💕😌 2024 Masking Challenge 😌💖

[eshoe]

Welcome to the 2024 Masking Challenge! 

This year is going to be a little different - simplified. Easy. Every month will have a new theme, and that's it. Feel free to join in whenever and wherever. Most importantly - have fun!

Spring Fling - Baskets and bouquets, showers of much-anticipated rain...this month's focus is herbal and floral sensory delights 💮

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January	Fresh Starts - Time for a re-set, or morning masking? However you see it, this month is all about new beginnings.
February	Winter Love - Whether it's a mask you adore, or something extra-special to care for dry winter skin, this month is for some soothing TLC.
March	March Madness - Competition is in the air! Find a $ dupe of a $$$ mask that is share-worthy? Or find a dupe that works even better than the original? Details, please!
April	Spring Fling - Baskets and bouquets, showers of much-anticipated rain...this month's focus is herbal and floral sensory delights.
May	Dew Drops - May Day lore says to wash your face in the dew you collect in the morning of the first day of May for radiant skin. This month is for absorbing all of that good-for-you H2O.
June	Summer Sunshine - Ice cream, sunglasses, SPF, check! Once the sun is down (or before it's up), extra care is most necessary. How do you give your skin cooling repair?

Mask of the Week Misc. Info & Previous Year's Links:

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To Post:

Each week features a different theme, as well as a letter of the alphabet for coming up with new masking ideas. 

Please include the brand and name of the mask you are trying out, as well as a photo if possible. Any other details are greatly appreciated, including scent, fit, adherence, mask type (hydrating, brightening, exfoliating, detox, sleeping, etc.) as well as your overall experience.

Most importantly: Would you repurchase it? 

Second most important: Have fun and merry masking!

2023 Mask of the Week Challenge

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2022 Mask of the Week Challenge

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2021 Mask of the Week Challenge

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2020 Mask of the Week Challenge:

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/2020-Mask-of-the-Week-Challenge-PART-1/m-p/4995162/h...

2019 Mask of the Week Challenge:

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/2019-Mask-of-the-Week-Challenge/m-p/4497678/highligh...

2018 Mask of the Week Challenge:

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/Mask-of-the-Week-Challenge/td-p/3615125   

Thank you @Aaliaa for starting this thread, and giving us a place to share our love for masks💗

[itsfi]

I’ve known this and never doubted it, but this just confirms it - you’re the bravest of us all @heartsmyface! 😳 

[heartsmyface]

@itsfi   I don’t know about that.  Maybe I’m just good at rationalizing myself into things cause I don’t want to miss out on anything potentially awesome.  It helped a lot that it was a biocellulose mask and that rosemary scent...gahhhh😍.  And it turned out like placenta and deer antler velvet did, so it’s just extra renforcement to try unusual things. 

[Shosh85]

@heartsmyface  Oh my goodness, how interesting!! I totally would've bought this one just because it said "Cinderella" on the front 😆 ....... definitely sounds like the perfect mask for gross week! 

[heartsmyface]

@Shosh85   Haha, i bought it cause it said biocellulose.  That was good enough for me.  The Cinderella was a bonus!  I’m actually wearing it right now.  It smells sooooo good of fresh rosemary sprigs!  Best mask scent ever!  I’m out cleaning the deck for spring while wearing it and trying not to think too hard about it.  The rosemary scent is very soothing and makes up for any gross thoughts.  I hope the results are  magical:) 

 

[Shosh85]

@heartsmyface  Oh, good for you!! The scent sounds lovely! Keeping yourself busy is a great idea! I'll be so curious to hear your thoughts on it - I hope it's magical for you too 😊🤞

Also, I second @itsfi's comment - what an awesome view! 

[heartsmyface]

@Shosh85   Let’s see, it dried down and got very thin as the masking session progressed.  The mask was like 1/4 the size it started off as.  It left my skin very plump, hydrated and smelling like rosemary.  There was a light oil residue on my face but nothing greasy.  More thin and slick with a very slight tackiness.  My skin’s been glowing all day.  I saved the extra serum in the fridge (cause opened animal product) to maybe apply tomorrow morning if I’m still feeling the love.  As of right now it’s getting an A+ but I still want more information as to how they harvest the fat cells and what exactly the regenerating benefits are. 

Oh I love our view!  It changes everyday with the weather.  It somehow makes staying home all the time not so bad. 

[Shosh85]

@heartsmyface  Aww, yay! Those results sound wonderful! 😃🙌

[itsfi]

Oooouh, fresh rosemary?! I’m feeling relaxed just thinking about it @heartsmyface! Love the view from your deck! Fingers crossed  for magical results!! 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

[heartsmyface]

@itsfi  Yeah if I ever see rosemary oil as an ingredient in a mask in the future I’m going to buy them all up!  The scent is heavenly!   

[Kim888]

@heartsmyface @Oh wow! Such innocuous packaging too hha 

[heartsmyface]

@Kim888   Right?  There’s no indication that anything is unusual about this until you read the back.  It just looks fancy.  😅. Im wondering how many weird masks I've tried not knowing now, cause sometimes I don’t care to look at the ingredients.  

[haleyvvvv]

I'm intrigued, @heartsmyface!! So many growth factors and hylauronic acid!! But I've done general tissue culture, so my gross meter is probably calibrated differently. 

[heartsmyface]

@haleyvvvv  What’s general tissue culture?  Growing tissue in a petri dish? 

[haleyvvvv]

Effectively, yes, @heartsmyface. For me, it was growing particular cell types in special tissue culture dishes.

[heartsmyface]

@haleyvvvv   The benefits look amazing- almost too good to be true amazing.  I just want to learn where and how the extract is harvested first and I should be okay.  Somehow if it were my own fat cells I’d be okay....I’m trying to rationalize it’s  extract so it’s been processed and isn’t as gross as I think.   How much worse than snail mucin and horse fat can it be?  Edit- I’m not finding a lot but the science looks legit 

[haleyvvvv]

@heartsmyface Yeah, I think its like a ton of potentially beneficial things, but some of them, like some of the growth factors there isn't as much skincare research to the best of my knowledge. But there's some stuff with EGF, so maybe that plus hylauronic acid and collagen, seems like a lot of good things.

Too much detail about potentially where the cells and extracts are from below: 

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I imagine, and I'm guessing, that the adipose cells would be from like surgical procedures^, maybe like liposuction. The extract would likely be after the adipose stem cells are isolated, (potentially combined from multiple sources) and they would be likely grown in a tissue culture plate/dish. Cells in general are constantly producing things, including growth factors, and these can end up outside of the cell. So in the tissue culture dish these factors would end up in the growth media (what the cells are grown in). So the extract would possibly be from this growth media (which needs to be changed every few days, so seeing the "used" media could have any beneficial products seems a bit enterprising).
*I have no idea about this specific product and I am not a skincare chemist/biologist of any sort. Just someone who has degrees in neurobiology and who has done cell culture before. So this is just a hypothesis.*
^It would be great to know the procedure around this. There would need to be ethical approval for this type of procedure and research, and I'm curious about how any compensation for the people whose adipose stem cells were used is working in this case.

[heartsmyface]

@haleyvvvv  Noooooo!!  Ahhh!  That was my fear!  That it was from butt cells!😂. The whole Fight Club soap making montage went through my head and I didn’t want it to be true!   

I think it’s awesome you’re a science enthusiast and you’ve got some insight and are able to clarify things and make educated guesses.  

 I certainly hope compensation is involved, or at least a legal waiver.  I imagine a lot of people don’t care what happens to the surgical....excess, and are willing to sign it away.  

i don’t think I paid a lot for these.  Maybe ¥600-¥800 ($7-$10cdn)so compensation sounds unlikely but what do I know? Maybe they get a discount on the surgery. 

[haleyvvvv]

Oh no!! I mean, it is more like, these cells are likely long descendants of these "harvested" adipose cells. And it isn't the cells themselves, its what they make, so its not like actual butt cells, @heartsmyface 😂

For compensation, I mean, it would be a bulk kind of thing, maybe? So like each mask isn't too much, but like there must have been an R&D budget? Maybe like a pharma company that then discovered all of these factors being produced and developed a skincare company/arm? But also, it is very likely that they didn't receive anything, which would be one thing if it was for health/scientific research (and they should definitely be compensated), but once it starts to be for profit, then I am like boooo if no compensation. Who knows 🤷‍♀️

[eshoe]

Well this was an informative and slightly unsettling discourse, @haleyvvvv @heartsmyface 😂

[haleyvvvv]

@heartsmyface @eshoe I didn't mean for it to be unsettling!! I tried hiding the more "gross" bits under a spoiler tag 😅

[eshoe]

I know you did, @haleyvvvv - but that is like the equivalent of a Bioré strip with a spoiler @heartsmyface 😉