Review: Pond’s Serum Mask

When I came back to Cape Town in April this year, my skin took a nosedive and I found that I was more dry and breaking out in the middle of the Cape Town autumn season. My daily routine had also changed – I had gone from relaxing and job hunting online in the summer PE season, to moving and preparing to start working in early May in Cape Town.

One of the first changes I made to my skin routine was introducing serum masks – particularly the Skin Brightening serum mask from Pond’s. I’m already familiar with the Pond’s brand, as a whole, and out of genuine loyalty and trust, I decided to put my money into trying out this particular mask in the hopes that it would not only add extra moisture to my skin, but also brighten up my dull-looking skin. Did it work for me? YES! And soon enough, I was masking at least twice a week at night with this mask until my skin was finally back to looking the way I know it can.

So when Beauty Bulletin sent me 3 Pond’s masks to try out, I was major eagerness! Because of how well-aware of the Skin Brightening mask I already am, I decided to only trial the Firming and Wrinkle Correcting serum masks. There are some good and bad things for both masks, so let’s jump right into this review.

A Quick Rundown

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The Little Extras…

I know you should’t judge a book by its cover, but in all honesty, I love the colourful packaging of these masks. They’re eye catching and great to use in my flatlays. There’s enough and relevant info on the front of the packaging to tell you the ingredients and what each mask is for. My only irritant is how you can sometimes struggle to actually tear open the packet. It’s best to grab scissors and cut it open instead.

These masks are priced at around R49.95 at Clicks stores – the general amount that I am personally willing to spend on masks. One serum mask contains 30 times the serum intensity (basically, one serum mask contains the glycerin equal to 30 times usage of the Pond’s Age Miracle Double Action Serum). Although it’s been advised to use one sheet once and then discard it, I’m sneaky and use one mask twice because there’s genuinely enough serum to mask twice. Even if you don’t reuse the actual sheet mask, there’s still enough serum left in the packet to simply massage onto the skin after cleansing.

WRINKLE CORRECTING SERUM

Not that I have any incredibly obvious wrinkles just yet, I do have some lines on my forehead, as well as laugh lines (what can I say – I have too much happiness in me!). I wasn’t expecting this mask to completely take away these lines, but I was hoping to see a little help with evening out some of them. Did this mask do that? Not immediately but I did notice my skin felt physically firmer within 15min after removing the mask. There was nothing uncomfortable about the feeling – my skin didn’t feel ‘tight’, but I did feel a kind of hydration that’s similar to the feeling of a balloon that’s been filled with water.

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Similarly to the Skin Brightening serum mask, the serum in this mask is easily absorbed into the skin and leaves a lovely sheen where you aren’t too shiny, but there’s a healthy glow about you. Within the week that I used it, I definitely saw a little more smoothness on my forehead. No significant changes on my laugh lines, though, but I think with more consistent use, you may see more of a difference.

The size of the mask also fit well enough on my face. It was easy to open the sheet mask and apply it on my face. Of course, there’s lots of serum that you’re dealing with here so it can get a bit messy on your hands; make sure you massage some on your neck. Overall, I would give this a 7.5/10.

FIRMING SERUM MASK

Out of all three masks, this one is my least favourite. This mask definitely does deliver when it comes to giving my skin a glow and radiance, but that’s not the reason I would buy it (not when the Skin Brightening serum mask does this already). This is a mask made for firming the skin and much like the Wrinkle Correcting serum mask, my skin did feel firmer but this is where I got more of a ‘tight’ feeling. Nothing too uncomfortable but it’s definitely something you feel. On a more positive note, this mask smells so good (I prefer its scent over the Wrinkle Correcting serum mask).

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Is your skin hydrated after using this mask? Yes, but I wasn’t a fan of the tacky or sticky feeling that this mask left behind on my face immediately after removing the mask. This feeling still stuck around for an hour after I was done masking. It got slightly better after applying my Neutrogena Hydro Boost Day moisturizer. Within one week of using this mask, I did get a couple of pimples appear on my forehead and cheek. It’s hard to confidently say that this specific mask was the cause (because I also started to trial a Cetaphil cleanser, and the particular week I tried this mask out was also a bit of an emotional one for me – hello hormones).

This mask was also unusually larger than the other 2 masks; there were gaps around my mouth and spaces that the mask couldn’t fill out smoothly. Maybe I have a small face, but I think I would prefer sheet masks that come in two separate pieces (or maybe companies should start making sheet masks in different sizes??). All in all, I would give this mask a 6/10 – scent and amount of serum are big pluses, but it’s the feeling I got afterwards that’s the big thumbs down for me.

Even though I didn’t try out the Skin Brightening mask against these two serum masks, I know enough about it to say that it’s definitely the best out of the three. It’s the instant results, how it genuinely lives up to what its meant to do and the feeling my skin has afterwards that make this my favourite (quite possibly out of all the masks I’ve ever used).

I’m eager to see what Pond’s will release next in it’s skincare range. It was about time that they had some sheet masks for us to add to our skin routines, and they really did deliver with the three that they’ve offered us. It was such a treat to #PowerMaskSA with Pond’s and Beauty Bulletin, and I hope this review gives you enough insight to try out one of these masks for yourself!