The Experiment: unt aqua therapy vita-botanic hydrating gel masque

AQUA THERAPY by UNT
hydrating gel masque
rated 3 and a half out of 5 stars

I bought this tube of Aqua Therapy on discount with my purchase of C*Clarity from UNT earlier last month.

It was a bit of a splurge purchase. It was being discounted for purchasing C*Clarity and at its lowered price (under $20) basically pulled my spending urges far enough where I bit. And bought it.

A few days ago, the end of my nose was a bit irritated. It was very dry, rough and kinda flaky. Not a sexy feeling by any stretch of the word.

I decided to use of the masque to see how well it'd work on this dry patch of skin to re-hydrate my face.

ANALYSIS

It applied smooth and light and cool, I expect due to those ingredients that are supposed to provide cooling sensation is supposed to relax and calm skin irritations caused by dehydration. I also rubbed it gently, which was not instructed nor do I know if it was prescribed and will be something I will do differently the next time I use it.

Then I sat back and allowed it to do its work.

The gel advertises itself as being able to restore suppleness from the deepest layer of the skin, therefore being the ultimate solution to quench your dry skin's thirst. With it's mix of natural and rather unnatural ingredients, it supposedly is supposed to provide high soothing relief to water deprived skin and seals off moisture in the bottom layers.

I understand where it gets its claims that it provides a soothing relief. It was like I had a water masque on it. But it wasn't unpleasant or uncomfortable, just cool.

As for the ingredients, it involves two kinds of acid (NASHA-grad hyluronic and aspartic) as well as cogongrass extract and spiraea ulmaria extract. But that's not what stood out for me.

Another "hydrating" ingredient used in it (and part of its "complex") is urea. For those who haven't gone through a thorough biology education, urea is the main ingredient in urine. That isn't to say that one is applying actual urine on your face, but it definitely made me blink for a moment.

After 15 minutes, I was starting to feel a tightening on my face. The product was beginning to dry out, leaving a tacky feeling on my face, like I had left a thin layer of glue. But since you are only supposed to have the masque on for only 15 minutes, I did not think much of it.

RESULTS

Despite what is advertised it certainly isn't a quick fix for "hydrating" skin. My nose felt a little smoother, but not by much. Even after carefully patting the skin dry to prevent the towel from possibly creating friction on my face, it still felt noticeably rough that only a healthy smattering of night cream before bed was able to generally fix.

It may have long term benefits, but certainly not short-term.

I can see the benefits in helping your face and neck when they are itchy and irritated for when your skin is dry. Which means it'll be perfect for when winter comes and that is legitimately a fairly significant issue with me and my skin.

But it is not the miracle cream it seemed to advertise itself to be, and for that it lost stars. But ultimately, it still has a use and does work for something.

This post was written by me without sponsorship or endorsements.

The Experiment: balea skin firming peel-off face mask

About a week ago I started a new skin care regime, a regime that now requires me to wash my face and put serums and stuff on every morning and evening.

Now, I don't have bad skin. It isn't overly oily and it doesn't have any weird bumps or ridges or anything. The worst thing that can be said about my skin really is that it tends to scar easy. But the skin on my face is not used to continuous use of serums or formulas every day, morning and night.

This, plus the stress and constant running around that comes with preparing and going to a fan convention (of which I'm still filing stories on) has actually started to make my cheeks feel dry and rough after a few days.

I have cut down on the use of the products to once a day for now and am now in search of a good facial mosturizer. But until then...


It is now the Monday after the madness, and I decided this would be a good time to try this product that I picked up at Shoppers Drug Mart about two weeks ago for about $2 dollars.

Pictured here, it is a product by Balea and is a skin firming peel-off face mask that is hypoallergenic. It is made with caramel and a "fresh honey scent" that "looks and feels like real honey." And when dry, it peels away to reveal "firmer looking skin that feels soft and supple."

Looking at the ingredients though, caramel and honey aren't even one of the primary ingredients. In fact, alcohol denat., polyvinyl alcohol (a type of wood glue of all things), propylene glycol (oil), vp/dmapa acrylates copolymer and caprylyl glycol all list before honey does. And the honey isn't even natural honey, but hydroxypropyltrimonium honey, something used in a lot of Burt's Bees product.

The ingredients aren't too comforting, but none of them are actually toxic by looks, so I decided to go ahead with it and try it.

After cleansing as instructed (I used Shiseido Benefiance creamy cleansing foam) and pulling back all my hair to keep it from my face, I applied the product to my face.

After a few minutes, I felt a slight stinging sensation, especially on my cheeks.

And before you jump and claim it's an allergy reaction, it wasn't. Just the chemicals.

I don't see that as a particularly good sign about the product as I usually attribute that to chemicals reacting and drying out the skin on my face, in this case, the alcohol, which is the exact opposite of what I want happening to my cheeks especially.

Anyway, it eventually cooled down and began to harden (that would be the wood glue) after about 10 minutes. I waited the maximum 20 minutes before peeling it off, cleaning my face with some tepid water for the final effect.

The good news is that my skin looked softer and clearer after I pulled it off. There was less discolouration and my skin looked light.

But my skin still felt rough and dry. Actually it felt rougher and, upon closer inspection, drier than it did than before I used the product.

Overall, I probably won't buy this product again. It didn't feel very good while applying it and while the fact that it minimized discolouration on my skin, I didn't like how it seemed to dry out my skin.

Overall Score: 2 out of 5 stars

This post was written without sponsorship or encouragement.