Why you should use a Face Mask
If you use a cleanser, serum, and moisturiser, you may wonder whether you need to use a face mask as well. Isn’t this just another ploy to get you to part with your hard earned cash on another beauty product? In a nutshell, no, it isn’t. Face masks are a great way to help with your skincare concerns – be they hydration, lack of firmness, or drawing out impurities. According to Sandrine Carliez, Global Trainer for Guinot, using a face mask will have an immediate effect on your skin, so you can rebalance your skin faster (as opposed to serums and moisturisers which can take longer to see or feel the effects). They are great for quick fixes, such as to hydrate your skin after flying, remove impurities ahead of a big event and so on. There are so many different types of masks available now, there is a mask for every skin concern. Our favourite part of using a mask (on top of getting better skin!!) is the 10-20 minutes of “me time” we get while the mask goes to work – pure bliss. As a matter of fact, I’ve applied one while I’m writing this piece – a genius bit of multi-tasking. Here are some of our favourite masks. I’ve been using many of these masks over the past few weeks for various skin needs, and the results are just brilliant – my skin is firmer, more radiant, and it just glows.
The Best Hydrating Face Masks
Hydrating masks are great if you need to give your skin a boost of instant moisture, to quickly bring back the moisture balance in your skin, to get your skin, and keep it, glowing. A good hydrating mask will help to lock in moisture, to have your skin looking plumper and healthier after you use it. We have a few go-to hydrating face masks that really deliver. We love the new RAWW Superfood Salad Hydrating Gel Mask, a lush, decadent face mask with ingredients such as Riberry, Pepperberry and Muntries to help super-hydrate your skin, as well as a combination of antioxidants form Maqui Berry, Kakadu Plum ,and Moringa, to help fight the signs of premature ageing and leave you with supple, glowing skin. For even deeper hydration, the mask can be left on overnight. 50g RRP $29.99. For overnight hydration, we love the new Trilogy Age-Proof Overnight Mask, an intensely moisturising face mask that works in with your skins natural night-time repair cycle, to deeply nourish your skin overnight. A blend of high tech ingredients help to slow down collagen breakdown, to help deliver radiant skin by morning. 60ml RRP $44.95.The Ella Bache Hydra Extreme Plumping Mask is a luxurious, intense skin plumping mask that treats even the most dehydrated skin, bathing it in moisture and antioxidants. It’s great to treat dehydrated skin that has been exposed to cold, heat, air conditioning, and air travel. 75ml RRP $85.00.
The Best Multi-Tasking Face Masks
As we age, we tend to find our skin often has multiple skin concerns, and needs skincare products to treat these concerns. We don’t want to use several moisturisers to treat lines and wrinkles, and a loss of firmness, and so too it is with our masks. Why use two separate masks when one will do the trick. We love these multi-tasking wonders. French favourite Guinot Lift Firming Radiance Mask, with Pro-Collagen, Peptides, and Antioxidants helps to provide your skin with a boost of firming and radiance enhancing ingredients in as little as 10 minutes. The non-woven fabric masks allows your skin to absorb the potent ingredients while you relax, resulting in visibly firmer looking, radiant skin. Pack of 4 individual Masks RRP $86.00. The L’Unico Intensive Hydrating Mask contains wonder ingredient Hylaronic Acid, to help hydrate your skin to leave it looking plumper, whilst Dimethyl Aminoethanol, the strongest firming ingredient known to science today, helps to give your skin a firmer looking appearance in just 30 minutes. Rich nutrients and antioxidants help to protect your skin, giving it a smooth, glowing appearance. 250g RRP $130.00. When our skin is feeling a bit “bleah”, we love the Antipodes Aura Manuka Honey Mask, a luxuriously hydrating face mask, which helps leave your skin soothed and intensively hydrated. The wonderful Manuka Honey helps to draw moisture into your skin, whilst also helping to keep your skin blemish-free, by treating spots and blemishes as they appear. 75ml RRP $49.00.
The Best Anti-Ageing Face Masks
As we age, our collagen production slows down, and you start to see the first signs of ageing, such as fine lines and wrinkles, and as time goes on, we see deeper lines and wrinkles, sagging around the jawline and neck, and in some cases pigmentation. Anti ageing face masks are designed to give a visible improvement in the signs of ageing instantly, to work in conjunction with your skincare routine over time. We love the Kiehl’s Ginger Leaf & Hibiscus Firming Mask, with its gorgeously scented, velvety cream formula it’s packed with Hibiscus, to help deliver smoother looking skin by morning, and Ginger Leaf, which works to help soften fine lines with continued use. 100ml RRP $82.00. Peter Thomas Roth 24k Gold Mask is as decadent as it looks! The luxurious formula contains caffeine to help tighten and firm your skin, pampering and energising your skin and helping to soften the look of fine lines and wrinkles. Your skin looks (and feels) radiant and refreshed. 150ml RRP $108.00. The Simplicite Lemon Myrtle Firming Citral Mask is an alginate peel-off mask that helps to instantly improve the look of skin texture, tone and firmness. The ‘instant results’ from using this mask are due to the rich concentration of plant citral and antioxidants, which help to reduce the appearance of photo-ageing, and leave your skin glowing. 50g (2 applications) RRP $26.90.
The Best Radiance Face Masks
Have you ever noticed your skin becoming tired and dull with the change of seasons, when you aren’t getting enough sleep, or when you are just exhausted? Your skin loses its natural radiance, and looks like it has turned a dull greyish yellow? If so, you’re not alone, and you can help your tired complexion resume its natural brightness and radiance. To pep up our skin when it starts to look lacklustre, we love the new Mavala Skin Vitality Sleeping Mask “Baby Skin” Radiance. The lightweight mask (with a gorgeous delicate scent and the goodness of apricot extract) soaks into your skin immediately, and goes to work overnight to revitalise and restore radiance to your skin. You awaken in the morning to skin that glows. NB, the formula contains AHA’s, so use a sunscreen when using this product. 65ml RRP $54.95. The Olay Magnemask Illuminating Jar Mask Starter Kit has a lightweight formula which melts into your skin. The mask helps to brighten your skin and reduce uneven skin tone, and delivers moisture boosting benefits after just one night’s use, providing up to 12 hours of hydration with each use. The Magnetic Infuser that comes in the kit has been specially tuned to the molecular properties of niacinamide (vitamin B3) and penta-peptides (PAL-KTTKS), the key ingredients in the mask formula, to help them penetrate further and increase their benefits. Magnemask Kit RRP $54.99. Also available as a sheet mask (great for travel). The Clinique Even Better™ Brighter Moisture Mask helps to turn dull, dehydrated skin into glowing radiant and supple skin. The intensely hydrating mask helps to bring out the luminosity of your skin. The soothing ingredients help to neutralise irritation and strengthen your skin’s resistance to future darkening. 100ml RRP $52.00.
The Best Calming Face Masks
If you have sensitive skin, or have been exposed to wind, cold, or heat, there is a good chance your skin is irritated. A comforting face mask is exactly what your skin needs if it is stressed and irritated. Special ingredients will soothe and calm your skin, taking away the tight, itchy feeling you get when your skin is sore. To calm our skin, we love the Garnier Hydra Bomb Ultra Hydrating De-Stressing Tissue Mask. Calming Lavender Essential Oil, Hyaluronic Acid, and a special hydrating serum combine in this sheet mask to help soothe and comfort your skin, helping your skin to appear rested and hydrated. Single use Sheet mask 32g RRP $4.95. Another favourite of ours is the Avene Soothing Moisture Mask. The lightweight formula, containing the calming Avene thermal spring water helps to reduce skin redness, while it cools, hydrates, and calms your skin, helping to restore a radiant glow to stressed, irritated skin. 50ml RRP $44.95.
The Best Impurity Removing Face Masks
If you have problem skin, you you know it always seems to break our ahead of a big event. It’s almost as if your skin knows something important is coming up, and breaks out in anticipation (of course this is very likely caused by increased stress levels ahead of big events, and hormonal fluctuations). The beauty of face masks that draw out impurities is you can use them well ahead of any big day (or night), to remove breakout causing impurities, and clogging dirt, giving you a better chance of having a blemish free complexion on the big day. To draw out impurities, we love Revision Black Mask, which contains Silt from European freshwater lakes, which helps to purify your skin by drawing out impurities and toxins. Kaolin and Bentonite, 2 natural clays help to detoxity and absorb excess sebum, whilst Salicylic Acid microspheres gently exfoliate your skin and keep working after they’ve been rinsed off. 48g RRP $59.99. The Biore Self-Heating One Minute Mask contains natural Charcoal to help draw out excess oil and dirt, to detoxify your skin in super fast time. The mask heats up as it goes to work and rinses clean, to reveal purified pores. The addition of Menthol leaves your skin tingly fresh. Pack of 4 Masks RRP $7.99. The SkinB5 Skin Purifying Mask is a fast acting, 5 minute mask that contains French Green Clay, and Great Barrier Reef Mineral Salt to help detoxify, remove oil and impurities, and soothe your troubled skin. It’s great for acne prone skin, or skin suffering from breakouts. 100ml RRP $46.71. If you have sensitive skin with impurities, it can be a double edged sword – a normal impurity removing mask may irritate your skin, whereas a calming mask won’t necessarily remove the impurities. Fear not – a solution is at hand! We love the new Sukin Pink Clay Facial Masque, with pink and red clays to gently remove impurities, whilst soothing Aloe Vera and Chamomile combine to help nourish your delicate skin, leaving it clear and radiant. The Vegan, cruelty-free mask is free form many of the ingredients likely to cause skin irritation. 100ml RRP $16.95.
There you have it – our pick of the best face masks for any skin concern. Do you use any of these masks? How do they work for you? Let us know in the comments below.
