When I saw this two-part mask, I knew I had to test it out. The idea of mixing dried flowers into sheet mask essence seemed really fun and ingenious.
The Freshly Brewed Tea Bag Mask line from Holika Holika has four different sheet masks each featuring a single ingredient: hibiscus, green tea, camomile, or lavender. The mask I’ll be reviewing today features hibiscus and claims that this mask is good for those with flaky skin and provides clearing and firming benefits.
To use this sheet mask, take the tea bag containing dried hibiscus from pouch one and place it into pouch two, which contains the clear essence and 100% plant based sheet mask. Close pouch two using the zipper and massage the bag for one minute, even mixing the hibiscus into the essence. After fully incorporating the benefits of the dried hibiscus into the essence, take out the mask and leave on the face for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, remove the mask and gently pat in the remaining essence.
I love how the packaging includes a zipper. You can mix the ingredients beforehand and keep it in the refrigerator if you don’t want to mix them every time you use this mask. Plus, you can easily save the extra essence in the pouch to use next time (Holika Holika recommends using the remaining essence as toner while keeping it in the fridge!).
I originally thought I would be applying rehydrated hibiscus petals along with the sheet mask, but I realized that the flowers would be kept inside the tea bag after reading the instructions. This makes sense since then I won’t have to pick off bits of hibiscus after removing the mask.
I noticed that this mask doesn’t have an artificial, floral scent to it. Rather, it had the very light scent of goat milk, which I’m not a fan of but it wasn’t anything unpleasant. I didn’t smell it for the most part while I had it on. I think it might have been the sheet itself because when I removed the mask and applied the remaining essence with my hands, it didn’t have the goat milk scent. It just had a barely detectable, natural, hibiscus scent.
Since it didn’t seem to have any added fragrance, I checked out the ingredients list and was happy to see that isopropyl alcohol isn’t listed. I know a lot of people with sensitive skin have issues with isopropyl alcohol, so I thought it would be worth mentioning!
Ingredients
Pouch one: hibiscus sabdariffa flower 0.5g
Pouch two: water/aqua, glycerin, dipropylene glycol, carbomer, 1,2-hexanediol, butylene glycol, ascophyllum nodosum extract, xanthan fun, epilobium angustifolium flower/leaf/steam extract, arginine, betaine, centella asiatica extract, zanthoxylum piperitum fruit extract, hibiscus sabdariffa flower extract, illicium verum (anise) fruit extract, lonicera japonica (honeysuckle) flower extract, honey extract, citrus paradisi (grapefruit) fruit extract, sodium hyluronate, scutellaria baicalensis root extract, hibiscus sabdariffa flower water
The cutout of the mask fit very well with my face, and the essence didn’t irritate my skin. I found the sheet mask very comfortable to wear. After removing the mask, my skin did feel the clearing effect as it felt very smooth and clean. Usually “clear” refers to acne care, but in this case, I feel like Holika Holika used the term to mean clear of dry spots. Just wanted to throw that out there in case anyone was hoping to use this mask for acne care because of the clearing claims.
I really like this mask not only for the ingenious packaging design but also because of the great hydrating properties with no added fragrance. This might actually be the best deep hydrating mask I’ve ever used. I can definitely see this as a great mask for both super dry and oily skin (good for oily skin too because it’s a water-based hydrating mask) and for those with sensitive skin since there is no added, artificial fragrance.
One thing to note, however, is that because hibiscus flowers naturally have pink color, it dyes the serum and sheet. The back says “in the case of hibiscus product, the red-colored active ingredients smudge due to the characteristics of its own raw ingredients, but the product is safe to use.” While my face wasn’t dyed a horrendous bright pink after use, it might be worth highlighting that the dried flowers do dye the serum for those with lighter skin. Maybe use this mask at night?
No aromatherapy here, but that might be exactly what you’re looking for if you’re not into added fragrance! The Holika Holika Freshly Brewed Tea Bag Mask featuring hibiscus flowers is a definite plus in my book for the amazing hydration it provides.
