This is going to be a long post. I will apologise for that straight off. The reason for the length of this post is because there is so much to say about these products. I only discovered them during a recent trip to Malaysia and they have become a key part of my routine ever since.
Basically what we are talking about here is serum-infused cloth face masks. Now doesn’t that sound like “a facial at home” heaven? Well it does to me.
There are many ways in which you can choose to apply these masks. What I mean is that you don’t have lie in the bath for half an hour turning into a wrinkly prune everywhere else whilst your face becomes plump and radiant. No you can just put on the mask and get on with your life…well there are limits, you don’t want to scare anyone. My daughter thinks I look hilarious in mine on a Sunday morning whilst making her pancakes (see offensive photo). I don’t care, I want maximum benefit from these. I generally try and leave them on for at least half an hour, often forty minutes, even up to an hour. There are those mornings when I look at myself in the mirror, sigh in resignation at the tired lacklustre skin but then suddenly remember the rejuvenating properties of these masks. On those days, I whip one on one for ten minutes, if I can, and it really does help.
So first of all you will need to clean your skin before application. You want your skin to be primed for maximum absorption. To do this I would recommend a hot cloth cleanse. This will open up your pores and allow all the lovely serum to infuse! Once you are ready for application, remove the mask from its packaging. The ones I have come in individual packs, with a plastic backing sheet. So you peel the cloth mask off the backing sheet and position it on your face. The mask comes with cut out eye, nose and mouth holes! Yes this does smack of Hannibal Lecter but its worth it so just go with it and embrace the weirdness! The cloths are surprisingly resilient to pulling and shaping. I even tear them a little around the eye area to make sure that its firmly stuck to my skin. Once you are happy with the positioning, you can get on with whatever you feel like while the mask does its thing. It’s worth noting that these masks do not dry out. I reckon you would have to wear it overnight before it fully dries!
So half an hour or an hour later, you just peel the mask off and voila beautiful radiant skin. DO NOT wash your face after removing the mask. The serum is serum i.e. its meant to be left on your skin. So massage in any serum left on your face right down to your décolletage. You may even find that there is serum left in the pack which you can also massage in wherever you want!
So the next big question is which type of mask are you going to go for? I found a really wide range available in Malaysia from a number of brands like My Beauty Diary, Hada Labo and Kila Doll. They all offer a huge variety of masks including moisturising, brightening, pore shrinking, oil control, anti ageing.. I could go on. The most popular ones have Hyaluronic Acid which is a MAJOR buzz word at the moment. It can be found in loads of products as its super moisturising. My favourite brand is My Beauty Diary because of the range of masks it has. My favourite masks are the Black Pearl mask which is for brightening and radiance and the Apple Polyphenol which is good for reducing enlarged pores and tightening skin.
You can get these masks from Amazon and other stockists if you live in the UK. In Malaysia they cost me about £10 per box of ten. I stocked up and brought back about 12 boxes just for myself as I figured that would last me at least a year! I would expect to pay at least £20 per box in the UK. Brands like Shiseido and SKII have also started making cloth masks. They are much more expensive than the brands I tried but are definitely the high end of the market.
If you get the chance to try one of these cloth masks I guarantee you will hooked!
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