6 Face Masks
No matter how many steps in your home skin care routine, the application of a mask—the natural predator of dryness and dullness—is always key. As one mask is never enough to tailor your regime to ever-changing skin-care needs, here, we recommend six to rotate between depending on your dermis’s status. Parched, rough, spotty, or just in need of a little something extra as you settle in for a Sunday evening bath, these formulas prime, nourish, and repair.
Pura Botanicals
Edmonton-based skin-care company Pura Botanicals pipes individual batches of the creamy pink vitamin C–rich Overnight Watermelon Mask into their jars by hand—the lotion looks like cupcake icing, smells delicious, and (best of all) skin drinks it by the gulp-full overnight. Aloe and chamomile soothe while neroli encourages skin cell turnover. Expect to wake up radiant with nary a dry patch in sight.
Charlotte Tilbury
We were encouraged to sample Charlotte Tilbury’s Goddess Skin Clay Mask on a visit to the brand’s counter at Holt Renfrew. One hand was slathered in the cream, and the other was left au natural. Ten minutes later, the mix of Spanish clay and sweet almond and antiseptic frangipane oils was wiped off, and our anointed hand looked as pale and flawless as an anime princess’s (the other hand looked like a weird octopus by comparison). This is baby skin–smoothness, bottled and ready to take home.
Fresh Beauty
A pudding-textured mask in a porcelain jar, Fresh’s Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask is ideal when in need of a quick boost—say, first thing in the morning, or before applying makeup for an evening out. Its lychee extract and firming tea leaves seem to temporarily plump fine lines and create a soft, well-primed canvas for what’s to come. It’s an everyday, “quick n’ pretty” sort of potion ideal when an extra oomph is desired.
Caudalie
The Caudalie Glycolic Peel uses a mild amount of glycolic acid as a chemical exfoliant to buffer away excess oil and dead skin cells, making it a useful tool for anyone who suffers from sensitive, breakout-prone skin. While it’s not a magic anti-acne potion, it can calm down a moderate bout of hormone-induced activity, while fading dark spots and cleaning congestion.
La Prairie
Apply La Prairie’s Skin Caviar Luxe Sleep Mask by brushing it on before bed, like your face is a precious Botticelli painting. By the morning, it may actually resemble one. It’s rich, thick, and soaks into aging skin quickly to deeply hydrate and plump. La Prairie’s patented Cellular Complex turns over skin cells and helps new ones thrive, encouraging the skin to become firmer long-term.
Reassembly
Vancouver’s Reassembly stocks a dusty rose–hued sandalwood mask made with French pink and Moroccan rhassoul clay that comes as a powder packed into a little glass jar. Mix a pinch with water to form a paste—that’s your mask. Not only is the apothecary-style format darling, the product cleanses deeply. Unlike Charlotte Tilbury’s clay mask, which remains supple as long as it’s on the skin, this product dries up to satisfyingly clear out pores, and leaves your face feeling pleasantly perked-up.
