Biore Self-Heating One Minute Mask is one of Biore’s new look range featuring charcoal as its star ingredient. Activated charcoal is known for sticking to non-polar substances, so it could potentially stick to dirt and oil so they can be washed off the skin easily. I was excited to try this product, but at the same time I was a bit hesitant – Biore’s skincare products contain menthol, which gives a tingly cooling effect that I find unpleasant, and I always manage to spread the menthol to the wrong bits of my body in the shower!
Here are the ingredients:
Butylene Glycol, Zeolite, Kaolin, PEG-8, Methylgluceth-20, Cellulose, Talc, Parfum, Lauryl Methacrylate/Glycol Dimethacrylate Crosspolymer, Charcoal Powder, Dimethicone, Hydroxypropylcellulose, Menthol, Disodium EDTA, BHT.
To use this mask, you apply a layer to your wet face. You then massage the slightly grainy, sticky mask over your face for a minute with wet hands, then rinse it off. The mask contains a fair bit of zeolite, which heats up in contact with water – I found that it got surprisingly hot. After rinsing off, the menthol gives a cold tingle. It’s an interesting sensation! I wasn’t a huge fan of feeling the tingle for hours afterwards, but I’m sure a lot of people would enjoy it. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to proceed carefully.
This product comes in a 4-pack for $7.99. Each sachet contains one application, but I found that there was enough for 2 thin applications (I gave my eyes a wide berth, but still managed to get menthol in them somehow…).
I did really like how smooth and clean my face felt afterwards, and how quickly the mask works – it’s great if you’re time-poor. The heating and cooling sensations are pretty entertaining too. My main gripe about this mask (and most of Biore’s charcoal products) is the menthol – I’m just not a fan of how long the tingly feeling lasts and how easily it gets into my eyes and mouth. I’m also a little concerned about the high pH of this mask (I tested it to be around 9). I didn’t experience any problems when I used it, but high pH skincare products can potentially disturb the protective acid mantle of the skin, leading to irritation and acne.
Are you a menthol fan?
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This may be off base but Ive come to think masks as merely a treat / nice sensation similar as opposed to being beneficial to skin. Certainly nothing wrong with a little pampering and when young, I used to enjoy the feel of the type masks which dried clear & peeled off.
Do you feel masks do more, like help clean or exfoliate?
I actually wrote a whole post on the topic of masks earlier this year!
In short, most masks moisturise, clay masks can clean pores a bit by drawing out sebum and the dirt in the sebum, some other special masks do things too. This Biore mask isn’t really a “true” mask, since it’s only on your skin for a couple minutes – I think it’s more of a dry exfoliant cleanser (it has scrubbing grains) 🙂
Thanks for simplifying it. Interesting how it appears advertised as a paste but appears to apply like a lotion (cute expression :D).
It’s very paste-like! It takes a lot of effort to scrub it around.
Did Biore reformulate this when they added the charcoal? It didn’t have menthol in it when I used it before that.
I’m not sure, I don’t think this was in Australia before!
I have this mask and it’s ok. I like it well enough, but not sure I’d purchase it again.
And I agree, the menthol can be pretty darn irritating.
Monica.
It’s more psychologically irritating than physically irritating for me, but I think that’s kind of worse…