REVIEW: MASKS FROM ILLI

"There are no ugly women in the world, just lazy ones."

This saying is SO true...if you want to be pretty, you can't be lazy!

I'm sure most of you have realised that I'm a HUGE fan of masks, whether it be wash-off masks, face sheet masks, or sleeping masks!

I personally prefer using paper masks which are made of cotton or cotton blend as opposed to gel masks - I dislike the slimy feeling of the mask when spreading it onto my face with my bare hands, and also because they always seem to slide down my face! I also prefer essence masks over wash-off masks, as it's more convenient, and I like that the essence absorbs into my skin instead of me having to wash the mask off afterwards.

I'm usually quite lazy during the winter when it comes to masks, as it feels really cold putting a mask onto my face and leaving it there for so long, but since it's summer now, it's MASK TIME AGAIN!!! For the past month, I have been using masks every night or every second night, and my face is great now (many compliments from my hubby and from friends)!!

I have quite a large collection of masks - some cheap ones and some more expensive ones. I use the more expensive ones usually after I've completed a home facial, and I use the cheaper ones on the other days.

What I look for in a sheet mask:

- The type of material the mask is made out of: paper, cotton, gel

- How much essence is on the mask

- The shape of the mask, whether it covers my face properly

- Whether it will leave a sticky feeling on my face after removing the mask

- How effective the mask is

In this post, I will be reviewing the masks from illi

I first came across this brand when I received the illi Green Tea Brightening Mask from my Memebox Global #11, and I instantly fell in love!!! I then went to buy the other masks from the same brand to see if they were all as great!!!

1) illi Green Tea Brightening Mask

Material: Thick, silky cotton blend, soaked completely in essence
Scent: A pleasant flowery scent
Shape: It's a 2-part mask - the top part covers the forehead, eyes, and nose; the bottom part covers the mouth and chin. The mask covered my face completely, even the sides of my nose (it's really hard to find sheet masks that can cover every bit of my face so well)!!!
Effectiveness: After removing the mask, I gently massaged the remaining essence into my skin, and it did absorb quite quickly, so it didn't leave much of a sticky feeling on my face. My face felt hydrated, pores tightened, and I had a smoother complexion, but as for its brightening effects, I'm not so sure.
Price: HK$22 per mask (around US$3 per mask)
Rating: 9/10 (it would be 10/10, but it's always out of stock and it's so hard to get hold of)!!

2) illi Ginseng Firming Mask

Material: Thin gel-type mask
Scent: Flowery perfume scent
Shape: It's a 2-part mask - the top part covers the forehead, eyes and nose; the bottom part covers the mouth and chin. The mask does not cover my nose entirely, and it needed a lot of adjusting for it to be able to cover my face properly. Again, I don't really like gel-type masks, because of the slimy feeling when putting the mask onto my face!
Effectiveness: After removing the mask, all the essence had completely absorbed into my skin, but it did leave a slightly sticky feeling on my face. I realised that my pores look slightly smaller, and my skin feels slightly firmer, but my face does feel slightly dry too.
Price: HK$22 per mask (around US$3 per mask)
Rating: 7/10

3) illi Lotus Moisture Mask

Material: Cotton blend mask, mask not soaking wet in essence

Scent: A super lotus flower scent!!!

Shape: One piece mask with no slits on the edges, shape was okay (the holes for the eyes and mouth weren't too big) but it didn't cover the sides of my nose very well!
Effectiveness: The essence absorbed into my face very quickly, and hardly left a sticky feeling, but there wasn't any essence left for me to massage into my face afterwards! It did leave my skin feeling hydrated and moisturised though.

Price: HK$15 per mask (around US$2 per mask)

Rating: 8/10

4) illi Mugwort Calming Mask

Material: Cotton blend mask, mask not soaking wet in essence

Scent: Cannot define the scent, but it's a plant, and the scent made me want to sneeze!

Shape: One piece mask with no slits on the edges, shape was okay (the holes for the eyes and mouth weren't too big) but it didn't cover the sides of my nose very wellEffectiveness: At first, it only made a tingling sensation on my face, but after a while, it made my face feel so itchy that I had to remove the mask within 10 minutes!! I instantly went to wash off the essence with water, then applied a calendula toner to calm my face - this has NEVER happened to me before!!! This was supposed to be a calming mask, but it did everything but calm my face!!!

Price: HK$12 per mask (around US$1.60 per mask)

Rating: 1/10

illi also has a Camellia Oil Intensive Nourishing Mask (retails at HK$12 per mask) which I have yet to try, but it is in the same series as the Lotus Moisture Mask and the Mugwort Calming Mask, so I don't have high hopes for it.

OVERALL VIEW:

I think out of all the masks from illi, I think I would only repurchase the Green Tea Brightening Mask; I thought all the other masks would come in the same material, texture, and shape as the Brightening Mask, but unfortunately, that was not the case. The Ginseng Total Ageing Care Mask was the same price as the Brightening Mask, so I thought they would be of a similar effect, but if I had known that it was a gel-type mask, I would not have purchased it at all! The other masks, although much cheaper, were made of a cheaper material, the shape of the mask did not cover the sides of the nose, and they were not as effective - for the same type of mask, I could've paid for a much lower price!

I have also tried some other products from illi that I love, but I will be talking about them later in my other posts!!

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!!!