Balea Detoxifying Mud Face Mask

Another week, another face mask. But this time we’re going old-school with a traditional mud mask, made by Shoppers Drug Mart’s Balea brand.

According to Balea, this “detoxifying face mask” is “infused with activated charcoal and ivy extract,” which create a “deep cleansing formula (that) will help protect the skin’s moisture barrier by removing unwanted impurities from your skin, leaving your skin looking great and feeling soft and smooth.”

I think charcoal might be the new coconut oil and why not since it is pretty amazing at absorbing crap. It’s also an effective disinfect. But does it actually do anything in this mask? Well, kind of.

After washing this mask off, my skin looked fresh and glowing. Even the problem areas looked less red and puffy. But this mask is supposed to be about more than just delivering bright, beautiful skin; its focus is cleaning out pores. In that area, this mask did a so-so job.

Some pores were cleaned out but not as many as I was hoping. I still had blackheads and while some could be manually extracted, others were buried too deep. Overall, this mask wasn’t as good as bringing gunk to the surface as the Montagne Jeunesse Dead Sea Mud Spa Mask. But there’s no denying that this mask did leave my skin “looking great and feeling soft and smooth.”

But while the Montagne Jeunesse mask cleaned better, the Balea one felt nicer on my face, delivering a cool, relaxing sensation. It was also way easier to use, since it wasn’t a fabric mask. The Balea one is also cheaper, only about $2, and you can easily get a least two uses out of one packet.

Would I buy this product: Okay, so it’s not the best at cleansing pores but it did leave my face looking great, feeling amazing on and it’s cheap. So yeah, I think I will buy it again.

Should you buy this product: Yes but just go in with realistic expectations.