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: $15.95 a month + $3.95 US 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 May 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 fantasy theme. The themes used to bear little relationship to the masks, but I really feel like they’ve been stepping it up lately and that there’s a better connection.
My Scheming 7 in 1 Brightening Essence Mask – Retail Value $2
This is supposed to have seven different kinds of brightening essence, including traxenamic acid. It’s not clear from the ingredients list precisely what the seven are because there are more than seven potential candidates, including some plant extracts that don’t necessarily have common names in English. Ones I can identify include a lily extract, a licorice root extract, and a peony extract. At any rate, you are going to need to use a brightening mask more than once to see results – it’s not something that happens instantly.
This is very heavy on the serum so you may not want to use it in the morning before makeup. It took a long time to absorb into my skin. (On the flip side, it’s super moisturizing!) This has added fragrance, but it’s subtle and non-irritating.
Cos.W My Real Skin Apple Mask – Retail Value $1.99
Although it’s not what the information booklet says, my first thought about how this relates to the theme was of the Snow White story. This has actual apple juice (instead of a mysterious extract), which does have vitamin C (an antioxidant). This one is supposed to be good for sensitive skin and it has lavender oil, which may be soothing. (It doesn’t smell particularly like lavender or like apple, for what it’s worth.)
This also has your standard moisturizing ingredients like sodium hyaluronate and trehalose, both of which hold on to a lot of water at the surface of the skin. For some people, this can temporarily minimize the appearance of fine lines. This also has propolis, which is a source of minerals and antibacterial/anti-inflammatory compounds.
Purederm Deep Purifying Black O2 Charcoal Bubble Mask – Retail Value $3.99
We received two masks from this product line this month and I have to be honest, they were almost identical to use. So pretty much everything I say about this one applies to the other one, as well. When you take this out of the envelope, bubbles start to form upon air exposure. More of them form depending on how long you leave it (although of course at some point the reaction will stop).
The product description on the Beauteque site says this contains charcoal powder but it’s certainly not in the serum. It could be in the mask sheet, which is a dark color. This can help pull gunk out of pores, although I’m not sure the mask sheet has much access since the bubbles form on both sides. This one has some citrus extracts which will be good sources of antioxidants and papaya, which may provide some gentle exfoliation. You rinse the bubbles off your skin when this is done and it takes a bit of effort (probably a washcloth would’ve been faster…). Even though I rinsed off the serum, per directions, my skin felt quite moisturized and also clean afterward.
SNP Soothing Dragon Mask – Retail Value $4
This brand shows up in Mask Maven every now and then. I’m ambivalent about these animal masks. The mask sheet, itself, is quite stiff – it has to be, I imagine, for the printing to work. It’s also somewhat light on serum, which could be good or bad, depending on your plans after using the mask (it dries quickly so it’s great for putting on makeup afterward, though).
This has coconut water, which is a source of minerals, sodium hyaluronate for moisture, witch hazel which will do some toning, and tea leaf extract which contains some antioxidants that may help fight free radical damage. The ingredients are good for daily use to cover several skin care concerns, but this one is kind of expensive compared to other masks with similar ingredients.
NOHJ Intracell 24K Gold Lifting Mask – Retail Value $3.25
This one has one side that has a gold-colored coating that’s supposed to be the side away from your face. The coating isn’t super breathable, which is actually a good thing because it keeps the serum from evaporating.
This says it contains 24K gold extract, but gold is an element and you can’t extract anything from it! So it either has some gold ions or atoms, or it doesn’t. At any rate, the product description claims gold helps with blood flow although I’m unsure of the mechanism. This also has snail mucin, which has a more established history as a moisturizing compound. Although I’m not sure of the structure, I’m guessing this is a protein with sugar molecules attached that holds on to water and thus has a similar effect as hyaluronic acid. Finally, this has pearl powder. Pearl does have a long history in Asian skincare and is said to be whitening or brightening, but if it is actual pearl powder, that is too big to be absorbed into your skin. I suppose it is possible the serum may leach some compounds out of the pearl powder and those *might* be absorbed.
Also, it is too bad the camera doesn’t really capture this, but the NOHJ packaging is holographic and fun to flip back and forth in the light.
Wonjin Lightening Tone Up Mask – Retail Value $3.99
This one has a super long ingredients list. I do recognize some common brightening ingredients, including niacinamide. It also has titanium dioxide which is a common mineral sunscreen ingredient (don’t let this substitute for sunscreen though) as well as a white pigment in paints, food items, makeup, etc. I see green tea extract and a few fruit extracts like grapefruit, which of course will be good sources of vitamins and antioxidants, and lots of moisturizing ingredients like sodium hyaluronate, squalene, hydrolyzed collagen, and a ceramide.
This is probably a good time to note that K-beauty products are not typically vegan. Just a quick scan of this one reveals milk protein extract, sodium hyaluronate and collagen (both typically generated as byproducts of poultry or fish processing), and squalene, which is traditionally derived from shark liver although today often comes from plant sources.
May Island Sparkle Pearl Mask – Retail Value $3.50
I am not so sure where the “sparkle” in the name comes in (the mask doesn’t sparkle). The product description on the Beauteque page is perhaps overenthusiastic. (“We love masks with extra essence so we can apply some to our neck, elbows and knees!”) This one does have a lot of extra essence, which made it take a long time to dry. (I did not put any on my knees.)
The essence includes hyaluronic acid, which we’ve already discussed a bit above, and which is probably responsible for a lot of the moisturizing effect. It is unclear in what way pearl is incorporated into this mask (there’s not a full ingredients list in English) but we’ve talked about pearl powder up above. If this instead contains an extract, it’s possible that some portion of the extract could be absorbed into the skin.
Mediheal Pumpkin Ade Mask – Retail Value $2
The connection to the fantasy theme seems obvious to me here, too (Cinderella!). This one does not smell like pumpkin and I’m not sure whether that makes me sad or not. I like the smell of pumpkin, but it also makes me hungry. The place where I found this for sale online didn’t talk much about what the pumpkin is supposed to do but the mask, in general, is supposed to help problems related to dry skin. (It says “allergies caused by dry skin” but you are probably not allergic to your own skin…)
This one has hyaluronic acid and a ceramide, which is supposed to help lock water inside the skin. (Ceramide is a lipid – a fatty molecule – so that seems like a reasonable claim as it would at least prevent the evaporation of some water.) It also includes witch hazel, which is a common ingredient in toners.
Purederm Deep Purifying Black O2 Volcanic Ash Bubble Mask – Retail Value $3.99
This one was quite similar to the other bubble mask. This one is supposed to have volcanic ash instead of charcoal, but that’s a minor difference and I actually think the ingredients list was copied and pasted from one to the other. Bubble masks are fun from time to time, though!
Verdict: I calculated a value of $28.71 for the May 2019 Beauteque Mask Maven. That is one of the highest values I’ve ever seen for this subscription. There were a lot more of what I would consider “premium” masks in this package ($3.50+ in value) than usual. I liked the variety this month; I felt there were more differences than usual among the masks (with the exception of the two bubble ones, which were very similar). I also thought the fantasy theme was fun and that a lot of the items did kind of match up with the theme.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, this was the May package. You have to sign up by the 15th to get a box for the month, so your first box would probably be July’s box and arrive in early August.
Value Breakdown: At $18.95 for this box, you are paying approximately the following per item:
- My Scheming mask $1.32
- Apple mask $1.31
- Charcoal bubble mask $2.63
- Dragon mask $2.64
- Gold mask $2.15
- Lightening mask $2.63
- Sparkle pearl mask $2.31
- Pumpkin mask $1.32
- Volcanic ash bubble mask $2.63
Check out all of our Beauteque Mask Maven reviews and the best skincare boxes of 2019 as voted by MSA readers!
Keep track of your subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
What did you think of the May 2019 Beauteque Mask Maven? Do you get any K-Beauty or Asian Beauty subscriptions?
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