Sometimes I crave a bit of nitty gritty when it comes to skincare; I appreciate the “kid gloves” approach (which is my own, 90% of the time) but when it comes to my pre-period week or I’ve been burning the candle at both ends or troughing through vast amounts of cheese (which always makes my skin look peaky), I want something that’s fast and just a little bit furious.
Enter stage right: exfoliating, resurfacing face masks. These feel positively old-school now, with their AHA-powered dead-skin-sloughing action and slightly tingly formulas, but by Jove are they effective. Instant brightness, instant smoothness and the feeling that someone has gone over your face with a very small, but very powerful skin hoover.
I say that they’re old-school, but only because AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids) have now been mainstream for a while – I feel as though all the beauty excitement gets used up on retinol! And although I’ll admit that products with retinol have entirely changed the look and feel of my skin (posts coming up, brace yourselves), nothing beats the instant satisfaction of sitting in the bath wearing a powerful, fast-working exfoli-mask. I also say old-school (blimey, talk about over-explaining oneself!) because face masks seem to be having a bit of a back seat moment. At least the ones in pots and tubes. The sheet ones appear to be part of a booming industry, which upsets me because a) I can’t abide the feel of the cold, slimy mask ...