I recently reviewed Living Nature’s Cleansing Clay Peel (review here) and have now had the chance to test run their Hydrating Gel Mask too.
The Hydrating Gel Mask is pretty much as you’d expect; it’s a mask aimed at boosting your skin’s moisture levels and it comes in a gel formula. It’s of medium consistency and a slightly brown colour. It’s easy to use and you only need about a ten pence piece sized amount to cover your whole face.
I have seriously difficult skin (as regular readers will recall; I moan about it regularly) which is severely combination that covers all the skin types; I have dry patches, oily patches, a breakout prone chin (which occasionally heads to other areas) and a teeny, tiny patch on my upper forehead that ‘might’ be deemed normal. So it’s a very tricky skin to treat!
Therefore, when using treatment masks I have to strike a balance between giving my skin what it needs without aggravating the rest of it. Gel masks are the perfect solution for skin types like mine, as they’re not in any way rich, but are still great for replacing lost moisture. Just as gel moisturisers are an ideal choice for combination skin types, so are gel masks.
There’s one minor/major negative with this mask (depending on your stance) which is the smell. It’s a kind of earthy/composty/vegetable smell that will definitely divide opinion. I didn’t like it and nor did my boyfriend and the worst part is that it’s very, VERY strong! However, once washed off it’s gone and I wouldn’t say it caused a problem once applied as after a few seconds you couldn’t smell it; and anyway, smell isn’t something that should get in the way of a good treatment in my humble opinion.
The mask did an excellent job at replacing lost moisture in my skin. I’ve used this twice, once only on my dry areas in a bespoke facial that I did recently (more info in a future post) and once all over my face and I was comfortable applying it all over my face without fear that it would cause problems in my spotty areas. The other good thing about this mask is that it didn’t leave you with tacky skin once you’d rinsed or tissued it off, which is a problem I’ve found with other moisture boosting masks. So all in all I’d say this a great, moisturising mask for oily, problem and combination skin types, although it’d probably be too light for dryer skin types.
The website suggests using this after the Cleansing Clay Peel, which I’ll definitely be doing soon as I’m loving the quick payoff of at home facials at the mo. Living Nature Hydrating Gel Mask costs £24.50 and is available here.
*PR Sample
