Korean Sheet Face Masks: Cheaper vs. Expensive

Hello, chummies!

Today, I will do a post I'm excited to write, and it is about face/sheet masks! I've heard about them in almost every skincare post and they are incredibly popular, widely used by celebrities.

I wondered, what makes these face masks so special, do they really make a difference to the skin? Fan BingBing apparently uses one everyday! So, I wanted to try a few and see what they are like.

I kind of dragged my friends to a DAISO store in the city on ur last shopping trip there, and when I walked out I saw there was a shop, stall kind of thing. When I went past, I saw all the cute Tony Moly containers for hand creams and realised the whole store selled Korean and Japanese cosmetics and skin care. I could hear the *hallelujah* song in the background. Best discovery of the year. Now, I can easily get products without worrying about shopping online.

I decided to take it one step further with this review and see if the effect changes depending on whether they are cheaper or dearer. I wrote expensive in the title because it sounded better than "dearer", but the difference between the brands are only a few dollars, as far as I saw, they ranged from 1 to 5 dollars or so.

The first one I tried was:

Mediental Broccoli Face Mask: $1

Benefits/Description (as written on back of packet):  

Fresh broccoli's cleanness and Centella Asiatica sedatives are delivered to your skin purely. This is a smoothing mask which makes your skin comfortable and clean with no trouble.

The natural cellulose tencel sheets are highly demotrophic and fixed easily on skin. They are helpful for intensive skin care and deliver the effects of enriched-essence only.

What I thought: (I cleansed my face, used toner, applied an essence to my face, then used the mask, then a bit of night cream)

I most likely hyped up myself to believe that my face would be transformed after I use one face mask, but of course that's unrealistic considering it's my first time. When I took it out of the packet, is cool and definitely soaked with the essence. It stuck to my face very well, I just need to master how to keep it on my chin, haha.

In terms of what it did for my face, it didn't help my redness or my skin tone a great amount, but my face definitely felt refreshed and very moisturised. When I took it off, it looked like someone had painted my face with a gooey gloss.

The next morning, I got up at 5am for university, and when I looked at my face, it was quite red but that maybe because it's just starting to become spring and I'm adjusting to temperature changes or something. But, my face was quite glossy still and moisturised, but I felt a little gross and rinsed my face with cold water like I do every morning in case anything is on my face.

I have been commenting on how my skin looked after using the mask, but it's how it felt that really changed in my opinion. As I gently rinsed my face, I noticed how smooth and soft it felt. It felt amazing. When I took off my makeup and sunscreen in the afternoon after university and rinsed my face, it still felt that way. 

So, my verdict is, it didn't target the specific problems of my face, but again, expecting this is a little unrealistic, especially since this particular mask is meant for smoothing the skin, which it certainly did do. I have another from this range which is a pumpkin one, and there may have been others that I didn't see, which I should try in the future since they might do something else. I think if you are looking for something that will give a lot of hydration to your face, this will definitely  do just fine.

• Tip: I was really sad to throw out the mask since it still looked like it could be used more after I took it off, but after sitting on my face for 15 minutes, I'm sure it's probably not too clean anymore. But, I straight away knew I should keep the packet the sheet mask was inside since there was some essence still left inside. Whatever was inside the packet I used the next morning to moisturise my face, and it really did help my face to not dry out. It's a great way to help your makeup not look so dry and cakey and you're not wasting any of the mask product!

The next mask I used was:

TonyMoly I'm Real Aloe Mask Sheet (Moisturizing)": $1.80

Benefits/Description: (as written on the internet)

Moisturize and hydrate your skin with this acne fighting and anti-aging aloe mask.  Formulated with natural ingredients that penetrate deep beneath the skin barriers moisturizing the skin on the inside and out.  This mask will leave your dry skin moisturized and as smooth and soft as a baby's skin. 

What I thought: (I cleansed my face, used toner, applied an essence to my face, then used the mask, then a bit of night cream)

I heard a lot about aloe vera helping in calming the skin and soothing it, even though I now see there is a tea tree oil variation of this mask for soothing skin, haha, whoops. I found it really cute how the name has what it's ingredient is and what it does (like there is another one I have with Lemon for skin purifying or brightening, something like that).
As soon as I took it out the packet it was dripping, I was so surprised and tried my best to not waste any of it. I also noticed the material of the sheet mask was different - it was thinner I think, and more like a cloth unlike the previous one which felt like thicker and more of a gel-silicone kind of material. The essence was much more watery as I noticed from the beginning, so I had to be a bit more careful taking it out and putting it on.

It certainly did moisturize and it helped my skin settle down. Something else I noticed is that it seemed to keep my pores clean, it's hard to describe since it was unexpected, but normally after I cleanse the sebaceous filaments on my nose become dark by the time I'm applying my moisturizer (which is perfectly normal - don't do what I did and think it was blackheads and use pore strips and everything to clean it). But when I was removing my makeup the next day, the skin on my nose seemed a lot clearer. My skin doesn't feel as smooth as the previous mask, probably because the essence is absorbed more into my skin because it's thinner rather than coat my face like a gloss :')

Overall, I think when it comes to buying sheet masks, it really depends on your budget and what you need. The price wasn't that different between the two and I hope I can try some of the pricier one sin the future. TonyMoly is a brand that's really popular so I feel like maybe their products might be of higher quality and have a wider range that target specific skin problems. But, if you just need hydration and smoothness, the really cheap ones would provide that perfectly.

Have you tried any sheet masks? Got any recommendations? Let me know~

Enjoy life!

Nina