Skinfood Acai Berry Mask and Bdellium Square Facial Brush

(Unfortunately photos in this post were lost due to The Great Deletion of 2014. Some efforts to re-do photos will be made but not all posts will be redone.)

My skin has been so dry lately and I've noticed a lot of micro-exfoliation when I use my Clarisonic which is just exacerbating the problem. I've been rooting around for good ways to keep my skin moisturized and have been getting back to a few mask products I've neglected. So since I've barely touched my Skinfood Acai Berry Mask and it's suppose to help moisturize the skin, I decided to pick it up again.

This product is from the Korean brand Skinfood, which is a brand that adds a lot of natural ingredients into their product. This particular mask has Acai Berry in it and according to the tag it is suppose to 'quench thirsty dry skin with abundant moisture' using Acai Berry extract. It then describes the antioxidant properties of Acai Berry. Color me skeptical...

The product comes in a little cute tub and smells fruity when applied. The consistency looks like apple sauce but it's a bit more fluid than that. It's more a jelly. You can see that there are little bits inside which I thought were smooth beads but they're actually quite scratchy.

When I'm not too lazy, I use my Bdellium Square Facial Brush #365S to apply this on my face. Getting this brush at IMATS was a great idea! I never have to touch a tub mask product with my hands and can apply sticky masks without getting my hands dirty. The bristles are quite soft and after a few washes the shape has not changed nor the bristle texture. I really recommend getting a facial brush if you haven't already.

In regards to the mask...I remember why I never use it. The particles in the gel are actually quite scratchy and harsh. I don't know why they call this a moisturizing mask when it really seems more like an exfoliating product. When I put the mask on, I get a tingly feeling which isn't very pleasant. Sort of like the feeling you get when you put cream onto a really dry patch. Kinda stingy and tingly....

When you wash the mask off, it leaves a little bit of a residue behind which absorbs quickly so that's not a problem. But it didn't do anything for my skin. I still saw a lot of micro-flakiness and considering that it sort of hurts, I'd really rather use something else. I think this is alright as an exfoliant. The particles are quite rough though.

I quite wanted to like this but it just doesn't seem to work for my skin. And in general I'm always a bit skeptical when brands name drop ingredients so I decided to look up the literature on Acai Berry applied topically. (I have to give a high five to my science background here...) Quelle suprise, there is no conclusive evidence to say that Acai Berry applied topically moisturizes. 

Alas, this little cute pot will just have to continue sitting on my shelf...maybe i'll give it to a friend for them to try. It might work better for someone's skin that isn't so troubled. Le sigh.