Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Play is Always Therapy...

...so how could I resist this marketing?! The correct answer is...IN NO WAY. Etude House is just so fun! These packs are for pore/sebum control (green) and spot care (purple). Both are wash-off packs. Normally I go for sheet masks, but I love wash-offs because you can spot-apply. The Play Therapy line also has a wash-off brightening (yellow) and two sleeping packs, firming (pink) and hydrating (blue.)

 pic from etudehouse.com


Green:
This is the Soft Clay Pack with a smiley blob of clay (or maybe pumice?) on the tube. I bought the full tube after trying a free sample from an ebay order. Normally I shun clay masks because I find them too drying and also difficult to use. (Have you tried the much-loved Queen Helene Mint Julep mask? You could probably sculpt with it.) But this one is soft and spreadable and ALSO very easy to wash off.

I don't usually go into ingredient detail but in this case, the list was too tiny for me to get a good pic. AND I want to mention some ingredients that make this pack different from other clay masks (from my experience anyway!) Kaolin is, of course, way up on the ingredients list. Also up there are water, glycerin and trehelose. If I remember correctly, trehelose is a sugar substance (-ose) which gives...moisture? Happily bentonite is farther down in the ingredients, which explains the ease in washing off. Other than face packs, all I know of bentonite is that it's used to line man-made lakes! It's that water resistant. Hydrogenated veggie oil is also listed which, along with the glycerin, probably contributes to the mask not drying as hard as most and also not drying out my skin. Yay! Oh, and it smells sort of herbal/tea tree-ish. It definitely shrinks my patches of tiny proto-pimple/blackhead things.


pic from etudehouse.com


Purple:
Purple is Spot-Care and has a gleeful looking broccoli. Even though the face is the same as the clay, Mr. Broc is sort of TOO gleeful if you ask me.  (Big Sweety agrees,"Oh, THAT's not creepy or anything!") Spot-care has kaolin but water and glycerin are it's first ingredients. The glycerin makes it kind of slick. The pack also contains fruit, veggie and oat extracts and tea tree oil which is what it smells like. Very much so, so if you don't like that smell, this pack may annoy you. I love it though!

I'll be honest. I wasn't entirely sure what this pack's purpose was . Are the spots being cared for pimples? Irritated areas (like rosacea?)...*hope hope*. Well, after researching I believe it's for all of the above, as long as your skin can handle what's in it. I think it's especially good for adult acne because, while it has drying ingredients, it also treats your skin well with the oats and things. I imagine it could also soothe bug bites and maybe poison ivy, like calamine does. (Maybe. I don't know for sure. Not a doctor.) In any case, I really like the results even though, sadly, they don't last very long. It temporarily reduces redness and itchiness anywhere and swelling of pimples/rosacea acne/random bumps. This only lasts a day or so in my experience. I tried it on the same spots several days in a row and had some irritation, but I can't be sure that was "bad" or just my skin getting used to a new product. *shrug* All in all I give it a thumbs up though!

Part of me wants to try the firming pack because it's supposed to moisturize really well but...NO!


I must resist the charming pomegranate and stick with what works. (My Beauty Diary Rice Sheet mask not that entertaining. But moisturizing!)

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