review: love & beauty face masks + april calendar!

caution! this post contains scary, halloween-like photos of my face. ;)

last week i went on a mini girl's getaway with my friends and we decided to be ultimately girly and pick up some cheap face masks to do while we watched a movie and ate popcorn. you know, typical slumber party activities.

we were at forever 21 [you know you find yourself there more often than you care to admit, right?] and i was pleasantly surprised by their new and improved selection of their makeup line including lipstick, blush, brushes, and some skin care items. we found these mud masks for $1 each. yup, that's right, $1. we didn't have very high hopes from forever 21, a majority of their products are somewhat "disposable" and don't have the quality that lives up to years of wear, so we didn't expect much different from a $1 face mask.

we all tried the papaya purifying dead sea mud mask. it was the classic green color and all we were missing was the cucumbers for our eyes. it claims to "deep clean & purify" including dead sea mud, and other ingredients such as papaya, lavender, and bergamot. it smells nice, and has a smooth and clay-like consistency. turns out one packet contains enough for 2, or even 3 very thin applications.

upon application, we all felt the same kind of... stinging, not quite burning feeling... uh oh. not unbearably uncomfortable, but still. i've done and tried numerous face masks in the past, so this wasn't a new sensation to me but the other girls were a bit concerned... until it went away. luckily, it was worth the burn, because after 15-20 min of having the mask on, it had dried and started to crack so we knew it was time to remove. the cool/gross part was that we could actually see the dirt and oil that had been removed from our pores on the dried mask! what? from a $1 mask? we were impressed. it removed easily with a wash cloth and warm water.

afterward, our skin felt so clean and so fresh! we were completely impressed and swore this would be repurchased over and over again. overall, we loved this product, the results are great and it's a very cheap and cheerful pick-me-up. i have to say, forever 21 gets major points from me for not only these masks, but their other cosmetics for not testing on animals, which is a very important cause to me!


since finishing off my papaya mask, i repurchased another, along with the mango purifying dead sea mask [which is what i have on in these photos], and the coconut ultra hydrating shea butter mask, which i am pretty excited to try!

so here's the rundown:
pros // 
affordable
more than one-time use
animal cruelty free
really works/skin feels great
smells yummy
contains some natural ingredients

cons //
stings a little
messy/not resealable
only sold in small amounts!
not all natural/organic ingredients
contains parabens


and for your personal enjoyment, here's some snaps from our first time experience!

i hope you all give these masks a try and let me know what you think!

+ + + 

...BUT WAIT! there's more! we haven't forgotten about april, so here's a desktop calendar for you!



x's + o's
kaitlin elaine