Masks #5 - Brightening

This post will be full of masks that is touted to brighten your skin. Asia uses "whitening" a lot, but they actually meant brightening. Whitening sound so scary, like your skin will whiten after usage. But these kind of products are  actually supposed to help even out your skin tone and give it a "glow".


RE:CIPE made by nature Slowganic Sheet Mask Tangerine of Jeju Island - Whitening

Man that name is a mouthful. I purchased this from TesterKorea but it seems like they are no longer selling it. I purchased it for $4 per sheet. Then a few weeks later it went down to $1.50 so I was not happy I paid more than twice the cost. I was intrigued by the brand and thought a mask was a good way to try them out. I chose the tangerine "flavour" as it was just calling out to me. I don't really need "whitening" but I do need to even our my hyper-pigmentation.

It selected only the domestic local food which has been grown and riped (ripened) with sincerity and this is the natural sheet mask which includes natural ingredients of good quality obtained. 
As it includes the tangerine which has been riped in Jaeju Island, it brights the dark skin and it creates transparent and clear skin. Therefore it helps for whitening. 

*SLOW + RAW + ORGANIC = SLOWGANIC
Slowganic Sheet Mask which is the compound word of [SLOW] and [RAWGANIC] is the natural mask which is made by including the original ingredients of good quality, obtained from the nature in their natural states. 
*It increases adhesion property to the skin with application of the high elasticity fabric sheet and it delivers effective ingredients in most effective way. 

That's the only English blurb from the package. The ingredients list is all in Korean and Google translate was no help. Though from what I can tell, the first ingredients are water (purified it looks like), glycerin and mandarin extract (1,000ppm). The rest are just gibberish translations. I tried to see if I can find an ingredient list somewhere else, but alas no luck. T__T

My first impression of this mask that it is heavily fragranced, I can smell it as soon as I opened it. The smell is an artificial floral orange smell, similar to my tangerine hand soap. Though I would say it leans more on the floral than the tangerine side. It was so strong that I got a headache after 5 minutes of putting on the mask. That is some strong fragrance for something made with organic ingredients.

The essence is clear and thick like gel, there was just enough of it to soak the mask. The mask itself is quite thick so it took a bit of an effort to have it stretched out properly on my face. It had large eye sockets so no tiny eye sockets where half are sitting on my eye lid. *I am looking at you! Etude House's I Need You line!* There was a little bit of excess flap around my forehead but other than that, the mask fit my face pretty well.

Like I mentioned, I got a headache after 5 minutes or so from the fragrance. I ended up removing the mask after 10 minutes because it was starting to feel dry to the touch, and I didn't want reverse osmosis to occur and draw moisture from my skin. Which is odd since instruction said to take it off after 15 minutes or so, so it should have enough essence to last that long. My face felt tacky after I removed it and it remained that way in the morning.

I found that my skin did look slightly brightened and evened out, but I would not pay the $4 or $1.50 for such a heavily fragranced mask that dries up in 10 minutes and have minimal effect.

**Apologies for the lack of photos, I forgot to take them beside random shots of the mask inside the package and an empty package**

Tonymoly Changing U Sheet Box in Black pearl

 I got this as part of the Tonymoly Changing U box set, but TesterKorea is no longer selling it either. So I have linked it to Soko Glam, the only store I can find selling it besides Amazon. I paid $6 + shipping for the box of 7 sheet masks, but since I ordered it as part of the larger order, the shipping is slightly lower compared to if you were to order it on its own. Soko Glam offers free shipping over $50USD so I'll let you decide if their price is worth it.

Ingredients: So there's no ingredient list listed on the back and I can't find the product on Tony Moly's website. Soko Glam has it posted on their product page under "ingredients" tab. However it seems like a generic one for the set instead of the individual ones so I can't say if the ingredients are true to this "flavour".

The mask is a clear watery essence that has a fake smell. It wasn't too distinct, and if I have to guess, I would say it's probably the alcohol in there. Thankfully it wasn't too strong and it went away once I put on the mask.

Looks like a frowning panda face no?

As for the fit, it was a bad fit. The eye holes are HUGE so quite a bit of my cheeks were not covered. The mouth hole is also very big. I managed to place the lower part sit on my chin while putting it on.

There was quite a bit of the essence such that it squirted out a bit when I opened the package. That also means it was more than enough to keep the mask wet after 30 minutes. I took it off and used the excess essence on the rest of my body.

The extra essence on my face absorbed in quickly. My face felt smooth and moisturized. The faint redness in my cheeks has reduced and the sun spots on my cheeks has lightened, such that I can tell a difference with photos taken with flash.


Holika Holika  Ampoule Mask Sheet From Nature in Vitamin + Pineapple

 This looked interesting honestly because it made me go "pineapple?! PINEAPPLE?! Alright I'll try it". According to their website, the mask contains no artificial olourings, mineral oil, petrolatum, talc, sulfate,  and benzyl alcohol. The combination is supposed to revitalize your skin, and make your skin sleek and soft. So let's see how it did.

 Ingredients: As per the package. 

Water, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Alcohol, PEG/PPG-17/6 Copolymer, Citrus Paradisi (Grapefuit) Fruit Extract, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer, Carbomer, Ethylhexylglycerin, Potassium Hydroxide, Tocopheryl Acetate, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Fruit Extract, Actinidia Chinensis (Kiwi) Fruit Extract, Ananas Sativus (Pineapple) Fruit Extract, Magneisum Ascorbyl Phosphate, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance. 

 

The mask was soaked in a clear essence that had a very chemical smell. I was hoping it would have that distinct pineapple smell but alas no such luck. The smell wafts into my nose every once in a while as I had it on. There was an abundance of essence left in the package, enough to cover my neck and some arm.

The mask itself fit my face okay. I wish there was some slits around the temple so I can adjust it and overlay the excess parts. I also would have liked if there were more slits around the jawline so I can spread it out instead of having a bunch in one spot.

The mask started to feel dry to the touch after about 15 minutes on my face so I took it off. But there was actually quite a bit of essence left on my skin, and I let that sink in before checking for results.

It made my face look brighter and my pores appear to be smaller. Though it made my face feel quite tacky even after a bit of a wait. Honestly, I barely have any recollection of it. So whilst it did have good results, it is not great enough for me to go out of my way to repurchase it.


Etude House I need You Mask in Vita Complex

This was purchased along with the rest back in late 2014 where Etude had free shipping over $30 USD and 15% off using Paypal. So of course I picked out all of the "flavours" in the I Need You line and slowly working through them. 

Ingredients: As per the package. 

Water, Butylene Glycol, GLycerin, Citrus Paradis (Grapefruit) Fruit Extract, Alcohol, Pnanthenol, Carbomer, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Hydroxide, Ethylexylglycerin, Allantoin, Niacinamide, Sodium Startch Octenylsuccinate, Calcium Pantothenate, Maltodextrin, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Camellia Sinenisis Leaf Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate, Pyridoxine HCL, Sophora Angustifolia Root Extract, Lonicera Japonica (Honeysuckle) Flower Extract, Prunus Persia (Peach) Leaf Extract, Paeonia Albiflora Root Extract, Ginkgo Bloba Leaf Extract, Scutellara Baicalensis Root Extract, Silica, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance. Vita Complex: Niacinamide, Sodium Ascorbylphosphate, Tocopherylacetate, Pyrodoxine HCL, Calcium Panthothenated (B5) 

Woo! Niacinamide is in there so it should brighten your skin! Too bad it's only the 13th ingredient on the list. It's so much lower than alcohol, which is in the 4th place.

First impression was this had a super strong sweet smell, not something I would associate with vitamins. It has that fake sweet smell that some erasers has, similar to the Sally's Mask in Apple.

Since I have tried the line of mask before, I am not going to go too much in details. The fit is similar to the rest, it's got super tiny eye hole and a big upper lip part. It dried out faster than the others, it started to fall off in areas after 15 minutes so I ended up taking it off. The extra essence sunk in fast and does not feel sticky to the touch. Though it feels like there is a layer of something there. My skin doesn't feel softer but it feels moisturized. I don't know how to describe it any better. My skin appeared to be more even and a big raging zit on my forehead was much calmer after use.

Overall Thoughts

I have to say, I can find faults in all of the brightening masks I have tried, but if I HAVE to make a list ranking them, it would be :

1) Etude House  I Need You Mask in Vita Complex - Too Sweet of a smell but it works and it's on sale quite often at Etude.

2) Tonymoly Changing U Sheet Box in Black Pearl - Good results but can only get it in a box set

3) Holika Holika Ampoule Sheet Mask From Nature in Vitamine + Pineapple: makes my skin tacky and its chemical smell outweight the good results.

4) Re:cipe Slowganic Sheet Mask in Tangerine of Jeju Island - Minimal result, cost more than the other masks, hard to find and dries out too fast.