I was poking around Sasa for something interesting to try and this caught my eye, primarily because they're selling this brand at Forever21 now of all places O_O Given, F21 is owned by Koreans, but I was still surprised to see them selling Skinlite and Cosline (if I remember correctly) sheet masks! I tweeted about this a few days ago and I guess it was only a matter of time since 1.) sheet masks will definitely be making waves in America within the next five years and 2.) F21 is trying to expand into a makeup/skincare (surprise, surprise). The marketing of their makeup and skincare leaves much to be desired (they have everything jumbled in a big bin -_-) and if they just displayed it better I bet more people would buy it. The way they have it now makes sheet masks look so....cheap. But on the upside, they weren't expensive either :D! Though I wouldn't say they were cheap. I think they were $1.50/each (F21 actually has better prices than Sasa). Anyway, I thought I'd pop this review up and let you guys know about this intriguing sheet mask development. Speaking of, if anyone sees these masks at F21 - try the COSLINE brand (I'll review their Strawberry Pack soon) because dude, they are so cheap but sell some damn fine~ products :D
Purchased at: Sasa
Price: $1.60/mask
Description:
Skinlite Green Tea Essence Mask is useful for lifting and ultra-hydrating results. Enriched with Vitamin E, Phyto Collagen & Green Tea Extract helps lift and hydrate in 15-20 minutes.Suitable for: All skin types.
* Skin recovery sheet type essence mask.
* 23ml/sheet
* Green Tea Extract helps to keep skin much moisturized.
* Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate prevents skin trouble and making skin healthy.
* Vitamin E & Collagen : increasing skin elasticity & brightening.
- Official site description.
Experience: The mask comes all folded up like the Silk Whitia masks. It smelled rather strongly of fresh cut herbs (basil?) rather than the gentle, mild scent of green tea that I was expecting. It was nicely drenched with about a quarter sized amount left over for your neck etc. I thought I'd love the many slits (aka more adjustable) but there were so many slits that the mask was floppy and annoying to place on my face. The thick cloth texture did not stick to my face around the edges very well either. So far, not great. My face starting itching a bit, which made me nervous but I left the mask on 20-30 minutes anyway. The itching went away after 10-15 minutes and after I took off the mask there was no redness so I'm not sure where the itching came from. Although the mask experience itself wasn't all that great, my face did look plumper, brighter, and was more hydrated - so I guess it did a good job. I also noticed a pimple I had on my forehead healed the next day. I'm not sure if the mask had anything to do with it healing quickly, but obviously the mask didn't hurt.
Overall
You have to click to see the # of slits. There's 8 slits around and slits between the eyes and at the corner of the lips.
Fit: Sadly, not so good. Even though it had a ton of little slits to adjust, the mask was too thick and did not stick to my face well. After a few minutes, all the flaps were pretty much flopping around :\ I think they tried to make this super-adjustable but the inability of the mask to stick your face really well kind of killed it. Also the mask itself just did not fit my general face shape well. The nose placement was odd and barely covered my nose and I dunno, it was just not a fun experience putting it on. People who like the shape of the MBD or FaceQ masks will not like this mask.
Scent: Clean, sharp scent of basil or fresh cut herbs more than green tea imho. It smells very natural and organic but it's rather strong. People that are sensitive to strong scents may not like it although the fragrance itself is not bad.
Mask texture: Quite thick (see pic) and did not stick to my face well. It's a cloth mask, as opposed to a paper/pulp mask, so it did have a bit of a fabric feel to it, which was nice. However, overall I did not like this mask texture because it was just so damn thick so the flaps (around the slits) started flopping as the mask dried :P This is a problem I've never had with other paper masks (MBD, Silk Whitia, FaceQ) so I wasn't too happy about that.
Excess serum: Mask was very wet and there was about a small quarter-sized amount of excess serum.
Claims: Lift, hydrate, increase skin elasticity, brightening. Not sure about "lifting" or skin elasticity, but indeed my face felt more hydrated and looked brighter.
Results: Pretty good regardless of the faint itching and terrible mask fit.
Overall
I don't really recommend this mask because:
Pros:One thing that popped out at me was the remarkably good English on the packaging albeit with a few odd capitalizations and dropped prepositions. I was so curious about this phenomenon (because let's face it, grammatically correct English on any Asian beauty products pretty much is a phenomenon), that I did a bit of research: Skinlite is owned by Adwin Korea Corp (Est 1999), who also owns Purederm, Carederm, Aqualette, and Prreti (minus a point for the suspicious and slightly nonsensical spelling of what I think is 'pretty' :P). These are new brands to me so I am quite interested in trying them out someday. I can tell they are weak on packaging style (probably why they aren't so popular) and they seem to be going for a more scientific skincare angle, so who knows what gems they may have ;)?
- Lots of slits and thus very adjustable.
- Clean, organic scent.
- Face did look brighter and was more hydrated.
Cons:
- Mask did not stick to face well.
- Strong basil scent.
- Faint itching sensation.
- Expensive. Even the MBD Blooming of Beauty masks are only ~$1.52/mask.
Although I don't recommend this particular mask, if anyone knows more about other Skinlite products, let me know :D