Mask Madness, Vol. VII: Nature Republic Bamboo Charcoal Mud Pack

Friday, August 11, 2017

Good afternoon! Today's review is a mask that I picked up months ago. There's a Nature Republic store in my area and they frequently have tantalizing flash sales on the weekend, where products are marked down 50%. Those sales are so tempting, they always make me forget that I don't have a very good track record with Nature Republic products. The Bamboo Charcoal Mud Pack was a hesitant buy, but the ingredients checked out.

This mask comes in a no frills squeeze tube. You get 5.29oz of product, quite a bit. There's no added fragrance, I'm very happy about that. It smells exactly like you would expect a mud mask to smell. The texture of this silt and clay mask is almost silky, it spreads very easily across the skin. It does crack and slowly tug on the skin as it dries, so I seldom let it dry completely.

Ingredients:

Purified water, Kaolin, Bentonite, Methylpropanediol, Charcoal powder, Cucumber, Sodium magnesium silicate, Carbonated water, Pomegranate extract, Acai palm extract, Cranberry fruit extract, Gugjia extract, Plum extract, Blueberry extract, Jujube extract, 1,2-hexanediol, xanthan gum, propanediol, erysobic acid, pentasodium pentetate, phenoxyethanol

I love using this as a part of deep pore cleansing routine, so instead of using water to rinse it away, I use a cleansing oil to break down the mud. This takes it from an ok mask to a really fantastic one. After rinsing away the oily-clay slurry, my skin is left super soft, oil-free, and clean feeling. Sebaceous filaments are definitely improved, though not quite as cleared out as when I use my favorite [I'm from] Vitamin Tree Mask, but that's three times (or more) as much in price.

On occasion, I wear this all over the face but more often than not, I only use this on a portion of my face. I love using this to multimask, smear some of this down my t-zone and pick a more moisturizing mask for my cheeks, jaw, and temples.

I take it off at around 50% dry. A couple min after this. Look at how much oil it sucks out!

On the whole, I don't have a really good success rate with Nature Republic products but this is a slam dunk for me. It's inexpensive, effective, and not irritating, the trifecta really. I would definitely recommend it for folks with oily and combo skin, especially to tackle pores that accumulate sebum and sebaceous filaments. It's a great temporary measure to remove oil, you get a day's reprieve from excess sebum. I like to use it as prep before nights out, events, dates, etc.

I bought it on sale at a Nature Republic store for $6, but you can score it for $9 on eBay or $13 at YesStyle.

What's your favorite mud mask? I used Aztec Secret for years and years, but I find that much too drying these days.

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