Review: Purederm Sheet Masks

Remember these Purederm masks I bought in Vietnam at the beginning of the year? I finally finished the last of them last month (I bought 2 or 3 of each) and think I can do a fairly decent comparison review.

Now, Purederm has a pretty wide selection of face masks so I had trouble deciding with ones to choose. In the end, I bought 3 different types: Herbal, Red Ginseng and Pearl.

Red Ginseng and Herb contains 23ml of essence, which is standard across the range, while the Pearl mask contained 19ml. 23ml is still pretty generous (beware, the mask driiiips you remove it from the sachet) and I always had extra essence leftover for another mask (Just stick a facial mask sheet in the sachet and leave it refrigerated overnight in a ziplock bag).

The sheet is pretty thick so you don't have to worry about it tearing as you remove it from the packet. I had some problems with the fit of the mask -- too short to fully cover my forehead and a little wide at the sides -- but it wasn't too much trouble to fold and adjust.

The essence used for the masks was a bit too sticky for my liking so instead of massaging the residue in, I usually tissued everything off instead. Even so, my skin sometimes felt uncomfortable (especially with the Herb and Red Ginseng masks) and I often found myself rinsing the essence off.

Compare and Review
Performance wise, the Herb mask did absolutely nothing for me. Other than soothing a developing pimple or two (fine, I give it credit for that), I felt that the essence simply sat on my skin like a bump on a log. It performed okay on the moisturising front but I couldn't really experience the full effects as I kept rinsing my face and applying moisturiser afterwards.

Red Ginseng was a huge disappointment for me. I was expecting more from it as it was really popular with the Korean expatriates in my area. Although it performed a little better than the Herb mask -- I didn't feel the need to rinse this off all time and it was moisturising -- the fake ginseng smell threw me off completely. My boyfriend thought that something in the garbage can was kicking up a stink.

I am not big on fragrance and the scent of the Herb and Red Ginseng masks drove me absolutely wild. The Pearl mask had synthetic scent to it as well but it was bearable compared to the other two. Synthetic herb scents are horrible.

My favourite out of the three was the Pearl mask. It didn't smell too bad and was both moisturising and brightening. I usually mask at night and the brightening effect was able to last for the next two days. No wonder they only put 19ml of essence in this mask. The brightening effect might have been able to last a week if the sachet contained 23ml of essence.

Would I repurchase again? Maybe. I would get the Pearl mask again if it was cheap so I can add it to my travel kit (sheet masks are so convenient for travel) but otherwise, I think that there are better products out there.

I bought these from Ho Chi Minh for about RM2.50 each.