review: freeman charcoal & black sugar face polishing mask

I've seen these Freeman masks everywhere so I decided to give one a try. I've heard a lot of hype about how amazing charcoal masks are, especially since Glam Glow entered the beautisphere about a year or two ago, but I am not about to drop $70 dollars on a tiny jar of coal and mud. So this prompted me to try a cheaper alternative.

 the Freeman Charcoal and Black Sugar Face Polishing Mask  goes for only $1.97 at Walmart for the little single-use package, which is .5 oz for your face and neck.

The package says that this mask:
- absorbs oil and impurities without over-drying the skin
- exfoliates away dulling skin cells for softness and clarity
- is perfect for all skin types

I followed the directions and applied it all over my face and neck and this is where I ran into a problem. I don't know if I was just naive, but when I squeezed out the product it looked and felt like just a regular scrub. It was very grainy and didn't have the texture I was expecting from a 'mask'. It was kind of difficult to apply it evenly on my skin because all the little sugar bits wanted to stay together. It also started to get really messy and crumbly and chunks were falling on the counter and down my shirt. After a couple minutes I was able to distribute the mask fairly evenly.

                                         

I then waited, as directed, for 5-7 minutes for the mask to sink in, set? Not really sure what the waiting did, I didn't feel the mask doing anything, but I had faith in whatever secret process was going on in my skin. After the 7 minutes I "gently massaged" the mask into my skin for about 1 minute, which was slightly unpleasant as there were A LOT of sugar particles and it started to hurt after the first 20 seconds or so. Rinsing it off my face with warm water was easy and quick, the mask didn't cling too much to my skin and just washed right off. The end result was actually quite nice. My skin felt really smooth and soft and it wasn't red at all from the exfoliating, which surprised me and the mask did as it advertised and did not dry out my skin at all.

My final thoughts on this mask is positive. Although the application was a bit messy and it took a little elbow grease and some wincing to exfoliate, the end result was very nice and it did what was promised.  My makeup went on amazing as well, after using this plus it was dirt cheap, which is always good in my book.

I would definitely recommend this mask to somebody who is about to go to an event or for people who wear heavy or full coverage makeup because it makes for the perfect base. I wouldn't suggest this mask for regular use though, because of the exfoliant. Im definitely going to try more masks from this line. Which ones do you like?

:) ttyl
madeleine