Beauteque Mask Maven is a monthly subscription box dedicated to masks. If you love trying new Korean sheet masks, this subscription is for you!
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
The Subscription Box: Beauteque Mask Maven
The Cost: $18.95 month-to-month ($15 subscription + $3.95 shipping), save with 6- and 12-month subscriptions
The Products: 9 to 11 masks of all kinds, straight from Korea. Most are facial sheet masks, but you will sometimes see a hair mask or hand mask or lip mask, too.
Ships to: USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia (see international shipping costs during checkout)
Check out all our Beauteque Mask Maven reviews and the Beauty Subscription Box Directory for more great beauty-oriented subscriptions!
One side of the card reveals this month’s theme, “Fabulous February.” As an aside, Mask Maven comes up with some fun themes and does a pretty good job sticking to them. This particular collection has less of a theme than other months.
The other side of the card gives a little more information about the masks, including directions if they are unusual.
Also, this is February’s package. These go out around the end of the month and I wanted to try most of them before writing the review.
Somoon Ampoule Juice Animal Mask Bear – Value $3.25
This has a lot of ingredients packed into it. There are antioxidants from raspberry, blueberry, tomato, and green tea, plus honey and royal jelly have some antibacterial properties and witch hazel (plus the tomato again) will be good for toning the skin. This is also supposed to help with skin elasticity. This mask had a little less serum than average or else the serum didn’t stick to the mask material very well. It was moisturizing but not goopy, but I think there was serum left over in the packet that I wish had stayed on the mask. And yes, it had an animal face printed on it!
Leader’s Sheet Mask AC Dressing Mask – Value $2.38
This was clean smelling, maybe a little bit medicinal. It has the ubiquitous snail slime (which is moisturizing) and sugar maple extract, which is new to me. The sugar maple extract is supposed to address problems with pores, excess oil, etc. So this is right up my alley.
Ladykin Blueberry Wash Off Mask – Value $3
This is supposed to help clear up breakouts and repair damaged blood vessels. You almost certainly need to use this more than once to see these effects. Although one package has enough for multiple uses, there’s not a good way to reclose it and save the extra. The blueberry is supposed to be good for anti-aging benefits, as well (it will have antioxidants in it). This did not smell like blueberry so I guess the extract was purified quite a bit. I do appreciate the apparent lack of artificial fragrance.
Hanaka Snail and Black Pearl Elasticity Mask – Value $1.90
Snail slime is usually quite moisturizing. Black pearl is also supposed to lock in moisture. This mask also has niacinamide for brightening and matricaria which I usually find to be pretty soothing.
Hanaka Cactus and Hyaluronic Acid Mask – Value $1.90
Hyaluronic acid has been used for moisture in both Asian and Western beauty products for a long time. The cactus is also supposed to be moisturizing (the biologist in me would guess cactus has polysaccharides that hold on to moisture since that is a concern for cactus plants in the wild!).
This is a good time to note that if you are interested in vegan beauty products, you should probably not order any K-beauty subscriptions. Snail slime is obviously not vegan, pearl is animal-derived, and the majority of hyaluronic acid used in industry comes as a byproduct of cartilage processing (usually from fish or poultry). Also, for what it’s worth, many K-beauty products (including these two masks) are full of parabens. I’ll be honest, I don’t avoid parabens because I don’t think the frequently-cited studies about their dangers are scientifically sound (I have a PhD in biochemistry). But now you are equipped with more information about the ingredients to make a decision for yourself.
Dewytree Honey Moist Black Mask – Value $2.05
This mask was super moisturizing. I think it had too much serum because it kept slipping down my face. Also, it fit my face very poorly. The eye holes were not real holes, they were like these quarter-moon shapes and the bottom part kept blocking my vision. But, I like what honey does for my skin so maybe I will learn to live with that.
Esfolio Honey Mask – Value $1.90
I think I’ve tried this mask before but I can’t remember where I got it. This has honey and hyaluronate (another way to write hyaluronic acid) plus fragrance (kind of strong in this instance) and plant extracts that provide a lot of vitamins. I like masks like this for when I feel like a breakout is coming on.
Mizon Enjoy Vital-Up Time Calming Mask – Value $3.50
This has propolis, which is a resinous material collected by bees used to construct the hive. It has calming effects for the skin and is also somewhat anti-bacterial. This also has trehalose and hyaluronic acid for moisture, as well. I am happy about all the calming and antibacterial masks this month; my skin really needs that right now.
3W Green Tea Mask – Value $1.64
I love getting green tea in skincare products. It has lots of antioxidants to help fight free radical damage, so green tea used over the long term will have anti-aging properties as well. I also like that the mask sheet is cotton so it will be biodegradable!
Verdict: I calculated a value of $21.52 for the February 2016 Beauteque Mask Maven. As with many K-beauty products, prices are all over the place. That’s about average for a Mask Maven bag and is above the cost of the subscription. A lot of these products and brands were new to me and I had fun trying them out, plus I like honey, berry, and green tea ingredients, so this month was a win.
What did you think of the February 2016 Beauteque Mask Maven? Do you get any K-Beauty or Asian Beauty subscriptions?
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