I've had a few bad reactions to products in my time as a K-beauty and skincare enthusiast, but never have I ever had a reaction as immediate and as bad as I did to the clay mask I used tonight. Within minutes after putting the thing on, I was in full ABORT! ABORT!! ABORT!!! mode. Let's talk about the Skin & Lab Dr. Pore Tightening Glacial Clay Facial Mask, the better alternatives for cleaning out and minimizing the look of pores, and what masks I can count on to save my face tonight.


Some products featured in this post were provided for my consideration by Fifty Shades of Snail sponsor Memebox through the Memebox Ambassadors program and are marked with double asterisks(**). Affiliate links in this post are marked with an asterisk(*).

Review: Skin & Lab Dr. Pore Tightening Glacial Clay Facial Mask**

I've actually had this mask in my stash for months and months. It was sent to me in a box of Memebox Ambassador stuff sometime last fall, but because I was at the time deep in the throes of tretface troubles and had a different pore-cleaning mask open anyway, I put it away and forgot about it. I recently ran out of my Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask*(also an Ambassador item, but one that actually worked well for me), dug up the Skin & Lab mask, and figured, oh, why the hell not.

Purpose: Skin & Lab Dr. Pore Tightening Glacial Clay Facial Mask claims to clean and minimize pores, control excess sebum, exfoliate, and moisturize skin.

Best suited for: People who hate their faces; masochists with face-burning fetishes.

Do not use if: You don't like it when your face burns.

When and how to use: After cleansing and drying face, spread a thin layer of product over skin. Let dry for 10-15 minutes, then rinse off and follow with your normal skincare routine. That's what it says on the box. Personally, I say just don't. Don't.

Skin & Lab Dr. Pore Tightening Glacial Clay Facial Mask ingredients: Water, avena sativa (oat) kernel flour, kaolin, bentonite, glycerin, Canadian colloidal clay, stearic acid, melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) leaf oil, portulaca oleracea extract, pentylene glycol, triethanolamine, glyceryl stearate SE, cetyl ethylhexanoate, magnesium aluminum silicate, butylene glycol, saccharide isomerate, allantoin, cetearyl alcohol, xanthan gum, disodium EDTA, methylparaben, phenoxyethanol, propylparaben, titanium dioxide (CI 77891), chromium oxide greens (CI 77288)

CosDNA analysis

Notable ingredients: I count three different types of clay in this mask, including Canadian colloidal clay. I'm not super sure what the Canadian origin of the clay is meant to convey here. Natural, clean, and pure are my top guesses, followed immediately by gentle and polite. Well, it may well be natural, clean, and pure, but this mask is friggin rude and not at all gentle. The tea tree leaf oil is likely in here to target breakouts, while the oat flour should provide some gentle exfoliation and ingredients like glycerin, saccharide isomerate, allantoin, and cetearyl alochol aim to moisturize, which is important to offset the naturally drying qualities of clay masks.

Performance

Things didn't start off badly with this product. Softer than many clay masks and a little chunky thanks to the oat flour, Skin & Lab's Glacial Clay Facial Mask spread easily over my face and felt, at first, creamy and refreshing. It has a pleasant minty fragrance and gave me, at first, a pleasant mild cooling sensation.

And then the burning started. Oh God the burning.

My skin began to tingle immediately on contact with the mask, and the tingling intensified rapidly. Within a couple of minutes after I finished covering my face with this stuff, the tingling went from from "hm, fun sensation" to "I don't know about this" to "shitshitshitshitshit get this off of me," at which point I leapt out of my chair and dashed for the shower.

The most I can say for the rest of the experience is that the mask rinsed off much more easily than most other clay masks, and that it did leave my face slightly brighter and my nose pores a little clearer. These benefits are