Mint Condition

I love Lush. I just flipped through their Christmas catalogue and my eyes lit up browsing all their brightly coloured, festively packaged gift sets. There's something about how constantly inventive and appealing to the senses their products are that satisfies my love of novelty and a lil' self-pampering. And unlike cosmetics which take forever to be used up, I don't struggle to get through body products and skin care. Emptying a product I enjoyed using throughout gives me immense satisfaction, and the best part is being able to repurchase or try something different without guilt (not that I don't have backups of shower gels and random soaps lying around that I haven't touched). The latest product I've tried from Lush is the Mask of Magnaminty, my first experience with one of their "fresh" masks.

Mask of Magnaminty is an exfoliating, deep cleansing clay-based mask. It looks like choc mint ice cream with its green colour and crushed up aduki beans, and smells a bit like it too. It's a gritty, thick paste with ground up red beans that feels more like you're putting raw food on your face than something synthesised in a lab. When you're applying it to the skin with your fingers, there's not a whole lot of stickiness going on and I'm slightly concerned about bits of the mask falling off my face.

It's gently minty upon application, though nothing overpowering, and the minty sensation reduces with time. I usually leave it on for 15-20 minutes, during which the mask will slightly harden but remain mostly wet, depending on how thickly you've slathered it on. It definitely doesn't harden and tighten, uncomfortably/hilariously immobilising facial movement, like other clay masks. It's quite easily washed off with warm water. I like to massage it in with my fingers while washing it off to get in some extra manual exfoliation. Due to its coarse, granulated texture, and the presence of peppermint oil, it may be too abrasive and irritating on sensitive skin.

After it's washed off, my skin is left feeling refreshed, purified and scrubbed. While I don't really detect any instant glowing effect and it doesn't banish spots immediately after use, it's a mask I reach for when I need a good, minty deep cleanse and to slough away any dry, flaky bits. I'm a big fan of the unusually chunky composition and how much it reminds me of something edible, and who doesn't love a face mask for some welcome "me time"?

Ingredients: Bentonite Gel, Kaolin, Honey (Mel), Talc, Ground Aduki Beans (Phaseolus), Glycerine, Evening Primrose Seeds (Oenothera biennis), Peppermint Oil (Mentha piperita), African Marigold Oil (Tagetes erecta), Fair Trade Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla Planifolia), Limonene, Fragrance, Methylparaben, Chlorophyllin