Mask Madness, Vol IV: [I'm from] Vitamin Tree Mask

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Good evening (morning? I'm doing some after hours blogging)!

I mentioned this mask on my Instagram a few weeks ago, and it's been heavily featured in the IG My Stories because it's one of my favorite masks to use. This [I'm from] Vitamin Tree Mask absolutely deserves a full post, it deserves every little bit of praise that I can muster.

Not only does the brand name end suddenly in a preposition (I'm from? Who is this person and where are they from? The same Who that is on first base?) but it's also not capitalized, which initially left me confused the first time I read about the mask and was trying to find out who made this green goop. Instead of a bulky plastic tub, 120 grams of this product is housed in a no frills, sturdy glass jar.

The texture and consistency is that of guacamole. It spreads really easy across the skin, especially with the [I'm from] spatula brush. My skin is pretty reactive, but other than a slight tingle I experienced no sensations while this mask was on my face. The tingle wasn't cooling like menthol or the warm up from self heating masks, but more like when lemon juice ends up on my hands but 1/100 times that intensity. The tingle is more pronounced if I were to exfoliate beforehand.

Hippophae Rhamnoides Extract (50.46%), Glycerin, Hippophae Rhamnoides Leaf (11.5%), Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Beeswax, Sodium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate, Polysorbate 60, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, Stearyl Alcohol, Saussurea Involucrata Extract, Selaginella Lepidophylla Extract, Rubus Chamaemorus Fruit Extract, Hippophae Rhamnoides Fruit Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Xanthan Gum, Myristyl Alcohol, Allantoin, Tocopheryl Acetate, Butylene Glycol, 1, 2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Caprylhydroxamic Acid, Boswellia Serrata Resin Extract, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Disodium EDTA, Panthenol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Ethyl Ascorbyl Ether

Hippophae Rhamnoides, the 'Vitamin Tree' is also known as sea buckthorn berry. I thought this was my first sea buckthorn product until I realized that's not true, I've had a moisturizer and some haircare products feature this ingredient (though the berry and the seed oil, not leaf matter), but it's been a minute.

The odor that wafts from this mask is one of the worst skincare scents I've ever had the displeasure of smelling. Sure, as the green color would suggest, there is a leafy, plant matter component. Underscoring that somewhat vegetative scent is something acrid, something that reminds me of stomach bile, coupled with a slightly of musty medicinal You know what though? I don't even mind, that's how much I love this mask.

This mask starts out vibrant green.

And not unlike guac, it oxidizes to a muddy olive color after 15 minutes exposed to air.

I love how my face looks and feels after this mask is washed away. It doesn't dry down or really set so just warm water will wash away the mask with ease. This soothes angry red skin, it deflates blemishes quite effectively, and brightens up my face to boot. My face ends up calmer and clearer, no matter how irritated my skin is before I apply the mask, not to mention also firmer and less puffy. I just find this to be an all around great multitasking mask.

There's so many great things about this mask, but what I consider the most astounding is Vitamin Tree's ability to melt away sebaceous filaments. Eliminating these dried little skin "grits" has been an endless and fruitless endeavor of mine. While products like pore strips and peel off masks provide a temporary vacancy around each follicle, I tend to shy away from them because the pulling sensation can be quite harsh (but oh so satisfying, I'll admit). Upon examining my face after using this mask, I'd say that 90% of any visible filaments appear to have been washed away with the mask. For this aspect alone, I am prepared to award Holy Grail status to this mask. It's that effective.

Close up of nose before mask:

I'm not thrilled about taking pictures this close to my bare face and posting them for all to see but hey, I chose to blog about about skincare, the skincare blogging life didn't choose me.

Here's my after:

The sebaceous filament removal is even more effective when a cleansing oil is used prior to mask application, particularly a drier feeling oil.

I purchased my mask from Memebox in a set for $29, it contained both the silicone [I'm from] brush and a jar of the mask. The mask itself sells at Memebox for $28. I think retail is ~$37 or so for the mask itself, at least that's the price on Wishtrend. You can also find it on eBay for around $34, shipped. The brush is $2-3. In total, I was able to get 18 full masks out of this jar and 6+ partial spot applications. This $/use was pretty acceptable to me, in fact, I repurchased this as soon as I hit the halfway mark on the first jar. I love it that much.

In fact, I found this mask so darn agreeable that I ordered two sister masks from this brand, Ginseng and Honey without much hesitation. My skin did so well with the Vitamin Tree mask that I'm also really tempted by the Vitamin Tree Water Gel as well.

Have you ever had a product that smelled really quite awful, but was really effective? The other smelly product that I liked quite a bit that immediately comes to mind is the sulfur ointment I used to use to spot treat blemishes. I'd take this mask over that sulfurous stench any day!

Product featured was purchased by me. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.