[Review] My Beauty Diary: Blooming of Beauty Hydrangea Sheet Mask

Melbourne weather is really not helping my skin at the moment. Even though I'm normally a dry/combination, over the course of a week the area around my nose started peeling, and would not stop no matter how much moisturizer I slapped on. 

The very night before I was to meet someone I actually WANTED to look good for, my skin was still peeling very obviously around the nostrils - mortifying. In desperation I pulled out this sheet mask I'd been saving up to try... My Beauty Diary Hydrangea.

From a quick google search (there is no way I'm deciphering the 繁体字 on the back), it seems this is part of a limited collection release to celebrate the Taipei International Floral Expo. Hence the flowers.


Usage

Asian sheet masks are a really therapeutic way to relax, methinks. You cleanse and tone your face as per usual, sweep your hair well out of the way, rip one of these packs open, and carefully apply the mask onto your face. I say carefully, because MBD masks are a little thin and I've heard of them ripping for some people before. As long as you handle the mask carefully when opening it, everything should be fine.

The mask often comes drenched in essence, so it takes a bit of careful maneuvering in order to get the maximum amount of essence onto your skin. There's wont to be some minor drippage going on, but any excess essence can just be smoothed onto your neck (yay no wastage!).

Plastic sheet covering of the mask - but this is the general shape

Fit

Now I'm not sure whether I have an average face size or not, but MBD masks fit me pretty well lengthwise. No complaints here, it was a comfortable wear.

Effects

This mask claims to have oil-control and soothing properties, and is suitable for combination and oily skin types. This would be great for me on a usual skin day, so I'm not really sure why I chose to use it when I had flaking skin - anyway, it worked. No more flaking skin. 

After sheet masks, there's no need to rewash your face (since you'd probably be negating all the hydrating effects of the last 15-20 minutes), but you can pat some moisturizer over it. After removing this mask, my skin felt really supple and smooth so I forwent the moisturizer before bed. Waking up in the morning, I lightly cleansed my face, applied normal sunblock + powder and headed out the door :) No dryness, no oil attacks, and skin stayed perfect all day - Lucky!

It's recommended that the mask stay on for about 15-20 minutes, but I just left it on until I felt that my skin had sufficiently absorbed enough serum - say, about 30 minutes, or until the mask felt a bit drier.

This didn't have much cooling effect, but I'm not too fussed since it pretty much eliminated my dry skin.


Fragrance

Now I have NO clue what Hydrangeas smell like, but this definitely had a floral scent to it. And also... something very close to a tea-like scent. If anyone's ever had the Pokka Honeysuckle White Tea, the scent is reminiscent of it - sweetened floral tea. I'm averse to strong scents, but this was perfectly fine. 


Price

This was purchased by a friend for me from Sasa in Hong Kong, where MBD is cheap and plentiful. I'd say it probably cost about AUD$0.50 per sheet mask.

You can also find this on the Sasa online shop as well as select ebay sellers. 

**Note that there are fake masks floating about on the internet that can really cause severe allergies if you place it on your skin! I'm kinda paranoid about what happens to my face, and that would scare me off dodgy face masks - but as long as you purchase from a trusted online retailer like Sasa, you should have no worries in that regard.