Hi, friends! Welcome back to another Face Mask Friday! I apologize for not posting all week as I have been in the final stages of completing my EPIK application to teach abroad in South Korea. However, I wanted to take some time to share my thoughts on another face mask this week. Hopefully this makes up for everything!
Today’s face mask is a calendula face mask from The Face Shop’s Real Nature line. Calendula is an ingredient that has been on the rise in Korea since a few years ago and has recently been making its way into the Western skincare scene. You might actually know calendula as marigold. This flower is beneficial for moisturizing dry skin, healing scars, and soothing the skin. This means bye-bye redness. This mask in particular claims that “the smoothing, moisturizing sheet mask with calendula extract calms skin, leaving it feeling comfortable.”
As mentioned in my last review from the same mask collection, the Real Nature face mask line uses what a natural grinding extraction process where “natural plants are ground and blended with a moisturizing water-based ingredient to create a natural extract.” The sheet mask itself is a “natural adhesive mask formulated with tree extracts [that] clings tightly to the skin to infuse it with essence.” This sheet mask is a serum-type essence that is formulated without these five additives: parabens, triethanolamine, propylene glycol, tar colorant, and mineral oil.
Currently, my skin is not in its best state. I’ve had a couple acne bumps under the skin. There are a couple that are healing on my forehead and another angry one on my right cheek. I don’t want the ones that are healing to leave behind scars and I need the one on my cheek to calm down, so I really needed a nice calendula mask. Also, just before applying this mask, I played around with eyeshadow and tried out about six different looks back to back on my right eye, so my eyelid was feeling quite raw. I was afraid that the serum would sting that area, but there was no pain at all.
Opening up the package and taking the mask out, I was pleasantly surprised at how much serum the sheet was able to retain. There was barely any serum left in the pouch! I’m positive that it’s not because there is only a little serum in the pouch. Even with the aloe mask I reviewed last week from the same line, that mask did not feel as saturated and there was a lot of serum remaining in the pouch. I’m not sure if it’s the serum or if it’s the sheet itself, but I really liked the calendula version a lot better. I’m guessing its the serum since you’d think the same sheet mask line would use the same sheet, but actually, I think the sheet itself is a little different too.
In the aloe face mask review, I mentioned that I enjoyed the cutout of the mask but I wished that the eye cutouts were a little wider and spread apart. However, this calendula sheet mask had, quite literally, the best cutout I have ever experienced. As you can see in the photo above, it lays almost perfectly flat on the skin with minimal overlapping. One problem I have with sheet mask cutouts is getting the sheet to lay flat on the area between my eyes. If I can get that to happen, usually the eye cutouts do not work and I risk getting serum into the outer corners of my eye. This mask I was able to lay completely flat with minimal overlapping, so I was extremely happy with that.
As for the serum itself, I love the formula. It feels very moisturizing and my skin feels very refreshed. It also looks less red as well. Even my angry spot feels slightly less painful. One thing I did not like about the aloe mask is that it left a very oily serum layer that took quite a while to soak in after patting. This one, however, still left a bit of that oily serum sensation but soaked completely in in ten minutes. Even at less than five minutes, I was satisfied with it enough to where I would feel comfortable applying makeup on top. With the aloe one, I would not use it just before applying makeup because of how long it took the serum to fully absorb. Even at the one hour mark, I wasn’t sure if I would apply makeup on top. Don’t get me wrong — it gave my skin a nice dew that I would feel okay leaving on if I wasn’t going to apply makeup. However, with this calendula sheet mask, I can see myself using it in the morning as a quick skin soother and moisturizer just before makeup because of how quickly it absorbed and how supple and non-oily my skin feels after using this mask.
All in all, this sheet mask is an A+ in my books. The serum is absolutely wonderful, and I love love love the cutout. I even really like the subtle fragrance of the serum. If The Face Shop came out with a perfume version, I would buy it. I bought this mask in a pack of ten when I was in Korea two years ago, but I only have one more left after using one today. I seriously need to buy more the next time I’m there. This mask is high on my list. I actually have a calendula sheet mask from Etude House that my friend gifted me, so I’m curious to see how that compares to this one from The Face Shop. I think I also have the Fresh Herb Origin Mask Pack from Nacific, so if I can find it, I’ll do a comparison review with that as well.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this review! Again, I apologize for my absence as I finish up these job applications and certificates. I’ll try to upload as often as I can, but it might be little quiet here for the next month of so. Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one!
Until next time,
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