Beauteque Mask Maven is a monthly subscription box dedicated to skincare products--specifically masks! If you love trying new Korean sheet masks, this subscription is for you!
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Beauteque Mask Maven
The Subscription Box: Beauteque Mask Maven
The Cost: $18.95 month-to-month ($15 subscription + $3.95 shipping), save with 6- and 12-month subscriptions
The Products: 9 masks of all kinds, straight from Korea. Most are facial sheet masks, but you will sometimes see a hair mask or hand mask or lip mask, too.
Ships to: USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and parts of Asia (see international shipping costs during checkout)
Beauteque Mask Maven March 2019 Review
The number of sheet masks out there for sale must be incredibly large. Mask Maven almost never sends repeat items, and I discover something new every month:
The box came with this information card. This month has a honey/bee-related theme, which is great for spring.
Quick glossary to help you going forward:
Honey – Produced by bees from nectar of flowers via regurgitation and enzyme activity. Contains fructose and glucose and has antibacterial properties as well as wound-healing properties (especially for burns).
Royal Jelly – Food rich in nutrients fed to bee larvae for a short time and to queens for their entire lives. Secreted by worker bees and has amino acids, sugars, vitamins, trace minerals, and enzymes. Claimed to enhance collagen production.
Propolis – A resin made from tree saps scraped by bees from trees near the hive and used for various purposes including hive assembly (i.e., holding components of the hive together). Can include compounds secreted by plants as defense mechanisms; these may protect the hive from bacteria, etc.
On to the masks:
Wonjin 3-Step Bee Honey Bomb Mask – Retail Value $4.50
There’s usually one premium mask per month and I’d say this month, it was this one. Unfortunately, this was also the “mystery” mask in the information booklet, and there was almost no English on the back of the package, so I really didn’t know what “Withbee Honey Milk” and “Re-Effect Ampoule” were supposed to mean. Step 1 (Withbee Honey Milk) was a white moisturizer (I think) and step 2 (Re-Effect Ampoule) was a thick, clear serum. I just used them in order after cleansing and then tried the mask.
I’m never sure if having the additional steps is helpful. The mask was very moisturizing on its own and I don’t necessarily think steps 1 and 2 added much to my experience except perhaps some oiliness. It appears that Step 1 has a ton of silicones, which aren’t always great for my skin, as well as sodium hyaluronate (moisturizing), honey extract, and some fermentation extracts. Step 2 has a lot of plant extracts, at least some of which are rich in antioxidants. The serum in step 3 is back to the moisturizing ingredients but without all the silicones. If I had this to do over again, I’d probably skip step 1, but that will vary based on your skin type. (Silicones work well in my hair, just not on my skin.)
FarmStay: Honey Visible Difference Mask – Retail Value $1.99
As you might expect, the main ingredient here is honey, which is touted in this product for its antioxidant properties (antioxidants may help fight free radical damage and if used over time, may reduce future signs of aging like discoloration or fine lines). This also has propolis which may help heal the skin. Of course some standard mask ingredients (like matricaria for soothing, sodium hyaluronate for moisture, witch hazel for toning, and allantoin to soothe rough skin) are also present. This one was pretty heavy on the serum although I don’t remember it dripping all over my shirt.
Frienvita: Aqua Peeling Filtering Mask – VitaH – Retail Value $2.50
This mask is supposed to gently exfoliate but I can’t find an ingredients list so I’m not sure how that occurs. At any rate, it’s not something you can see after one use (I do exfoliate regularly anyway, so it’s possible I just didn’t have much dead skin around to begin with). “Vitamin H” is apparently biotin, which is actually a B vitamin (B7) and I’m not sure where the H came from. Biotin is thought to improve the appearance of the hair and nails when taken orally (though there’s not much proof of this actually working for most people) but there’s less information available about what it does to put biotin on your skin (it is a small molecule, unlike, say, collagen, so I suppose there’s a possibility it could penetrate the skin).
Frienvita: Honey Bear Silky Skin Pearl Mask – Retail Value $2.50
If you have used many Korean masks with honey in them, you will know that artificial, almost-cloying honey scent. Well, this mask has that. It’s not too bad after you’ve had the mask on for a minute or two, though. This one has both honey extract and royal jelly extract (and the way those phrases are mangled together in the product description on the Beauteque site – see link above – has me wondering if I should trust any of the other descriptions on the Beauteque site). It also has just tons of moisturizing ingredients including at least three forms of hyaluronate, hydrolyzed collagen, and hydrolyzed glycosaminoglycans (all large polymers of various sorts that hold on to water near the surface of the skin and help with moisture and *may* temporarily reduce the appearance of fine lines). This also has pearl extract and niacinamide, both common in K-beauty products for brightening purposes. This was moisturizing, but I’d need to use them at least a few times a week over an extended period of time to assess performance.
Jayjun: Honey Dew Green Mask – Retail Value $1.99
There were two possibilities for this mask, and I received the green one. The mask sheet actually had a slightly green tinge to it although the serum was clear. This one is full of extracts from fruits and vegetables including kiwi, spinach, Japanese apricot, and avocado, in addition to honey and green tea extract. All the plant ingredients mean there are a lot of antioxidants (including vitamin C) and apparently there’s also vitamin K which is supposed to be anti-inflammatory here. This one seems like it would be good to use for awhile if you are worried about both breakouts and sun damage because it contains ingredients that address both.
JMSolution Honey Luminous Royal Propolis Mask – Retail Value $3 (currently sold out)
JMSolution masks are fairly common in Mask Maven. This one has propolis, royal jelly, and honey, as well as moisturizing ingredients (i.e., sodium hyaluronate, trehalose), antioxidants from cacao, anti-inflammatory compounds from turmeric, and something mysterious called “cholesterol horse extract” which *could* be actual cholesterol from horses (I’ve seen K-beauty products with horse oil in them) or it could be a very bad automatic translation job or it could mean “horse chestnut extract” (which is an actual ingredient) and be an example of an autocomplete error, it’s really anyone’s guess. Despite the fancy larger envelope, this was fairly similar to use as many of this month’s other masks (i.e., you can probably get a similar experience with a somewhat less-expensive product).
NOHJ: Botanical Fit Honey Mask – Pomegranate – Retail Value $2.50
I was a child in the 1980s and scratch-n-sniff stickers were popular then. My first thought upon opening this mask was how much it reminded me of a fruity scratch-n-sniff sticker from 30+ years ago. In addition to pomegranate, this has a ton of other fruit extracts (lemon, blueberry, apple, kiwi, etc.) so it has really a lot of antioxidants. The honey, of course, is antibacterial, there’s purslane for soothing, there are several moisturizing ingredients (aloe, sodium hyaluronate), and so on. This is a pretty good general use mask, especially if you are worried about both breakouts and sun damage, since it contains ingredients to address both. It is also free of silicones.
The Saem: Natural Honey Mask – Retail Value $1.99
This one also had that artificial honey scent although, again, it wasn’t too strong after the mask had been open and on my face for a minute or two. This has the expected honey and a lot of plant extracts including mandarin and orange as well as tea leaf extract and Himalayan cedar extract, which is a new ingredient for me. This one has a few silicones but they are pretty far down the ingredients list and they didn’t bother me all that much.
Wizyoung: Royal Jelly Collagen Essence Mask – Retail Value $1.99
I’m going to say based on the name that this one is supposed to enhance collagen production (remember our discussion of royal jelly earlier) because although this has royal jelly, it has no collagen in it, and yet collagen is in the name of the product. This one also has quite a few unusual plant extracts for which I can’t find well-known common names, but plant extracts are usually included in such preparations for the purpose of providing vitamins and/or antioxidants. This one is said to be good for sensitive skin and it did not irritate my skin, though my skin isn’t particularly sensitive at the moment since it is getting warmer out. This one has that artificial honey scent, as well.
Verdict: I calculated a value of $22.96 for the March 2019 Beauteque Mask Maven. That’s about $4 over the month-to-month cost of the subscription. I thought the honey theme was a good one. The masks don’t always match a theme, but they did this month, and they were consistent about sticking to it. Plus it's an appropriate theme for spring. (Please note, there were no vegan products this month, since everything contained at least one bee-derived ingredient. You should probably not go into a K-beauty subscription looking for vegan products because collagen is always derived from animals and most hyaluronic acid used in industry is a byproduct of poultry processing, allantoin is extracted from cow urine, etc.) Although I was familiar with many of these brands, most of the masks were completely new to me.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, this was the March package. You have to sign up by the 15th to get a box for the month, so your first box would probably be April’s box and arrive in early May.
Value Breakdown: At $18.95 for this box, you are paying approximately the following per item:
- 3-step mask $3.71
- Farmstay mask $1.64
- VitaH mask $2.06
- Honey bear mask $2.06
- Honey dew green mask $1.64
- JMSolution mask $2.48
- Pomegranate mask $2.06
- The Saem mask $1.64
- Wizyoung mask $1.64
Check out all of our Beauteque Mask Maven reviews! Be sure to check out the best skincare boxes of 2019 as voted by MSA readers!
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What did you think of the March 2019 Beauteque Mask Maven? Do you get any K-Beauty or Asian Beauty subscriptions?
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