Our Favorite Face Masks to Brighten Skin
As you can tell, we love face masks. Face masks are kind of like the dessert of skin care-for regular products you have to apply them daily to see results and they’re often fairly boring, but masks often come in fun colors or unique applications, you get big results from one use, and you can mix and match as you want or as your skin needs that day. We have our tried and true favorites, but we’re also always testing new products and tweaking our routines for the season or any skin care issues that might pop up. Now that it’s spring, we’re focusing on shedding rough winter skin and coming out into the sunlight feeling dewy and fresh. At least, as fresh and dewy as you can look when you’re busy with more than one job or chasing kids around all day!
Dinah’s Favorites:
1) The Lush Beauty Sleep Mask launched last fall and was a game changer for my dry winter skin. The thing that I like the most about this mask is that it is really really soothing and calming. The combination of lavender and valerian root not only calm redness, but also release tension in facial muscles and relax me. It is chock full of cold pressed oils, fresh juices and other impactful ingredients that gives you super hydrated looking and feeling skin.
2) Drunk Elephant Babyfacial is one of the stronger exfoliators out there, I can only use this once a week, but wow does it work! Not only does it immediately make my skin feel incredibly soft and smooth, but when I do it at night, and then put on F Balm after I rinse it off, I wake up with the smoothest, clearest skin. Acids like these work exceptionally well for me, not only for the tone of my skin, but also helping to prevent acne. With some masks, I like to leave them on for extra time, but I definitely wouldn’t not do that with Babyfacial, or you may overdo it.
3) Youth to the People Superberry Hydrate + Glow Dream Mask is one that Eloise and I both love - it’s packed with four different hydrators, Squalane, Hyaluronic Acid, Glycerin, and Betaine, as well as a ton of Vitamin C and antioxidants from superberries. When my skin is feeling especially dull, I cleanse, put on my Cosrx Snail Mucin and then load this on to wear overnight. It makes my skin so bright and helps to fade any dark spots or acne scars.
4) At the risk of sounding insane, my current favorite mini-facial is a trio of rose-scented face masks. I start by using the VO Rose Gommage Peeling Gel for an exfoliating cleanse - it’s gentle enough that the 2 minute scrub with it gets rid of just enough dirt and dead skin. Then I apply the Fresh Rose Face Mask for 10 minutes to soothe and tone my skin with the jelly texture. After I rinse that off, I apply the Korres Wild Rose Night-Brightening Sleeping Facial, and leave it on overnight. I always wake up with the freshest, glowiest looking skin!
Eloise’s Favorites:
1) The Biossance Squalane + Glycolic Renewal Mask is so good at exfoliating your skin in less than ten minutes. I put it on at night after I wash my face and while I do the rest of my evening routine. Then I rinse it off and apply the Drunk Elephant F Bomb with a layer of Biossance Rose Oil on top to seal everything in and when I wake up in the morning, my skin is incredibly smooth and hydrated.
2) The Hanacure Mask is a cult favorite that Dinah and I recently did a full post on, which you can read here. It’s so effective at a deeper cleanse. I’ve been using it once a week for the past month, and it has made a big difference on my pore size and fine lines. It does make my skin feel a little dry after, so I really layer on the moisturizers and oil when I wash it off and again the next day.
3) Speaking of moisture, there’s nothing better than a sheet mask to really drench and nourish your skin after you exfoliate. I also make sure to coat my neck, chest and hands in the extra liquid in the package-sometimes I do my elbows and knees too. These sheet masks from Farmacy are clean gentle but also very effective.
4) When my skin is having a breakout moment (usually because I worked out and then got distracted by the kids and didn’t wash my face right away), I always go back to my tried and true Summer Fridays Jet Lag mask. I know that I’m always talking about this, but that’s because it’s the only face mask I’ve found that moisturizes and shrinks a breakout. It doesn’t work for a big hormonal pimple, but for the little ones that sometimes pop up after I get sweaty or have a long day overindulge, I’ve found it to be very effective in soothing the double hit of breakouts and dry skin that I get in those situations.