You must have seen the hype surrounding the “mask of the season” on Instagram, marketed by your favorite celebs/ Youtube beauty gurus. The most popular being the pink clay masks and the visually impactful bubble mask. They look so exciting and highly raved, it is hard not to want to try everything you see.

To the more discerning crowd, you might be wondering if these masks are suitable for you in the first place. Of course every product is made different but in this article, we will only discuss the different types of facial masks you see in the market and their functions to help you make better decisions!

Clay masks

Clay masks are my favourite simply because they are largely organic and there are so many different permutations of it suitable for any skin type! The typs of skin which will best benefit from a clay mask would be oily skin to combination skin or shiny t-zones. Most clay masks (especially the ones with charcoal) absorbs excess oil from the skin’s surface. Charcoal especially has the ability to draw out dirt from congested pores. Depending on the formulation of the rest of the mask, a good formulation will leave the skin matte but not overly dry or tight.

Overnight masks

The perfect solution to the lazy bugs in us! You might have heard of people who mask every day and wondered why you can’t keep up as you imagine these people painstakingly apply sheet masks or rinse off masks every night and taking them off being bed. I’m betting for most days, they use overnight masks/ sleep-in masks that constantly infuse their skin with hydration and nutrients as they sleep. This is largely beneficial for people with drier skins and sleep in air-conditioned rooms (I know I am guilty of that!). Leaving the mask overnight might sound like an overkill but it actually allows the ingredients more time to work. And most of these masks are lightweight in texture so you don’t end up with a greasy face print on the pillow the next morning.

Sheet masks

Most sheet masks are made from some kind of paper or cotton that is soaked with effective ingredients. The variety of sheet masks in the market would by far be the greatest due to its convenience and marketability. The best part is it the leftover ingredients in the masks can be used on other body parts too. My only beef with it would be the preservatives most of these sheet masks contain. Have you ever cleared our your drawers only to find some sheet masks from years ago still siting there and when you take the mask out, you discover that it is still pristine like a macdonald cheeseburger? https://www.today.com/food/mcdonalds-burger-fries-shows-no-sign-rot-after-6-years-t60026

Bubble masks

Bubble masks start off in a gel form and slowly transforms into a bubbling foam once applied to the face. Due to a meme circulating around https://metro.co.uk/2017/05/24/people-are-going-mad-for-a-new-face-mask-that-turns-your-face-into-a-bubble-cloud-6659270/, we see a resurgence of the bubble mask in the market (yes this was on trend more than 8 years ago!) and it looks fun, but whether the foaming effect due to carbonation is good for the skin or its reaction with the rest of the mask’s active ingredients is debatable. It would be wise to check the ultimate pH value of the product after carbonation as most would be too alkaline for our skin which should be at a happy pH 5.5. And because a mask is a product which you would leave on your skin for a while, this should be an issue for concern.  

“Peeling” masks

This brings to mind the AHA/BHA/ glycolic acid/ lactic acid/ fruit enzyme solutions which help to gently remove the topmost layer of dead skin cells and chemically exfoliate the skin from the dirt and gunk in our pores. This is many people’s favourite treatment to do when their skin feels dull or congested and clogged because it helps to gently resurface the skin and also makes the extraction of comedones so much easier. Just be sure to get one of appropriate concentration for your skin and do patch tests first before slathering yourself with it!

The real Peeling masks

Peel off masks (aka the kind you pull off your skin when it dries) don’t actually have the ability to pull and drag out those blackheads. And those that do, if those online videos are real, can even damage the skin and cause irritation. Without prior softening of the comedones, using a peel-off mask to give that visual satisfaction of having pulled out the blackheads would be physically harsh on your skin compared to what the beauty gurus have advocated for us to do, (only use our weak fingers (fourth and the pinky) to apply creams and such).

Constant tugging at the skin can cause it to lose its elasticity and bouciness, pore walls can loosen, causing enlarged pores. Some of these peel off masks feel cooling as it dries and the reason is the alcohol they use and this can dry out the skin. Basically, the reason you don’t get the moist bouciness other gel masks should give you.