’t say it is enough hydrated for me to purchase this sheet mask again. This Patchology Rosé Sheet Mask was fun to use and not one I wouldn’t use again, but I feel no need to add it to my list of sheet masks to repurchase.

Mid Week Masking With Santa

As my skin is still recovering from the excess of thanksgiving and i am still trying to use up the stash of sheet masks before the new year (yes I know I intentionally bought a Christmas themed sheet mask, thus adding rather than subtracting), I decided to go with the sheet mask today. The Fantasy Santa Purifying Sheet Mask is from the Masque Bar which I really like and one of the reasons I want to sort through my collection is that I want to actually reorder some of the ones I like from them. By the way they have some spectacular Holiday masking collections this year.. They are great for personal use, stocking stuffers or holiday masking. When we get together there is usually a quiet day where we all break out some face masks and put on a movie. Everyone brings a couple of masks and we put them in a batch. I tend to split my sheet mask purchases between Facetory and the Masque bar. They are both good but tend to carry different things.

I also decided that I was going to go ahead and use the lip mask from Vitamasques (Candy Cane Lip Probiotic Deep Repair) I purchased today as well. Somehow no matter what I do, when I travel my lips always get a bit dry and rough. I think it is actually the travel. Travel by car isn’t as bad as travel by plane for my lips. Perhaps it is just more encapsulated air. I tend to use lip products before I travel and then at night before bed after I have arrived, but it is the travel in between that gets me. And I always tuck a lip balm in my pocket for the drive, but then I forget about it, so it is really my own fault.

Regardless, a lip mask today sounded good. It should come as no surprise that the lip sheet mask I picked up was a candy cane themed one. I am a sucker for peppermint. I absolutely despise spearmint, but adore peppermint. ANd this is the time of year when peppermint shines. As a general rule, I don’t care for the lip sheet masks. A lot of them that I have tried have been either the gel like material used for under eye patches, which is too heavy to actually stay on the contours of my lips for the duration of the masking time (at least the ones I’ve tried) or the paper is too thick and won’t adhere to the contours either. I had a real problem with the Rodial ones with that actually. The serum was fantastic but the paper would only stick to my face on the sides of my lips and bubbled up over them which more or less defeated the purpose of using it.

This one was thin enough paper and it was well saturated with serum so it stuck right on. There was a slight scent of peppermint but to be honest if the mask wasn’t covered with candy canes I really wouldn’t have thought ‘peppermint’. Or Candy Cane. It did adhere well, but the mouth slit was sort of useless. I apologize for any serial killer vibes you may get from the pic but since it adhered so well I didn’t want to disturb it by doing something as radical as smiling.

One of the ways I have found to keep a lip mask in place is to apply a sheet mask over it and so onto the face went Santa. At least it is supposed to be santa. Perhaps if I let the lower half with the beard hang down it would look more like the jolly old elf but with it tucked against my skin (and with the lip mask on under) I think I look more like some strange sort of clown who strayed too far from a very cut rate circus.

It was somehow less holiday inspiring than I hoped it would be.

But the mask was on and both it and the lip mask were sitting well against the skin. The face mask had a slight I am skin care scent to it with maybe a hint of pine. I set the timer for fifteen minutes and then took to my desk to check e-mails.

While I love the down time of masking, the beauty of sheet masks is that they can be worn at the desk. (and sine I work at home I do either take the makeup off before I put them on or I used them pre makeup or I just skip the makeup that day and go for skincare.

After fifteen minutes, the masks looked the same. They were both saturated enough that they weren’t going to dry out in fifteen minutes. I peeled the face mask off first and found that while there was still serum left on my skin a lot had absorbed and by the time I disposed of it and peeled off the lip mask most of the serum left on the skin absorbed as well. It was actually quite nice. A lot of masks tell you to pat the remaining serum into the skin but a lot of the time I jst pat it off with a towel because my skin has absorbed as much as it can. Maybe my skin was extra thirsty or maybe this serum just absorbed or even evaporated. Not sure. Post travel it could go either way. It generally takes a week or so for my skin to settle back in.

My skin did feel quite nice after the mask. It is a purifying mask so it will be interesting to see if in the next few hours, or even tomorrow morning if there are a spate of clogged pores rising to the surface. We shall see.

But then there are the lips. The deep repair mask did deeply hydrate my lips. Not a rough or dry spot was to be seen. Although I didn;t see any terms that made me think this was a lip plumping mask, my lips do feel like they have been plumped. They might not look any bigger but they have that estranged stretched feeling that you get when you use a good lip plumper. There was some tingling about 5 or so minutes in but it was mild and it faded quickly. The feeling of being plumped remained though.

Overall, I have to say I did like the masks. While I don’t think that Santa and his candy cane lips will be around for the year, I think that both brands will consistently have these types of masks. While I will need to wait to see the effects of the sheet mask in the morning, I liked how it felt and wouldn’t mind using it another time. With the lip mask, I was very impressed with the way it actually stuck to my lips. It was the first lip mask I have used that actually remained on the area it was supposed to cover. And while I wasn’t expecting any lip plumping there is no denying that my lips are fully hydrated and feel soft with no dry rough spots. And for me that is a big win and a reason to repurchase.

The Mid-Week Sheet Mask: Cosocodi Ganoderma Stem Real Mask

It is that time again my darlings. The time when I realize that my sheet mask collection has once again managed to grow unchecked. I thought to look into the box o’ sheet masks when I saw that Facetory had a sale going on. They are one of the main places I get my masks. They actually have several levels of sheet mask subscriptions (and other skin care products too actually) I had one of their subscriptions for a while and really enjoyed it. It was a great way to try a bunch of different masks, find the ones you like and then order the ones you like.

I know, not rocket science.

They also have Masking Mondays’ where each Monday they put certain masks on sale (they rotate through so it isn’t always the same one). I tend to read them and compare the sales to my favorites list and then pounce when my faves go on sale. But I haven’t been using my sheet masks as much.

Well that’s not entirely true. I reorder the ones I know I like and then just use those and reorder them instead of trying out the random collection of masks in the box. So I need to start using them to see if they are worth repurchasing or if I can just delight in a grand clear out.

which is also a long winded way of saying there will be sheet masks cropping up periodically in the near future. Todays is the Coscodi Ganoderma Stem Real Mask. Quite the mouthful isn’t it? Looking it up I found it mentioned on several sites, including Facetory where I received the mask originally. I could only find the mask for sale on a few sites. One of them was Walmart so that is the one i went with and where the description came from. According to the Walmart product page for this mask…

Stem cells from the Lingzhi mushroom help keep the skin healthy by penetrating the dermis of the skin. This highly-nutritional and well-fitted sheet mask contains red ginseng and adenosine to enhance skin elasticity, while niacinamide and scutellaria baicalensis root extract helps cleanse the skin from fine dust particles, brighten, and smooth fine lines and wrinkles. It’s packed with ingredients that provides skin a whole new glow!

Now I am always in favor of niacinamides and anti aging properties in masks. While I don’t believe fifteen minutes with a mask is going to shave off a decade of time from my skin, I am in the every little bit helps category of skincare users. So I opened the Coscodi mask and took it out of the packaging.

It always amuses me when the mask is wrapped up into such a small package inside of the large pack. I took it out and it was juicy. You can see the serum just dripping off of it. It took a little bit of work to unfold it completely. It was very wet and wanted to stick to itself. The material is also fairly thin. The thin material and serum did help once I got the mask unfolded and on to my face.

It adhered well to the contours of my face and didn’t move the entire time I wore the sheet mask. I was worried that the mask would drip once it was on. Maybe it dripped it’s excess out into the sink while I unfolded it, but it didn’t drip while I wore it. which was a plus.

As per instructions I let the mask sit on my face for fifteen minutes. In that time i answered e-mails at my desk. while i like to make Friday Masking an event, I never feel like taking that much of a break mid week. That is also the beauty of sheet masks They go one, and come off without a lot of clean up time.

when the mask came off, my skin had a lot of excess serum on it. They say to pat the excess serum in, but there was way too much and it would have taken my skin far to long to take it all in. I did end up wiping some of the excess off.

this mask had no scent, but the serum does feel a little sticky. As it dries and it fully absorbed into the skin , the stickiness goes away. But there was a lot of serum and it does take a while for it to absorb. I don’t know if it is the length of time on the skin or what, but I really feel like I want to wash my face. My skin looks fine and I’m sure it is well hydrated, but I very much feel the need to wash my face. I’m trying to give the serum time to sink in and at least possibly provide some benefits, but it is really difficult.

i will say that my skin does look healthy and hydrated, but this feeling of needing to wash my face is a bit much. While I’m sure this mask has it’s fans, I am not one of them. I think that this might be a one and only use of the Coscodi Ganoderma stem real Mask. The effects seem to be minimum, at least from this one use, but the need to wash my face is too strong to ignore. This mask is not for me.

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