Beauteque Mask Maven is a monthly k-beauty subscription box dedicated to masks. If you love trying new Korean sheet masks, this subscription is for you!
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Beauteque Mask Maven
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)
Beauteque Mask Maven September 2018 Review
The number of sheet masks out there for sale must be incredibly large. Mask Maven almost never sends repeat items, and I discover something new every month:
The box came with this information card. This month has a theme of “Back to Self Care.” I think “self-care” is a Millennial buzzword with a nebulous meaning (like “clean eating”) and a concept I generally don’t identify with (I’m a Gen-Xer – a late one – but definitely not a Millennial), but I don’t have to be on board with the theme to enjoy the items in a box since they are all sheet masks.
JMsolution: Water Luminous Avocado Oil Ampoule Mask – Retail Value $3
As you might expect, this one contains an avocado extract. The product page says that avocado oil is an effective treatment for acne, blackheads, and skin inflammation. For what it’s worth, this one also has Moringa seed oil and turmeric extract, both of which are going to have some antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties and various moisturizing ingredients. But I really don’t know what about avocado oil is supposed to help clear up the skin as this is not an ingredient typically used in acne-control products (but then, K-beauty is sometimes ahead of the curve in that regard). This one was fine to use in the morning and did not interfere with makeup application later on. I’d consider getting a whole box of these and using several a week to see if they really do clear up the skin, but I can’t tell after only one use.
My Beauty Diary: Black Pearl Mask – Retail Value $1.99
For what it’s worth, the mask itself is still white. Like all My Beauty Diary masks I’ve ever tried, it is drippy, drippy, drippy. So be sure to wear an old t-shirt or something when you use this mask, or lie flat on your back, because the serum gets all over the neckline of your shirt otherwise. This has a black pearl extract that the product description says is rich in vitamins and amino acids but of course, whether there was anything in the extract that can actually penetrate the skin depends on the extraction method. This has something called “nanospheres” and I can’t even figure out what they’re made of. It also has an ingredient called “vegetale collagen” which I think is a typo (and anyway, there’s no such thing as collagen from plants and this isn’t vegan because it contains, at a minimum, pearl extract).
Pearl is a traditional ingredient in Asian skincare preparations for brightening and this does also contain some plant extracts that may have a few enzymes that do a gentle peeling. For me, this was mostly just moisturizing.
NOHJ: Deep Cleansing Bubble Mask – Retail Value $3.25
This is one of the few repeat items I’ve received from Mask Maven. This does produce bubbles but they’re not huge or out of control. However, it does mean you have to rinse the serum off instead of rubbing it into your skin. This has a lot of antioxidant-containing ingredients like green tea extract, orange extract, and CoQ10. The bubbles are supposed to remove sebum, dead skin cells, and blackheads. I do at least feel that my skin was not oily after use but also not dried out.
NOHJ: Superfood Mask – Pine Mushroom – Retail Value $1.99
I have not received too many masks in the past with mushroom as the featured ingredient. It is supposed to be anti-inflammatory. I don’t know as much about mushroom compared to other “superfoods” mostly because I can’t stand to eat mushrooms and so whenever someone starts touting their benefits I kind of tune out. But, I don’t have a problem putting mushroom extracts on my face.
In addition to mushroom, this has lots of antioxidants (from lemon, tomato, and tea leaf extracts), maybe somewhat antibacterial due to the honey extract, is soothing from milk and purslane extracts and is a bit toning from witch hazel. It is pretty hot out where I live (still) and I do feel that this was soothing (and moisturizing) but I also think I noticed the toning a little bit. This one is another one to try using over time to see even more effects.
Dr. Morita Hyaluronic Essence Intensive Moisture Eye Mask – Estimated Value $1.70 (buy 10 masks for $16.99)
There’s always one mask in Mask Maven that’s a little unusual or different, and this month it is this eye mask, which is basically a half sheet mask. It is from Taiwan and is the only item I couldn’t find on Beauteque’s site. Anyway, “intensive moisture” here apparently equates to “excessive moisture” because this dripped all over my shirt even though it wasn’t touching my chin, and there was actually too much serum for my whole face, even, when I finally took it off. The key ingredient here is hyaluronic acid, which is a polymer that holds on to a lot of water near the surface of the skin and may help reduce the appearance of fine lines.
Innisfree: It’s Real Squeeze Mask – Pomegranate – Retail Value $1.99
The item description here is super vague (and includes “tips” such as wash your face before using a sheet mask). This has grapefruit and pomegranate extracts, as well as another type of citrus extract (Citrus unshiu, which I have just learned is mandarin), so you are getting lots of vitamin C and other antioxidants here. Antioxidants in skin care may help to fight free radical damage but they do not substitute for using a good sunscreen. This may be one to use over time for anti-aging benefits. It wasn’t too drippy and it fit my face reasonably well.
Beauty Friends II: Essence Mask Sheet – Raspberry – Retail Value $1.99
I don’t have an ingredients list for this one but will assume it has raspberry extract, so some vitamin C and perhaps other antioxidants (which would go with the “reduces wrinkles” part of the product description). This one had a very light fruit fragrance (not irritating at all) and was fine to use before makeup. (This is a good place to note a few things about K-beauty subscriptions: a., they are generally not vegan and may contain anything from pearl extract to honey to snail slime to horse oil, b., they often contain parabens. Which I don’t avoid but some people care about and c., you can’t always find an ingredient list in English or at all, so use with caution if you have any known allergies).
JMsolution Water Luminous S.O.S. Ringer Mask – Retail Value $3
You’ll often get to try a few different items from a product line in Mask Maven and this one, as you can probably guess from the packaging, is similar to the avocado mask shown up above. I often find that masks from the same product line are quite similar in performance, and that was true here, too. As you might expect, this has moisturizing ingredients (i.e., hyaluronic acid and hydrolyzed glycosaminoglycans which are similar in some ways to hyaluronic acid) and a fair number of amino acids and peptide derivatives. This is a good moisturizing mask to use when you need some skin hydration but you don’t want to drip all over your clothes.
My Beauty Diary Rose Moisturizing Essence Mask Sheet – Retail Value $1.99
This is another repeat for me although I can’t be sure I received it from Mask Maven as it looks like something I might have purchased in the past. It has a light rose scent and is just as drippy as the black pearl mask mentioned above (this seems to be a feature of My Beauty Diary masks). Rose has some toning benefits although I find it to be pretty gentle compared to, say, witch hazel. This also has witch hazel, though, so it is a little difficult to separate out those effects. There are rather a lot of plant-based ingredients I don’t recognize, and also some typos (e.g., “polyflutamic acid” should probably be “polyglutamic acid”) that makes it hard to look up ingredients. This has arnica and may help to reduce redness, and should also have a fair amount of vitamin C from the orange and lemon and raspberry extracts it contains.
Verdict: I calculated a value of $20.90 for the September 2018 Beauteque Mask Maven. That’s not the highest value I’ve ever seen for this box, but it is a little bit above the month-to-month cost and is a good way to try individual masks without buying a 10-sheet box of something that you may not end up liking. I had tried a few of these before but there were also plenty of masks that were new to me. I liked the focus on antioxidants and moisturizing ingredients (which, truth be told, you could say about almost any collection of sheet masks). Even though I don’t put much stock in the “self-care” movement, I do rather like taking 10 minutes to sit down and read a book and use a sheet mask before going to work in the morning.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, you have to sign up by the 15th to get a box for the month, so your first box would probably come near the end of October.
Coupon – Save 10% off your subscription with code SHEETFACED
Value Breakdown: At $18.95 for this box, you are paying approximately the following per item:
- Avocado Mask: $2.72
- Black Pearl Mask: $1.80
- Bubble Mask: $2.95
- Mushroom Mask: $1.80
- Eye Mask: $1.54
- Pomegranate Mask: $1.80
- Raspberry Mask: $1.80
- Ringer Mask: $2.72
- Rose Mask: $1.80
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What did you think of the September Beauteque Mask Maven?
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