Product Review : Lush Cupcake Fresh Face Mask

Hi :D I actually did this review on the same day as the Shunji Matsuo Hair Treatment and scheduled it for today because I'd be working. See... I'm slowly getting hardworking right? Gradually... Turtle-ishly...

SO. During the period of time that we were MIA, my skin turned really bad. I confess that most of the reasons were due to my own laziness though. And usually when I'm home, I don't wear any sort of make up on my face. Contrary to popular beliefs that wearing make up causes your skin to grow lotsa zits, I actually grow more zits without make up. When I have make up on, I do not touch my face at all. Also my powder helps to control the sebum secretion.

Thus when I keep going without make up, I'd touch my face here and there, poke it when I'm bored and pat it too. My sebum secretion is also crazy and makes my T-zone reflective.

So here's what I got to save myself from the oiliness!

The key selling point for me is the CHOCOLATE! I pretty much love a chocolate anything so this was practically screaming my name.

Here is the ingredients list for the sensitive skin peeps. It's a little blurry though T_T So you might want to refer to the Lush website HERE!

With the main ingredient being Rhassoul mud and cacao powder, you must have expected the mask to be of such color. Looks more accurate in the picture below though.

The texture is a little chunky as you can see, probably because of all the mud it contains.

Here it is on my face! Just a thin layer all over will do. Leave it on for 10-15minutes till the mask is dry. Then when you wash it off, don't simply splash water all over. Wet your hands and rub gently in circular motions. I feel like the little chunky bits help to exfoliate a little.

You'll get this! Ok, I'm not referring to the huge eye bags, the crooked nose and the strangely twisted face shape. I think the camera made it weird. LOOK AT THE SKIN! Just focus on the skin will do please :)

Lush SG says :
"Chocolate heaven for oily and teenage skin. Its action removes excess oil and calms breakouts. Rhassoul mud cleans and soothes, linseed, cocoa butter and cocoa powder soften the skin. Balancing peppermint, spearmint and sandalwood oils complete this effective and delicious experience. Apply to clean skin, avoiding the eye area. Leave for five to ten minutes, and then rinse away with warm water. Keep chilled." - As taken from the Lush SG website.

My say :
It's actually not as chocolatey or cupcakey as I expected it to be when I took a whiff of it in the store. It smells really sweet, somewhat overwhelming actually so it may not be for everyone. There's actually a more floral note to it than candy sweets. It's strong in the pot, strong while on the face but lingers around lightly after washing off. I like the washed off scent the most.

The mask itself is actually really creamy in texture. However when you use it straight out from the fridge, it gets a little lumpy and hard to spread around the face. Thus I recommend for all users to let it melt a tiny bit before spreading it all over.

What I've noticed with this mask is that it does suck the oilies out, but not those more stubborn blackheads. For those you'll still have to use those peel off strips or something that works the same way. Despite what it does, it's actually not drying on the face. I have combination oily skin and after using this, my cheeks felt comfortable even without anything on. My skin felt cleaner and softer at the same time. My zits were also less red so I guess it works for the calming breakout part!

To conclude, it's good if you can stand the smell and the price. If you're living in the UK, hooray for you because you can get it at £5.95/75g. This converts to around $12 or so. But because fresh face masks are made without preservatives, you can only buy it in the Singapore Lush which sells this at a whopping $25/75g. It's like double the price. Personally, I will not repurchase as this $25 tub will only last you for a month before it expires. I will stick to my other clay/mud masks >___< (IF IF IF, I'm from the UK, I would repurchase. Not for SG because the price is not worth it.)

Texture : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Creamy but lumpy when fresh out from the fridge.)

Effectiveness : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (It does what it says AND doesn't dry my skin.)

Scent : ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (Not really my favorite scent but still bearable.)

Overall : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Stars off for the texture, scent and how it's super OP in SG~~)

Cheers,
Domo

Product Review : Queen Helene The Original Mint Julep Masque

I wasn't intending to review this product so soon, but it would seem like many of you are interested in knowing more about this product. So once requested, we'll try our very best to do it :D

After a grueling day at work, I came home, scarfed down my dinner and took these pictures + edited them immediately! (Watching TV as I go along so it's delayed somewhat)

Proudly presenting...

My two tubes of Queen Helene The Original Mint Julep Masque! Just to show how much I love it, can you see that the tube on the right is almost completely flattened? The white part is yellowing from old age too :( I've had it for nearly two years already so I'm going to trash that and start on the tube beside!

Simple green and white packaging.

The main purpose? Dries up those irritating zits, rinse away your blackheads and shrinks your pores! By that, I have to once again clarify that it only does so for the appearance. For the explanation, please refer to THIS ARTICLE.

The ingredients list for all those who're worried about the contents! Also, I was presented with a question that I did not reply in detail, here it is along with the answer!

"Parabens, harmful on the skin and in the body?"

This is a question that has been raised over and over, not only on Domokie, but on other beauty blogs and basically, everywhere! I'm only answering with regards to Methylparaben here. Methylparaben is actually produced naturally. In fact, they're found in the fruits we consume! Of course, I don't think most of us know that because fruits don't really come along with an ingredients list. The purpose of the Methylparaben is to help kill the unwanted dirties in your skincare / food. Examples of the dirties can be fungi, bacteria and all the unseen things you can think of.

There has been tons of arguments and research done on this ingredient and contradicting results have been found. There are those who will NEVER touch this and describe this as a potential health hazard. There are those who think that this is harmless. Results from different studies have shown that indeed, Methylparaben can possibly cause damage to the skin yet it is still declared safe to use by the FDA. Perhaps that is because the negative impact(s) caused by Methylparaben isn't backed up sufficiently with enough research / results to be known as a fact? However, Methylparaben, if ingested, will be passed out as urine instead of accumulating in our bodies.

The fact about Methylparaben would be that it is actually a non-irritating ingredient that's great for sensitive skin. People who experience adverse skin reactions to this ingredient is because they are allergic to it. According to Wikipedia, this ingredient is "not carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic or embryotoxic; additionally, it is negative in the uterotrophic assay." To know what an uterotrophic assay means, kindly google for yourself as I do not want to lengthen this answer any further! In short, I probably will not be avoiding products that contain Methylparaben like a plague.

The full description of the mask.

Here's what it looks like! A strange, green and grey clay!

This mask is a dream for those zits that have the white pus on the surface! It really shrinks them well and kicks the pus out of them. For those angry red ones, I am apologetic to say that this mask will only soothe the redness instead of purging the entire thing. To use this as an acne treatment, put a nice blob on your zits, like you would do with a spot treatment, leave this overnight and wash off the next morning. xteeener, one of my favorite youtube gurus adores this product as well!

Personally, I feel that this mask only works for extracting very light blackheads. By light blackheads, I'm referring to those that have yet to harden and become a solid form. Those can be sucked out easily with this mask. If your blackheads belong to the hard and stubborn category, a pore strip or a peeling mask would be more advisable. Kindly refer to the article on Pore Problems for more information. To remove blackheads with this mask, apply this over the affected pore areas for about 15-20 minutes to let it dry.

Apply a nice thick layer such as this.

And it should look like this when it starts drying up. It should start looking all crackled and wrinkly. The lightest whitish green is the area that is completely dried.

Really, at the end of the mask, your skin will feel smooth and tight in the good way. This mask has a nice minty scent at the beginning but the smell turns a little wonky as it starts to dry up. You will also feel a slight cooling sensation upon the application of this mask. It will go away in a few minutes as the mask starts to "tighten" your skin while drying up!

Sadly, despite how good it sounds, it is NOT readily available in Singapore. There may be little beauty shops that sell these but at a marked up price. There's one store that sells this in the Yishun Shopping Mall near where I stay. Please note that Yishun Shopping Mall =/= Northpoint! Alternatively, you can spree these in from Drugstore.com.

Scent: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (From mint to wonky, not really my kinda thing~)
Effectiveness: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Wonderful wonderful product! Cleans my pores really well and kills those zits!)
Overall : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (One star off simply due to the scent, nothing else to penalize!)

Nothing much to judge on hence there're only 3 factors!

Also, remember to submit your entry for our GIVEAWAY HERE by 23.59 TODAY if you haven't already!

Cheers,
Chiharu ❤

Disclaimer : I bought both tubes with my own money!