You could ask 100 people the first thing they think of when someone says Korean or Japanese skincare, and I reckon a good 90 of them would say the same thing: sheet masks.
Over the years, we've all witnessed the rise of the sheet mask. We're now at the point where you can find imported sheet masks by the likes of Tony Moly in Boots for £5 each (yes, five pounds), and where western brands have started to create their own.
I'll be honest though, whilst I may follow the 10 step Korean skincare routine, I don't actually use sheet masks that often. Why? Well, simply put, I just forget, and I also find a clay mask once a week is usually enough. Despite that, I am partial to a good sheet mask.
The plump, dewy, hydrated sensations you get after using a sheet mask is almost unbeatable, but you really start to question how much that feeling is actually worth. I mean would you willingly pay £5 per time, or even £2? Personally, I just can't justify that, and I think it puts the humble sheet mask out of reach of so many. But it doesn't need to be that way.
Whilst wandering the beauty stores of Tokyo in 2016, I noticed that sheet masks were sold in bulk, and at a reasonable price. What do I mean by 'bulk' though, am I talking 5 or 10 sheets? Nope. I'm talking 20, 30, 40. So of course, I stocked up a little, purchasing a few packs from the likes of Kose and Hada Labo, but my favourite is LuluLun, who actually specialise in sheet masks!
LuluLun's packs are colour coded based on skin types and skin concerns, but at the time, I had literally no clue what I was doing, everything on the pack was Japanese, and my free trial of a kanji conversion camera app was spent trying to work out what the buttons on the washing machine at our Airbnb meant, so I just picked up a few different colours and ran with it.
When I got back home to Manchester, I did a bit of reading about LuluLun, and found that they're quite popular in Japan. I also found that the pink version is for moisture balance, which seemed quite basic. Upon looking at the pack, I could see that it had some notable ingredients - Glycerin, for hydrating the skin, appears second on the list, with Niacinamide, renowned for brightening, reducing fine lines, improving enlarged pores as well as Hyaluronic Acid.
A single box contains 42 sheet masks, and according to LuluLun, each box contains the equivalent of four bottles of serum! Obviously, we don't want the sheet masks to dry out, so you have to take a bit of care when taking an individual mask out. First, you peel the label from the top of the pack. Beneath that, there's plastic covering that sits on top of the sheet masks to lock the moisture in. So when you pull out a mask, you need to place the plastic back on top. Also, pro tip, the serum settles at the bottom of the pack, so you may want to store it upside down to ensure the mask at the top is nice and moist.
When you purchase a single mask, it's usually dripping in essence, but with the LuluLun masks that isn't quite the case. That being said, it has just the right amount of moisture to give you that fresh sheet mask glow. LuluLun class this particular sheet mask as a daily, which you leave on for 10-15 minutes, and can be used day and night, to replace your skincare routine.
I tend to use the product in the evenings, after I've cleansed and patted my skin dry. The fitting is standard, and fits my face pretty well. I'd typically leave it on for 15-20 minutes, and the product doesn't tingle throughout that time. Once peeled off, my skin feels immediately plumper, softer, hydrated and has that gorgeous glassy-looking sheen, which is exactly what I expect from a sheet mask.
As I mentioned at the start of the post, I don't sheet mask all too often, so it did take me quite some time to finish off the pack of 42. Once I did run out, I looked online to repurchase, and found that eBay was the cheapest place to buy, with a box of 42 masks selling for about £20, shipped from Japan - that's less than 50p per mask.
Would I repurchase? Absolutely, and I already have! I would highly recommend LuluLun's Pink Moisture Balance sheet masks, partly because of the price point but mostly because they do everything that you'd expect a sheet mask to do.
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