Facial Fresh cloth facial treatment masks

I've actually only ever encountered sheet masks from The Face Shop, so I was pretty eager to trial some from a new source. Sheet masks are still not massively common (excepting Asia, who appear to do pretty much everything better than us), so a new source - an Australian one, no less - was a great source of curiosity.

The founders of FF studied Pharmacology at University of Melbourne (A uni I have specific fondness for, since they publish my book reviews), and their products are fully recyclable  not tested on animals and are undergoing a rather sweet program called Carboncatchers, where they plant trees to offset their carbon footprint. Seriously. So cute.

Onto the actual mask - these come sealed in hygienically sealed packs, in closed cardboard envelopes. It's all very secure and quite hefty for one mask, and when this one was sent to me it was also enclosed in a branded postage envelope that was rather impressive. The way to my heart is with stationery, guys.

This is one of those very "wet" masks - there is a massive surplus of fluid on the sachet, so the chance of this one drying out is virtually non-existent. I chose the Green Tea one to review - but the full range includes Aloe Vera, Collagen, Green-Tea, Hydra Surge, Tea Tree and Vitamin C - there were perhaps three types which would have been appropriate for me, but my love of green tea products won out. I'm glad it did, because it smells luscious.


Brace yourself for the compulsory sheetmask shot:

Yikes. I reserve the right to leave this image small.

Anyhow the design of the mask itself is very clever - there are masses of cuts into the perimeter of the mask, so you can fold corners around and fit it more closely to your face. Regardless of what you do, gravity will win out though, so keep in mind the fabric over your chin is going to gather all the excess serum and give you a handsome faux-beard. I did find the mask a touch too small - it covered my face, but the corners of my eyes and mouth had fabric on them. The serum is very low irritant, so even though I tended to get a fair bit of fluid in my mouth (and eyes) nothing stung or hurt or really registered.

The biggest difference for me once the mask had been removed was the colorbalancing effect - by the end of the day I'm usually pretty pink and oily and blotchy, and spending fifteen minutes with this on my face washed me out to an even welsh pallor. It's really quite nice! I'd like to have a few of these on hand for pre-makeup prep on big occasions. Granted my big occasions don't come up much, but when they do - hoo boy. I'll have a glowing white lightbulb for a head.

All facetiousness aside, I like these. They're sold through the Facial Fresh site, who have free shipping Australia-wide (weeeee), which makes up for the marginally-higher-than-expected pricing. It makes more sense to me to do the three pack for $21 than just one for $11 (some prices are higher - I'm just looking at the Green Tea one), and for me - oily, combination skin, blotchy but not very breaky-outy - the Green Tea was a really great fit.

Many thanks to the debonair Lachlan for sending this one along to me - product provided for review, as you've probably assumed at this stage ;)