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
COUPON: Save 10% off your subscription with code CRATEJOY10
OR
Now through October 15th, use coupon code BBBAG15 to save $15 off a 3-month subscription
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)
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One side of the card reveals this month’s theme, “Modern Maskinista.” I find the themes kind of iffy in terms of curation, but I also really don’t care about the themes. Please note: this is a review of the October package. This normally ships late in the month for me. However they recently changed warehouses and I have been getting my packages a little sooner than I used to.
The other side of the card gives a little more information about the masks, including directions if they are unusual.
This month there was also a suggested calendar for when to use the masks. I did not follow it, of course (or else how would I ever get the review to you all in a reasonable period of time?) but rather used one mask every weekday. Still, it was a fun thing to include and I’d be interested to see more of these in future packages.
Esfolio Snail Essence Mask Sheet – Value $1.99
Esfolio Pearl Essence Mask Sheet – Value $1.99
With Mask Maven, you will often get two different masks from the same maker and product line. I kind of like this because it lets me decide if the whole line is for me, or if I might be interested in trying more from the same company, like if I wanted to use a mask with a different active ingredient but the same fit, serum level, scent level, etc.
Both of these have glycerin, purslane, and fragrance, but the serums are not as much alike as with some other companies. The snail mask has snail slime (aka “snail secretion filtrate” which is good at moisturizing and which may firm the skin (probably by holding on to a lot of water molecules by a mechanism of action similar to that of hyaluronic acid). It also has ginseng extract, which may be energizing.
The pearl mask, meanwhile, is supposed to be moisturizing and to brighten the skin. I don’t think actual, physical pearl powder would penetrate the skin, but an extract *could*, depending on what the components of the extract were (e.g., small molecules). Unfortunately, that is not the kind of detail you get on catalog pages for these items!
Both of these were good, basic masks. I think to see effects from the pearl mask, you’d really have to use it often over a period of at least a few weeks. I thought the snail mask was pretty moisturizing and firming right away.
Annie’s Way Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Mask – Value $1.99
Annie’s Way is a new brand for me and I am sure we will be seeing it again in Mask Maven since this product line is massive. This contains hyaluronic acid (a polymer that soaks up water and may provide a little firming), collagen for elasticity, vitamin E, and something called “natural moisturizing factor” where I Have no idea what it is. If you are looking for straight up moisture, this is a good one to try.
Saference F + C Skin-Rx Facial Firming Mask – Value $2.39
I feel like I’ve used Saference masks before, or at least am familiar with the brand. This mask has two kinds of benefits. First, it has lots of moisturizing ingredients, including sodium hyaluronate and hydrolyzed collagen, so it will help firm the skin as well (probably need to use quite a few of these to really see an effect). But it also has pomegranate and wine extracts, which are going to be full of antioxidants, so this would be a really good mask to use after sun exposure. It also has allantoin, so it should be helpful for rough skin as well. (My skin is not really rough right now so I couldn’t test that aspect of it.)
Annie’s Way Tea Tree Anti-Acne Mask – Value $1.99
I used this mask on a day I had a breakout. It didn’t heal anything instantly, but it did stop the breakout in its tracks, and I feel like I had faster healing over the next few days. Tea tree oil is great for breakouts but this also has white tea extract and green tea extract, so it is full of antioxidants.
Ladykin Acai Berry Lifting Ice Cold Mask – Value $4.99
I kept thinking the brand “Ladykin” sounded familiar and I finally realized it was because I am using this sleeping mask lately. Anyway, I thought this might be a hydrogel mask but it wasn’t. I did not put it in the refrigerator before use although I think that would really enhance the effects. This was definitely cooling and it has acai, blueberry, and raspberry extracts (tons of antioxidants and vitamins) and essential fatty acids for moisture.
Wellage Vitablue Injection Mask – Value $3.50
I liked this mask, but I nearly lost patience with it. (“Fun 2-step process” my foot…made me 10 minutes later to work than usual.) There is a syringe in the left side. It has a dry compartment with a plug and it has serum in a separate compartment and then it has a cap on the end. You have to push the plunger of the syringe REALLY HARD to dislodge the plug and then shake, shake, shake and shake some more to get the dry powder mixed in into the serum. And then you are still not done. Then you have to open the cap on the other half of the package, inject the solution from the syringe, cap it, mix it around, and THEN you are finally ready to use the mask. (Injecting from the syringe was also difficult. And I have a lot of experience with syringes from having a biochemistry degree, injecting medications into a sick cat, and taking care of a cat with a feeding tube. So it’s not me!)
After all of that, apparently I didn’t mix the serum with the mask well enough because parts of the mask were dry. I do appreciate the idea behind it. Vitamins can degrade in solution so mixing at the last minute may preserve them. (I think it was just vitamin C powder in the dry compartment. This also had hyaluronic acid, aloe, and snail secretion filtrate, so it was quite moisturizing.)
No:hJ Black Intracell Boosting Mask – Value $2.60
No:hJ Calming Intracell Sleeping Mask – Value $2.60
We’ve received No:hJ masks from Beauteque before, but not from this product line. Both of these had noticeable scents.
The packages were really cool and holographic (looked like bubbles moving). The black mask was the more interesting of the two. It looked soapy when I took it out of the package and it turns out, it was foaming on my face while I wore it (it is supposed to do that). The foaming is supposed to remove excess sebum and dead skin cells, and I will say that my skin looked really good after using this. This has lots of antioxidants from orange and green tea extracts and it also has CoQ10, which is supposed to be energizing. I would avoid this mask if you have sensitive eyes; mine stung just a little bit while I was using this.
The calming mask has a laundry list of ingredients including cactus and aloe vera (which are both going to be good for moisture), green tea, lemon, and tomato, all of which will have vitamins and antioxidants, honey, which has antibacterial properties, and milk and lavender, which are soothing (and many more). This was more of a traditional sheet mask than the black one and did not irritate my eyes. I do think it was calming to my skin, as well as being moisturizing.
Verdict: I calculated a value of about $24.04 for the September 2016 Beauteque Mask Maven. This is above the cost of the subscription and I think the masks this month were interesting. (Some were certainly off the beaten path.) I am glad I got to try the injection mask but I definitely wouldn’t have the patience to use those every day. The black foaming sheet mask was also interesting (and effective). Plus there were some standard types of moisturizing/vitamin masks good for daily use, so I thought we got a nicely rounded out set this month.
What did you think of the September 2016 Beauteque Mask Maven? Do you get any K-Beauty or Asian Beauty subscriptions?
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