Written by: Kayla . M
Trends and fads are ever changing and leaves us with the decision of either partaking in them or simply waiting for the next passing one. However there’s one current trend that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere and that is K beauty, so climb aboard the K train and get ready for a ride.
K Beauty and the products it offers has many aspects but so far there is only one I have found myself trying to understand, the sheet mask. I have tried many sheet masks before and had no idea it was considered a “K Beauty” technique. The K stands for Korean which means all of this comes from, spoiler alert, Korea. Recently, I have been desperately trying to have my skin as “perfect” as possible, why? Because skin is your biggest organ and I have convinced myself that having a good base leads to a much better overall product, I always love my makeup much more when I’m having a good skin day.
Innisfree is a Korean beauty brand. According to their website it is a “natural brand that shares the benefits of nature with the pristine island of Jeju” additionally the company has a Green Promise where they are “trying to lower their carbon footprint, use 70% natural ingredients and return 1% of annual profit to ‘neighbors’ (I believe they are referring to nature).” I tried their Green Tea Sheet Mask.
The mask I tried is part of their “it’s real squeeze” and is made of a 3 layer sheet as opposed to their 100% natural cotton and their fermented soybean sheet masks. The triple layer sheet comes inn 16 types and it retails for $1.20. YES! YOU. READ. THAT. CORRECTLY. A. DOLLAR. AND. TWENTY.CENTS. The most expensive mask on the site was $5, the real squeeze mask are said to be absorbed into your skin at a quicker rate than the others. The green tea mask was allegedly going to soothe and moisturize leaving my skin supple, hydrated and smooth.
The brand recommends you use the mask after cleansing and toning. I used one of my “everyday exfoliates” followed by a rose water spray and glow tonic toner pad. Right off the bat I will say it was by far the EASIEST sheet mask to apply. I usually find myself annoyed with sheet masks because I fear most of the liquid/product gets all over my hand while I try to unfold the Hannibal lector realness that is the sheet mask itself. I then fumble around with positioning and having the mask stick. None of that happened with this mask. I could unfold it easily and almost immediately it stuck to my face with very little to almost no adjustment needed for eyes, nose and mouth. The mask was a winner in my eyes already.
After trying some snapchat filters and catching up on youtube 20min had passed and I went to remove my mask. I really liked that the sheet had started to dry—which I usually use as a symbol of completion with regular masks, having a sheet mask that let you know it was game over was a very happy change.
Like most masks they tell you to rub the extra liquid into your skin, while doing so I immediately felt how soft my skin was and was amazed. About 5-10 minutes after I had rubbed the product in I found my face felt a little tight which I didn’t mind and understood to be a skin tightening effect, shortly after that I felt my skin to find it had a sticky/tacky feeling. The stickiness led me to wonder if this mask would help with makeup application aka have my makeup stick to the tackiness. The tacky feeling lasted for almost 40minutes (lasted even longer on my neck), the pro to that? You would have a longer possible window to apply the makeup, the con? My face felt tacky and when there is no makeup involved it isn’t the most amazing feeling.
The next day when I woke up my skin still felt so soft I couldn’t stop touching it, I think it definitely did its job of hydrating and smoothing my skin. I can’t wait to try more from this brand