Product Review: Skinfood Olive Mask
Skinfood Olive Mask, 100g, CAD$21.99
I wrote this on behalf of Joseibi as one of the guest writers whom she invited, since I have access to more stuff over here in Asia than most European and North American readers and users of skincare made in Korea and Japan. Just to give you an idea of my skin type, I am 34, have combination oily skin, and currently reside in Singapore for the time being.
I got this Olive mask from Skinfood some time back, and have been using it once daily on top of my daily skincare routine. What I normally do is to put a thin layer of this mask with the help of a serving spoon(given free of charge by the store assistant at Skinfood) onto my face, and then wait for it to be absorbed or to sit in into the skin’s upper layers, after the cleansing of skin is done. This mask claims to be “A mask pack that is applied thinly and keeps moisture onto the skin to relieve severe dryness, flakiness, and puffiness with Spanish olive oil.” The ingredients include caprylic/capric triglyceride, kaolin, hydrogenated coconut oil, sucrose, butyrospermum parkii(shea butter), euphorbia cerifera (candelilla) wax, sorbitan laurate, octyldodeceth-25, decyltetradeceth-25, beeswax, PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate, olea europaea (olive) fruit oil, water, perfume, butylparaben, persea gratissima (avocado) oil macadamia integrifolia seed oil, CI 15985, CI 42090.
The mask felt like a rather oily greasy mask at the beginning, but I can attribute it to the few ingredients of macadamia seed oil, beeswax, spanish olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil, and the two waxes of beeswax and candelilla wax, and hence, it felt very emollient on the skin. But beyond being an emollient mask, it had fine little granules inside it. After 5 minutes were up, I scrubbed the face using this layer of mask, adding a little bit of water throughout and concentrating on the areas where there was keratin or dead skin cells. After washing, the skin felt cleaner and moisturized, without being stripped of moisture. Although technically, I did not have any perceivable dry areas, owing to my skin’s nature, I felt that this mask had helped to act as an exfoliant without causing any sensitive reactions, owing to the emollient oils within, and personally, I loved the texture of the skin which was really feeling quite soft after the mask was washed off. Of course, one might get a similar effect if one mixes the various oils, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil, and shea butter together to get a similar consistency to this mask, but that would require a degree of knowledge about chemistry to get it right.
Joseibi
May 17, 2011 at 11:25 am (736 days ago)Yay!!! Kev Jang’s first review!
I have used similar products from L’Occitane before and my skin seems to like the Olive Oil! (my hair too – L’Occitane had a hair mask with organic olive oil but sadly it was discontinued!)
I am very interested to try out Skinfood. Definitely on my wishlist after I use up my current array of goodies!
Great review, Kev!!
Kev Jang
May 17, 2011 at 12:57 pm (736 days ago)Joseibi, I would love to try out the Acai Berry Mask and the Honey and Red Orange mask as well, if not for the fact that this Olive Mask goes a long long way. I have heard rave reviews or comments on the other masks within this new range. Personally, the earlier versions of masks, such as the black sugar scrub mask(I got a sample once), the black sesame heating mask, and the banana yogurt mask, are really good. I love the banana yogurt mask which actually soothes sensitive skin while moisturizing. Yes, Skinfood is really awesome for the reasonable cheap price!
Kev Jang
May 17, 2011 at 1:03 pm (736 days ago)There is another catch, since this olive mask is actually made from plant oils. Never ever leave it out near somewhere hot or humid, because if you are not careful, you might discover that some of the oils inside this mask can be seen coming out in some form of bead like ‘perspiration’. No, it is not separation of ingredients, but it has to do with the oily texture of the mask. I could see a distinct greenish coloured oil…..
Joseibi
May 18, 2011 at 11:51 am (735 days ago)@Kev Jang – it’s really great that a natural brand actually works! I find a lot of the ‘western’ natural brands, esp. equivalent to Skinfood price wise, are just mediocre and the packaging looks it someone just bottled them from their kitchen!
Love the Koreans for this.
Wow, didn’t know about the oil oozing from the jar…I will keep that in mind! I am interested to try and then discovered that Skinfood.ca doesn’t carry a lot of the products I wanted – the Salmon Brightening Eye Cream, dark circle concealer cream, etc – will have to buy online from Korea! I wish they could include the whole lineup. I don’t know why but Canada, if we are lucky to get these brands at all, only get a small fraction of the total products. I guess our market is relatively small. So sad for beauty junkies like me but thank God for those Korean sellers!
Kev Jang
May 19, 2011 at 1:36 am (735 days ago)Hi Joseibi, I think that it is specific to the Olive mask, and no other mask in Skinfood seems to have this issue, probably because the olive mask has about 5 oils(including shea butter) and 2 waxes. That makes it rather oily in feel, and probably not the most ideal for very oily skin which is acne-prone. But I feel that even combination skin can benefit from it, other than dry or normal skins, because the oils do help to create a balance in terms of the moisture-oil balance on the skin, and are skin-friendly ingredients. I used to love LUSH when I lived in Canada, although the prices are not really cheap for body soaps and find that the idea of putting food substances inside your soaps rather interesting and cool. Of course, Skinfood is a Korean brand which I have always compared to LUSH because they both have that “European farmers’ market” concept which is very refreshing.
Kev Jang
May 19, 2011 at 1:41 am (735 days ago)The Salmon Brightening Eye cream is probably the best in the eye creams sold at Skinfood, and it’s the eye cream which I would recommend for puffy eyes and dark eye circles actually. The texture tends to be rather thick so a little goes a long way.
Maria
May 19, 2011 at 4:55 am (734 days ago)Well, i think personally skinfood is okay to use on your body or hair, but I would not use it on my 35 year old face, the textures are way too coarse like for instance their famous sesame hot pack or the white ginseng mask. You are right to say that it’s similarish to lush, fun, cheap and cheerful. I guess it is okay if your skin is not dry, or sensitive it is great to try it out. But I would not stretch it to being “natural”. It is not jurlique, or ren that’s for sure.
Kev Jang
May 19, 2011 at 10:55 am (734 days ago)Hey Maria, I suspect that the reason why you do not like Skinfood might be that you have had some bad experiences with some products. Of course, the brand is really very very huge in terms of its turnout of products and there are a lot of things which are very fine and rich in textures for even matured skins in their 30′s and beyond, such as the Platinum Grape Cell line, and Ancient Rice line, which are meant for dry sensitive skin. I think that the Potiron Au Lait and Avocado lines are among the best ones for dry skin especially in Canadian weather, and perhaps it also has to do with skin compatibility too. What works for one person might not always work for another. But you should always test out the product before getting a full size ideally, and that is why there are testers in the stores and if not, samples given out to customers to try out. (Incidentally, Joseibi and I are in our 30′s and we might not necessarily have the same reactions on using Skinfood unlike your reactions to the White Ginseng mask. I am testing it out later when I do get a chance to see if it is the problem with the white ginseng mask itself.)
maria
May 19, 2011 at 7:37 pm (734 days ago)You are probably right, Kev. Each skin type is unique and each budget has to be considered. But since coming to HK, I have tried some mid-range korean brands like Enprani, Elisha Coy, Skinfood, Missha and Sooryehan. And, yes, there are okay but nothing seriously spectacular. Except maybe Missha’s signature bb cream, which was a nice surprise. Maybe I am spoilt from years of living in japan and using some great products there. Like i would rather recommend sourcing out Albion’s mid-range lines like Exage and Exage White, or the skin conditioner which are absolutely great. Or even Fancl in my opinion is much more natural than Skinfood. Their cleansing oil is anything short from being amazing. Anyhow, I have just came back from Tokyo and I got so many new Japanese hit products to try out like new Albion Infinesse, Est, Cle etc.etc.
Joseibi
May 20, 2011 at 4:37 pm (733 days ago)@maria – so envious of you. I love Japan! Had the best shopping in Tokyo in 2003. Such a long time ago…and hope to be back again some day!!
As far as Korean brands go, my main loves are Sulwhasoo and The History of Whoo. The other brands have one or two ‘star’ products (just like most western brands). Sometimes I do yearn to use J-brands again but honestly, the accessibility is an issue here even in Toronto! We get all the korean main brands like LG and Amore, but it’s very hard to get the J-brands here. So over the past few years I almost used K-brands by default now. I adore Albion but it’s not that easy to get other than from ichibankao and it’s been marked up so much with shipping!!
Fancl is much more natural because it’s additives free, just like the lesser known HABA. Even HABA’s cleansing oil (33% Squalane) is better by a mile than everything else I had used, but not hyped enough to be well known (sadly for them – it’s a good brand).
My main complaint about korean skincare is the heavy fragrance (except Su:m37). Sometimes I do want to use J-brands again just to give my nose a break from all the fragrances!
chucky.xi
July 2, 2012 at 1:45 am (325 days ago)I have oily skin and it has some acnes . Can I use this mask ?