Scary Skincare? The Body Shop Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask

Nothing like dull, cold winter to make me look for face masks with words like “glow” and “purifying” in their names.  It made this one feel like a no-brainer: The Body Shop Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask.

And I’ve hit my word count on just the title. Kidding! (also, no one’s paying me for this, why would I have a word count minimum?)

Sometimes I want to treat my skin but I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll check the wear times of various masks in my stash. This one (which I received as a bonus in-store sample when I made a purchase) boasted a 5-10 minute wear-time, so I picked it out on a weeknight when my skin felt a bit rough and looked a bit dull.

Le Package

This packaging, while it made getting this picture simple,and reading the directions easy enough, made accessing the actual mask rather difficult. This is a thin, grainy mask, and it was very hard to squeeze out of the packet, so it took awhile to put on. By the time I was done, it had already started drying, feeling tight and yet also lumpy somehow? And I was wondering if I’d made a terrible mistake.

What have i DONE?

But, since I already had it on, and it washed off of my fingers easily enough,  I figured I may as well finish it out. The directions indicated that for removal you should apply some warm water, and scrub in circular motions before rinsing it off. That sounded like it could get messy, so I opted to take this off while showering. I got my shower ready while I waited for it to finish drying.  Once it dried, it seemed to be more like other masks, which was reassuring.

Calmer…but still skeptical!

Once I got it wet and started scrubbing (gently! please don’t ever exfoliate roughly, your face just wants to be loved!) it broke down pretty quickly, and then it rinsed away very easily, without feeling overly dried out.

While I didn’t feel like there was any special sort of visual result or “glow” after I dried off, my face did feel very smooth, and applying my usual skin care afterward went very easily, and my face did definitely feel refreshed. The lumpy, grainy texture that alarmed me initially was probably mostly due to the exfoliating ingredients in the mask, and I probably should have thought of that at the time,  but…yeah. I could probably write an entire post about scaring myself with beauty product mishaps. Please leave a comment if you want to see that!

Overall this mask definitely works, and I imagine the full size product (which comes in a jar) would be far easier to apply, which was the biggest problem I encountered with this sample.  I think this is a perfectly good mask, but it wasn’t anything ground-breaking for me. The Body Shop sells this mask for $28.00, and that is honestly not a bad price considering you get a 3 ounce jar for that. I’ve had 1oz masks that have lasted me four or more uses, so the per-mask usage would probably work out fairly reasonable.  If I was looking for a small splurge and felt like my face needed a treat, I might buy the full size of this one.

What kind of face masks do you like best? Is there a weird face mask you want to see me try? Let me know in the comments!

 

One thought on “Scary Skincare? The Body Shop Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask

  1. I love charcoal masks – I’ve got a tube of a charcoal mud mask here that I should use tonight! That first pic looks like my face when I first smeared myself with black goop and wondered WTF I’d done, though…

    I’d love to read a post on beauty scares! I’ve certainly spooked myself enough, and I’m not even that into skincare!

    I have a bunch of masks to try, mostly just for interesting names like mint chocolate! I’ve been curious about these magnetic masks I’ve heard of, though…love to see you try that!

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