Origins - Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask

 After receiving a bunch of Origins deluxe samples as a 500-point perk from Sephora, I fell in love with the brand. (You  may remember my rave review of Checks and Balances Foaming Cleanser.) It helped that I kept hearing about various Origins products from YouTube beauty bloggers. Tanya Burr mentions Ginzing Eye Cream in one of her faves videos, Lily Pebbles is a huge fan of Drink Up (see one of her many reviews of it here), and someone (I can't remember who, but possibly Kate from Gh0stparties) mentioned this mask.

First impression? The dark grey colour is quite alarming. But being ever the intrepid beauty blogger, I decided to give it a go.

In practice, the colour isn't any better when applied to the face. It makes me look like I've fallen head first into a volcanic mud puddle. I'm pretty sure that if an intruder broke in and stumbled across me with this mask on, they'd me more scared than I would.But despite the less-than-appealing look of the mask itself, you can't argue with the results. Here's what the Origins website has to say about it:

"When environmental toxins, dirt and debris get under your skin, its waste-filtering system gets jammed, pores get clogged, skin looks cloudy. Nature's complexion clean-up crew gets to the bottom of skins overcast condition and clears the way for it to act its best. Activated Charcoal acts like a magnet to draw out deep-dwelling pore-cloggers, White China Clay absorbs environmental toxins, Lecithin dissolves impurities."

Sounds about right. It leaves skin feeling refreshed, deeply cleaned-out and brightened, but without making it dry or irritated. I find that it helps my skin re-balance whenever it's having a rough week. I use it every week or so - whenever my skin needs a bit of deeper cleaning. 

Pro tip: The instructions say "open pores with warm, moist towel" before applying. Though it's tempting to skip this step, don't. It actually does make a difference - the first time I used it I didn't bother. The mask was still awesome and left my skin feeling great, but the second time I followed the instructions exactly and it was even better!