Masking January
If there is one thing you do to to treat yourself this January, slap a face mask on! Masking is big in the beauty industry, and it’s a simple way of indulging yourself and giving your skin the nourishment it deserves.
January is a long, cold, hard month, and we’re all expected to be pounding away in the gym and eating nothing but kale. It’s an unrealistic expectation even of the most hardcore of healthy living fans!
But we can look after our skin a wee bit more with a simple mask. I love a sheet mask – so effective and so easy to use.
I’ve recently tried out this Timeless Truth Glacial Snow Algae & HA Bio cellulose mask (£7.90 each, £38.50 box of five, ttmasks.co.uk). Bit of a mouthful, but a nice mask, packed with hyaluronic acid, and glacial snow algae, which actively stimulates the production of collagen.
It’s made with a natural bio-cellulose fibre, derived from coconuts,and you peel off the protective gauze and pop it on. You can cool it down or warm it up, depending on how you feel.
I also love an eye mask, and after week of sleepless nights with this cold virus going round, the Bio Cellulose Eye Masks have been a treat.
As have the new Estee Lauder Advance Night Repair Concentrated Recovery Eye Mask (£10 for one pack, £36 four pack, and £65 eight pack), which aims to deliver 20 times more of ANR’s soothing, repairing and hydrating ingredients to the delicate eye area.
Each eye mask is in a singe-dose packette with two sealed chambers. That means the formula stays locked into one, and the pads are kept dry in the other. Only when you apply do the two meet!
So, you press the liquid chamber to break the seal and massage the formula into the pads. Then you open the packette, separate the pads and pop one under each eye. Wear for 10 minutes before bed.
Lauder have embraced the mask market – they brought out their Micro Essence Infusion Mask (£50 for six, John Lewis), last year, direct from the Asian market, where Korean – or K – beauty is a massive trend. It’s a cotton mask,infused with a Micro Nutrient Bio-Ferment, and it brightens the skin by nourishing and hydrating.
But their absolute star of masks, for social media coverage alone, is their Victoria Beckham-endorsed, no less, Advanced Night Repair Concentrated Recovery Powerfoil Mask (£16 for single, £58 for four pack). The USP of this mask is the foil – designed with a ‘dual matrix’ system, it creates the perfect protective barrier.
The inside matrix releases the treatment, and the outside foil matrix forms protective cocoon, and allows the ANR to penetrate 25 times faster than with a traditional cotton mask.
Use it once a week to help restore the pre-January glow!
Finally, Origins By All Greens™ Foaming Deep Cleansing Mask (£30) is a way of getting those greens into your skin at least this January! Rich in Spirulina, Spinach, and Green Tea, it’s a gentle way to instantly detox and deep clean skin.
The two-in-one, self-foaming green clay mask provides the penetrating treatment of a detoxifying mask while also delivering the purifying power of a high-performance cleanser. It is a genius product.
The creamy self-activated Kaolin Clay transforms into a cooling rich foam, removing all your makeup and all the nasties of the day, unclogging pores. You pop into your hand, don’t mix, just apply to face evenly and allow the foam to develop. Then blend in to reactivate and rinse.
