Fresh Rose Face Mask
Over the past year I've noticed a serious rose trend in skincare. I've seen so many rosewater toners, rose face masks, and rose moisturizers come out on the market. Rose, after all, does have many benefits when applied to the skin. It has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties in addition to being very moisturizing.
Last year the Sephora birthday gift was a sample size of the Fresh Rose Face Mask and Fresh Soy Face Cleanser. The face mask will put you back $62 for 3.3oz or $25 for 1oz. It's said to be good for all skin types but is marketed as a treatment for dryness, redness, and pores.
Even though I have oily skin, I do at times get patches of dry skin on my cheeks and on my forehead between my eyebrows. I also suffer from redness and larger pores. This mask is infused with real rose petals as you can see in the below image. It smells, as you would expect, like a bouquet of roses. The key active ingredients are Pure Rosewater to sooth and tone, Cucumber Extract and Aloe Vera to calm the skin, Porphyridium Cruentum (Red Algae) to moisturize, and Green Tea to brighten. Fresh isn't marketed as a natural or green brand though their name may lead you to believe this. Unfortunately, the second ingredient in this face mask is Butylene Glycol which is a petroleum byproduct, alcohol, preservative, thinning agent, and skin conditioner. It is a powerful chemical and is very common in personal care products. As with many ingredients, whether considered toxic or not, it is thought to be safe in small doses. Ironically, though this is supposed to be a calming and moisturizing mask, one of the common side effects of Butylene Glycol is skin irritation. There are a few other synthetic ingredients in this product, in addition to fragrance which, if you follow any green beauty bloggers you'll know a fragrance can include many ingredients that aren't required by law to be listed on the label, even if harmful.
When it comes to face masks, I don't use a particular product routinely. I use a mask two nights a week but the product I select is based on what I think my skin needs at that time whether that's exfoliation, hydration, detox, etc. I wanted to give this product a true test so I put my other masks aside for a couple weeks and solely used the rose mask twice a week at night after showering. Fresh recommends applying the product to clean, moist skin and leaving it on for five to ten minutes. Each time I left it on for the full ten minutes. It goes on like a clear gel and absorbs into the skin very quickly. After about a minute you forget you have anything on your skin. At the end of the two weeks I didn't notice any difference in my dryness or redness.
Fresh also mentions you can use this mask daily so I decided to give that a try. After using the mask every day for a week or so I did in fact notice that my dry patches went away and I was maybe a little less red, but not by much. After reading some reviews online I noticed some people would leave the mask on overnight to give their skin maximum hydration. This made sense to me since the mask feels more like a moisturizer than a mask. I decided to give it a try. I woke up he next morning with more oily skin than normal.
Because I noticed some difference using the mask every day I wouldn't say this mask was completely ineffectual but it certainly didn't work well enough for me to pay that high price tag. If I used this product every day, I would be spending over an hour each week just using a face mask, not counting cleansing, toning, moisturizing, etc. I love skin care and I love pampering my skin but after the first week of using this mask every day it began to feel like a chore. Also, if my skin is starting to feel flaky I'm much more likely to reach for an exfoliating mask and then a slightly heavier moisturizer, oil, or serum. Spoiler Alert: Since I've been using the Luminance Skincare products I haven't had any dry patches! I'm solely using their products on my face right now to fully detox my skin care routine. So far so good. Be on the lookout for my final review on a bunch of their products in the future with before and after shots.
Have any of you guys tried this rose face mask? What did you think of it?