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
ACTIVE DEAL: Save 10% off of your subscription
CODE: SHEETFACED
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 of our Beauteque Mask Maven reviews and the Beauty Subscription Box Directory for more great beauty-oriented subscriptions!
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One side of the card reveals this month’s theme, “Soothing Showers.” 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 APRIL package. I did not receive it until the end of May.
The other side of the card gives a little more information about the masks, including directions if they are unusual.
Timeless Truth Hydra-Intense Black Charcoal Mask – Value $2.99
This had a ton of serum. Like, a ton. Like, it took a really long time for this to dry on my face. It was also pretty thick serum. If you are looking for intense moisture, though, this definitely delivers. It is interesting that this is called an activated charcoal mask but I don’t see activated charcoal on the ingredients list (charcoal is good at clearing the pores and the mask did that for me so I am assuming there was, in fact, charcoal included).
Too Cool for School Egg Cream Hydration Mask – Value $6
I am pretty sure the price for this from Beauteque would be lower, but there is an error in their database and when you click on this one, it redirects you to another product. So, I have linked to Sephora. (I am familiar with this mask from many Sephora collections.) This has a white serum that’s a little thick and includes egg extracts (good source of amino acids and certain nutrients), coconut water (has electrolytes, among other things), and niacinamide (which I find works well to reduce redness). This is definitely hydrating and it’s nice to get a premium mask every now and then.
A’Pieu Real Big Yogurt One Bottle: Plain – Value $1.99
This has yogurt extract as well as a Lactobacillus ferment filtrate. Fermented ingredients are popular in skincare right now. One thing fermentation does is release lactic acid, which can provide some gentle exfoliation. (This is an alpha-hydroxy acid ingredient in some peels, so be sure to use a sunscreen afterward.) I am pretty tolerant of lactic acid and this did not cause any irritation. (I don’t think this is anywhere near the strength of most peels.) There are also lots of amino acids and a few minerals like calcium in yogurt.
NOHJ Bananaman SSUL Mask: Cucumber – Value $2.50
This allegedly has a coffee aroma but thank goodness, I didn’t notice that (I don’t like the smell of coffee). It did have a fragrance but I can’t really say what I thought it smelled like. This is a black sheet and has cucumber and banana extracts (I feel like these are moisturizing as well as soothing, and I think cucumber helps reduce puffiness). This also has a lot of antioxidants from tomato and tea leaf extract as well as some other soothing ingredients like purslane and licorice root extract. I can’t say much other than that this was hydrating without being sticky, but it is the kind of mask I would like to use regularly because I think that is when you get the most benefits from antioxidants. (As an aside, I find the images on the mask packets for this brand to be somewhat suggestive…)
Mediheal NMF Aquaring Ampoule Mask – Value $3
This kind of looks like it has a separate ampoule with a skincare product in it, but it doesn’t. (I have missed such ampoules in the past due to the lack of English on the package.) This has your standard moisturizing ingredients like sodium hyaluronate and glycerin, as well as some soothing and toning ingredients like allantoin and witch hazel. This does also have some parabens and silicones, but I don’t avoid either of those. This was a good, general-use hydrating and soothing mask and did not interfere with the subsequent application of makeup (which is important to me since I use masks in the morning).
Wellderma Water Full Moisture Ampoule Mask – Value $2.50
So, this mask. It was one of the few I used at night, on a weekend. And wow, did that serum take a loooooong time to dry. And it was kind of sticky afterwards. It was moisturizing but I’m not sure I would want to use it again because I like serum that dries a little faster. This has glycerin, sodium hyaluronate, trehalose, olive oil, squalane, shea butter, a ceramide, and probably a few other moisturizing ingredients (I’m not always sure what all the polymers are, although PEG/PPG-17/6 and PEG-60 are probably going to act as thickeners, in this instance. I suppose I should actually pay more attention to the polymer descriptions because, as it happens, I actually understand them here…)
Mizon Enjoy Vital-Up Time Watery Moisture Mask – Value $2.25
This has propolis, which is “a resinous mixture that honeybees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, etc.” (thanks, Wikipedia). Propolis, like honey and royal jelly and so forth, has minerals and also some antibacterial properties, so this may be good for breakout-prone skin. This also has hyaluronic acid for moisture, tea leaf extract (for antioxidants), and allantoin, which soothes rough skin. This is another good general-use mask and it did not have a strong fragrance. I’m recovering from a breakout caused by a foundation primer (I think) and I feel like this helped reduce some of the inflammation.
AM Piggy Head Mask: Yang Ming Shan: Cherry Blossom Translucent Brightening Facial Mask – Value $2.50
Well, the name of this one is a mouthful, all right. This one didn’t seem to be available from Beauteque. Anyway, this has rose water, which has toning benefits as well as hyaluronic acid and aloe for moisturizing. This also has a few brighteners (tranexamic acid and arbutin) although you would need to use this more than once to really see the effects. (This mask did not have a pig face printed on it, despite the name…) This brand was new to me and it looks like there are quite a few masks in this product line, so maybe we will get some more in future months. I had a generally good experience with this (well, it was moisturizing and didn’t irritate my skin or interfere with makeup application, anyway).
Hiddencos Latte Mask – Value $1.99
OK, so this one did smell a little bit like coffee. (Thankfully not too much.) Coffee is allegedly supposed to help remove wrinkles. I stay out of the sun so I don’t really have wrinkles yet and I can’t comment on that. However, this has sodium hyaluronate, which is a carbohydrate polymer that stays near the surface of the skin and retains water and thus may have a plumping effect. (This also has added caffeine in addition to the coffee mask.) I would probably not buy it again just because of the coffee smell, but if you like the coffee aroma, this has a handful of ingredients with anti-aging effects (for example, aloe for moisture, niacinamide to reduce discoloration, etc.) so I think it would be good to try if your skincare goal is anti-aging (while niacinamide might help with acne, there really aren’t many anti-acne ingredients in this one).
Verdict: I calculated a value of $25.72 for the April 2017 Beauteque Mask Maven. That’s about six dollars over the cost of the subscription plus shipping and is one of the better values I’ve seen from this subscription, so I think it was worth the wait (I gather there was an inventory problem that meant these went out much later than usual). I don’t have any particular skincare concerns at this time, but there were a couple of good general-use masks in here that ought to cover a variety of conditions (I usually look for antioxidants and anything that will soothe the skin or reduce redness) and almost everything was new to me, so I am happy.
What did you think of the April 2017 Beauteque Mask Maven? Do you get any K-Beauty or Asian Beauty subscriptions?
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