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 April 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 superfood theme. You will notice everything looks kind of wet. One of the mask envelopes came open at the seam a little bit and leaked everywhere. So there is one mask I couldn’t use, but not wanting to open all the envelopes at once, it took me a few days to figure out which one it was.
Peripera Juice Time Apple Mask Sheet – Retail Value $1.99
We received two masks from this product line, this month. I like when that happens, honestly, because sometimes there is something I don’t care for about one of them but that isn’t a problem with the other (and sometimes I like both).
This was very moisturizing. It has sodium hyaluronate (a carbohydrate polymer that holds on to a lot of moisture near the surface of the skin and that may help minimize the appearance of fine lines on a temporary basis). It also has allantoin which is supposed to help make rough skin smoother. I have never used an allantoin product consistently enough to say whether I think this is true (you’d need to do it every day for a while). Just an FYI that most allantoin in K-beauty products is extracted from cow urine (of course it is cleaned up and purified first!). This also has Matricaria which is pretty soothing, and of course apple extract, which is a source of vitamins.
This one had a scent that was much lighter than the grape one (see below).
Jun:Cos Blueberry Essence Mask – Retail Value $1.99
I don’t know very much about this mask because there wasn’t an English ingredients list on the product page. It obviously has blueberries (although it doesn’t really have an artificial blueberry smell, more of just a generic pleasant scent). But I’m assuming these are just in extract form because the serum was clear.
Blueberries are known for being high in antioxidants. However, antioxidants are often pretty highly-colored compounds (think about the red of tomatoes and strawberries, the orange of carrots, etc.), so I can’t say how many of them made it through into the serum here. I guess the way to tell is to buy a couple of boxes of these and try the mask out consistently for a period of weeks. I did feel after using this one that it would be decent for everyday hydration.
No:Hj Superfood Broccoli Mask – Retail Value $1.99
In case you were wondering, this does NOT smell like broccoli, and that is a good thing. (I like to eat various cruciferous vegetables but let’s be honest, they don’t smell good.)
Broccoli is a source of vitamin C and that is one antioxidant that probably would reliably look clear in a serum (ascorbic acid in the lab is just a white powder). This also has milk, lemon, and honey extracts. Milk is a source of amino acids and can also be soothing to irritated skin (as will the purslane that is included as well). (Westerners think of milk as a good source of vitamins A and D, but that is because in the US, milk is fortified with extra amounts of those vitamins.) Lemon is supposed to help with breakouts and reducing oil secretion although these weren’t things I could assess after only one use. This does also have honey, which has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, so that likely will help with acne. Another key ingredient is witch hazel, so you should see some toning benefits from this one as well.
Lebelage Natural Mask Egg – Retail Value $1.90
As it turns out, this is the mask that came open. It was just a little area around the edge that became unglued, but that was enough to make a mess of things.
Anyway, as you might expect, this has egg extract. It has a lot of moisturizing ingredients like aloe leaf juice and sodium hyaluronate. It also has calendula and Matricaria, both of which are soothing flower extracts. It’s a bit difficult to drill further down into the ingredients because there are a lot of typos and missing commas. Egg is supposed to help tighten pores as well but I can’t remember having heard this claim before so I can’t really verify that.
Peripera Juice Time Grape Mask Sheet – Retail Value $1.99
Here is the second mask from this product line. This one had a very strong smell (if you remember getting Dimetapp as a kid, you will know what this smells like).
The main fruit extract here is grape. Grape is, of course, a source of antioxidants, although the same thing I said about color up above with blueberry may apply here as well. Anyway, this also has some added antioxidants like vitamins C and A. This mask further has allantoin, Matricaria, and sodium hyaluronate, all of which I discussed above.
Other than the stronger smell, I felt using this one was pretty similar to using the apple one.
The Saem Natural Mask Sheet Grapefruit – Retail Value $2.50
There is not a lot of information on the product page for this one either (no ingredients list). I’m going to assume this has vitamin C, natural and possibly also added, as this is really what citrus is known for. I did not think it smelled particularly strongly of grapefruit (I do like the smell of grapefruit; Atelier Cologne Pomelo Paradis is one of my favorite fruity scents).
One interesting thing about this mask is that the product page says you should WARM the mask before use to help the essence soak into your skin (warm it by putting the sealed envelope in a bowl of warm water). I have heard of refrigerating masks to cool them, but the warming idea is new to me. I didn’t see that until after I’d already tried the mask, but I will have to keep that in mind for the future.
I’ve mentioned antioxidants several times. They are believed to help fight free radicals caused by such things as sun damage. They don’t substitute for a good sunscreen but may help minimize future skin problems when used consistently. This is another one I’d consider for daily use.
The Saem Natural Mask Sheet Oatmeal – Retail Value $2.50
Although this is from the same product line as the one above, I found ingredients for this one but not the previous one. Oatmeal has long been used in skin soothing preparations and beauty products (think about Aveeno, for example). This also has ginger and tea leaf extracts, which provide anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties, respectively.
This one also has some interesting moisturizing compounds including trehalose along with the usual sodium hyaluronate (the ultimate effect of trehalose is going to be similar to that of sodium hyaluronate, although trehalose is a much smaller molecule). This also has prickly pear extracts, which is going to be a source of vitamins but also moisture – think about how good cactus carbohydrates and proteins must be at holding on to water in a dry environment.
Anyway, I did feel this was soothing. It was not strongly scented and it dried in a reasonable amount of time so I was able to put on makeup afterward without a problem.
CNF Cos Papaya with Iceland Glacial Water – Retail Value $1.99
I will admit, I don’t often think of “Iceland” and “papaya” in the same sentence. Papaya has some enzymes that are gentle exfoliators (used in some peels but not as harsh as something like glycolic acid) to help with the turnover of skin cells at the surface. Glacial water has some minerals, as well. This one has a rather simple ingredients list compared to some of the other masks in this package.
Although I did not have any irritation after using this, you probably don’t want to use it every day since it does do some peeling/enzymatic exfoliation.
May Island Tomato Real Essence Mask Pack – Retail Value $1.50
Tomato is another plant whose fruit is a good source of antioxidants (though keep in mind what was discussed earlier with respect to color, grapes, and blueberries, as this serum was also clear). Tomato may also do some toning (I think I felt that here although I will admit if I know to expect something, that may influence whether or not I actually think it was effective if that makes sense). Plus there is witch hazel in here, which also tones the skin.
This one further has the standard sodium hyaluronate, Matricaria, and allantoin, so it is pretty good as an all-around moisturizer and skin soother. I think this one was gentle enough for daily use and it is also the most affordable of this month’s shipment.
Verdict: I calculated a value of $18.35 for the April 2019 Beauteque Mask Maven. That’s 60 cents under the month-to-month cost of the subscription. Most of the time, this one comes out with a value a couple of dollars above the subscription cost, so if you subscribe for awhile you should still come out ahead. I thought the superfood theme was great and I liked that every food was different (there certainly are a lot of apple or tomato products out there, but Beauteque gave us a variety). I thought the inclusion of egg was interesting (and am bummed I didn’t get to use the egg mask).
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, this was the April package. You have to sign up by the 15th to get a box for the month, so your first box would probably be June’s box and arrive in early July.
Value Breakdown: At $18.95 for this box, you are paying approximately the following per item:
- Apple mask $2.06
- Blueberry mask $2.06
- Broccoli mask $2.06
- Egg mask $1.96
- Grape mask $2.06
- Grapefruit mask $2.58
- Oatmeal mask $2.58
- Papaya mask $2.06
- Tomato mask $1.55
Alternatively, each of the 9 masks has an average cost of $2.11.
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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