I love me a good sheet mask! I love me a good sheet mask even more when it is targeted at all my skincare needs. Lately my skin has been in the weirdest funk ever and I know it is due to “Maskne” and also winter wreaking havoc on my skin. What is Maskne you ask? Maskne is basically acne caused by wearing a mask. Who would’ve thought that by wearing something to protect you from this virus would be causing other health/skincare issues? The best thing we can do on our end is to use the right products to prevent it right? right! Even though I love sheet masks, I don’t use it often as I like keeping an “emergency stash” of products for when my skin and body really needs it. I picked up this Activated Charcoal Facial Mask before lockdown back in February already. It retailed for R39.99 at Jet and isn’t too badly priced in my opinion. I mainly went for this particular one as I know charcoal is good for skincare concerns like unclogging pores, removing deeper impurities and dead skin cells. I always nag mention on the blog how much I detest my massive pores and blackheads, so this sheet mask’s claims ticked all the right boxes. It claimed to exfoliate, control oil, unclog pores and deep cleanse the face. Sounds amazing, right?!Open I ripped the sachet and on my face I slapped it. I know sheet masks are “wet” but this particular one was extremely wet. The gel on the mask is black because of the charcoal of course, so I wouldn’t recommend wearing light shades of clothing. This mask is quite big so it will definitely go beyond your chin and hairline and this comes from someone with a rather round and big face – which is another reason why light shaded clothing should be avoided. To be honest, I would rather have a bigger face mask than a smaller one so that it can cover my entire face. Going back to the claims of this mask, I was curious about the “exfoliation” claims as I usually associate exfoliating with some type of micro-beads but this mask didn’t have any. I followed my skincare routine as I would usually do it, by cleansing and toning with my Miniso products and then applied the mask. I have the most sensitive skin ever and this sheet mask was gentle enough on my skin and didn’t irritate it. I felt a slight tingle on my skin but it quickly disappeared. This mask doesn’t have much of a scent to it and I appreciated that – as heavily scented products never gels well with my skin. I kept the mask on for the duration of the 10 minutes as suggested and then removed it. You will see alot of leftover black gel on your face but I massaged it into my skin and neck and the colour faded into my skin along with the gel. My skin felt a tad bit tight after but it dried down after a minute or two and my skin felt supper soft and supple. The dry spots around my “mask area” was instantly gone and I am so happy about that as my skin felt hydrated. At the moment I don’t have blackheads but I do still have the enlarged pores and I can feel that my face feels well cleansed and not as oily as it did. There was definitely no exfoliation benefits in this mask but my skin felt alot more evenly textured and soft.

I would without a doubt pick this mask up again but include it in a full skincare routine along with exfoliation, in order to get the maximum benefits from it. It was such a great skincare pick me up.  Yay or nay for sheet masks?