Boscia Bright White Mask

I reviewed a mask on Monday and today, I'm reviewing another mask but no, it's not mask week here on Stuff Lindsay Bought (Friday's review will be something completely different). Instead, it's more like reviewing products that I've had kicking around for awhile and need to use up.

A few months ago, I received a deluxe-sized sample of Boscia's Bright White Mask from Sephora and was able to get three masks out of what I was given. According to Boscia this item is, "A brightening, peel-off mask that helps to visibly even skin tone and diminish the appearance of hyperpigmentation. Instantly moisturizes and plumps dull, dehydrated skin while helping reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles."

Those are some pretty heavy claims and unfortunately, I can't comment on the one about hyperpigmentation because that's not an issue I have. While I wouldn't say that my skin tone is perfectly even, it's in good shape in that area.

But I do have fine lines and my skin could alway do with some brighting and moisturizing.  In those areas, this mask was really successful. My skin was visibly brighter and looked fresh, hydrated and healthy. My forehead lines were also gone, thanks to this product's powerful plumping abilities. And these weren't just changes that last a few hours. The next morning, my skin still looked and felt fantastic.

Boscia says that this mask does all of this because it contains a host of fancy ingredients including Vitamin C to bright, willowherb to calm and a specific type of algae to to fight hyperpigmentation and age spots (you can read more about them here). Sure, whatever you say Boscia; all I know is that this mask mostly delivers.

However, it does have a couple of big flaws. The first is that while it claims to be a peel-off mask, it kind of isn't. When I first used this item, I applied what I thought was an adequately thick layer of this thick, clay-like product. After waiting close to 30 minutes, I went to peel the now-dried clay off. This proved to be quite the fight as my thick layer turned out to generally not be thick enough to allow me to peel this product off.  I ended up have to wash a good portion of it off with warm water.

The next two times I used this mask, I applied thicker layers but I kept running into issues when it came to peeling this product off. Maybe there's some kind of technique that I'm missing? Or maybe I'm simply not putting it on thick enough. My other big issue with this product is its high price, which makes you not want to waste it and that's what applying a couple centimetres worth of mask to your face feels like your doing.

So how expense is this mask? It retails at Sephora Canada for $47. OK, that's not insanely high but when you consider how much product you need to achieve the peel-off effect, well, I think it can be safely classified as a "splurge" item. The packaging is nothing special, just your regular squeeze tube, but what's inside is free of parabens, sulfates and phthalates.

Would I buy this product: I have mix feelings about this product because I like the results but I'm not a fan of the price or how difficult it was to peel-off. I also didn't get its full benefits since one of its main claims, around diminishing the look of hyperpigmentation, doesn't apply to me. Because of all of that, I won't be buying this product anytime soon.

Should you buy this product: If you're on the hunt for something to brighten your skin and/or hyperpigmentation is a concern, do check this product out. Just be prepared to layer it on.