I just want to preface this review by saying that you don’t need to have light skin to be beautiful. Please do not feel the need to whiten your skin to fit a certain beauty standard. Melanin is 100% beautiful.
I received this sheet mask as a free gift from shopping at Skinfood. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to review this product because of the negative implications that come with skin whitening. I think skin whitening is not good because there are many products out there with harmful bleaching ingredients and also because it reinforces racism and colorism. I decided to go ahead with this review because when it comes to products that claim to be whitening, I find that most do not really whiten anyways, at least, in my experience. Maybe a brightening effect if anything? Plus, when I see a “whitening” product, I will really only buy it if I’m intrigued by the other claims. With this particular sheet mask, it also claims to provide concentrated moisture. Since I tend to pretty much disregard the whitening claims as most don’t seem to actually whiten anyways, I figured I would go ahead and just review this with the expectation that this will be a moisturizing mask with maybe a brightening effect.
For those who are unfamiliar with yuja, it is a citrus fruit known as citron in the United States of America. It is also known as yuzu in Japan. My mother would take yuja preserves and mix a tablespoon in hot water to make yuja tea for my brother and me during the cold winter months to prevent sickness. She would say that the vitamin C in yuja would help us fight the cold. Yuja tea is very tasty, and now I want a cup.
The important things to note from the back of the packaging are that it says on average, yuja has three times more vitamin C than lemon. It also claims to directly deliver the scent and nutrients of yuja through this mask. The key ingredients listed are niacinamide, yuja extract, yuja oil, and phenoxyethanol. It also states that this product is not to be eaten. If ingested, throw up and consult a medical professional immediately.
This sheet mask has a light herbal scent and not much of a sweet yuja scent, so I’m not sure what Skinfood is talking about when it says it will deliver the scent of yuja through this product. The sheet is quite wide, and the essence builds to a slight cooling sensation.
As I predicted, this mask didn’t really whiten. I would also say that instead of a simple, concentrated moisture, this mask provides more of an elasticity to the skin. The elasticity effect was nice, but I have to say that this mask doesn’t really follow through with the actual claims listed on the packaging. It’s not a bad mask, but it also isn’t anything extraordinary that makes me want to purchase it.
