Jelly isn’t just for your toast and peanut butter sandwiches anymore. Following a recent trend in jelly beauty, such as Boscia’s Jelly Ball cleanser and Givenchy’s pop-up strobe jelly highlighter, our favorite bath and body brand, Lush Cosmetics, has released a skincare companion to their shower jellies. Introducing, the jelly face mask.
Lush Cosmetics debuted five different jelly masks in the beginning of September –
- 1,000 Millihelens, chock-full of witch hazel and green tea for acne prone skin
- Just to Clarify, which features tiny bits of bamboo to exfoliate and zingy papaya juice
- FOMO, a calming blend of calamine (a powder version of the strange pink lotion hidden in the back of your parent’s medicine cabinet)
- The Birth of Venus, a pale blue concoction consisting of kaolin clay and sea and rose waters for hydration
- Bunny Moon, rich with milk and honey and topped off with the delicate scent of roses
Smells are extremely important when it comes to face masks (I almost fainted once over the scent of a blue tansy mask) and some of these masks do intrigue the nose more than the others. The Birth of Venus smells almost exactly of a steaming cup Chamomile tea, different from the aroma I predicted it to have (salty sea and rose). In my opinion, its floral essence was the most appealing out of all the masks. For FOMO, the scent of calamine threw me off because it’s the gross pink lotion that you apply to bug bites. It’s a heavy scent and pretty gross if you’ve experienced the goopy pink lotion in your life. Just to Clarify’s scent was decent, but the papaya in it almost smelled like a papaya three days too ripe. 1,000 Millihelens reeked of witch hazel, which is not a bad thing, but the scent can be overpowering and induce headaches. Sweet Bunny Moon almost smelled like a danish, but one you wouldn’t really want to eat.
Same as almost all face masks for my skin, these masks did not yield immediate results. My skin felt cleaner and smoother after applying them, but there was no “oh my god” effect like I always desire. My pores did feel as though they had been steam-cleaned after using 1,000 Millihelens, due to the astringent traits present in the witch hazel. Using 1,000 Millihelens is probably as close as you can get to a mint-fresh feeling face without even a dash of mint.
Bunny Moon, FOMO and The Birth of Venus all acted as mild moisturizers after being rinsed off. But, Just to Clarify’s Vitamin C content and scrubbing qualities made it my favorite. It was almost like a mild peel with a built in exfoliator to remove the dead skin, almost mimicking one of my favorite skincare products, Pixi’s Peel n’ Polish.
Overall, the jelly-like texture of the masks were satisfying, especially for a person with acne-prone skin. I have tried masks that clearly contain oils and rest heavily on my sensitive skin, making me want to scream soon after the initial application. The lightness of these masks is incredible and makes me feel like they actually rinse off after their five to 10 minute stay on my face is over. The five to 10 minute application time is also a bonus, due to the fact that none of us college students have any time to spare, especially for skincare beyond a simple rinse with tap water once a day.
Right now, my heart aches to try the next revelation within the beauty jelly revolution.