Nspa Does Face Masks

A while I did a post about the Nspa Skincare range at Asda (clicky link: here) and there was some gems in that post so when I saw that they did little face-mask sachets, I figured they'd be worth a try. There's 3 in the range and they're all aimed at different skin concerns, so lets ave a look.

So the first one I tried was the Nspa "Treat" Warming Detox Mask. The mask comes in a pink sachet and claims to be a "elf-heating treatment with natural clay to deeply cleanse the skin" and if I'm honest, I can't really offer this mask a fair review. I used it precisely once and the smell was so awful that I had to remove it immediately, it made me feel a bit sick. Now I know scent isn't everything and that as long as something works the scent shouldn't be a big thing, but for something that you have to leave on for 15 minutes, the scent is unbelievable strong and overpowering.

The second mask I tried was a bit better. The Nspa "Cleanse" Deep Cleansing Mask claims that it is "A dead-sea mineral mud mask to treat and refresh the skin for a beautiful complexion". This one goes on to the skin a light blue colour and though the sachet recommends 15 minutes, I found that it dried down in around 5 minutes. The scent was fresh with a slight hint of mint and was light enough that it wasn't overpowering. You get 2 uses out of the sachets and it left my skin feeling nice and smooth on removal, however it did leave my skin craving moisture and I have oily/combination skin.

The final variety in the range is the Nspa "Moisturise" Radiance Boosting Mask, and this one is the worst of the lot. It goes onto the face light pink and feels nice and cooling on application. The scent was a nice soft sweet almost herbal-y scent that was completely non-offensive and, again, you can get 2 uses out of the packet. I was really happy with it at first. Now fast-forward 5-10 minutes later, the mask had dried and as I wen to remove it my skin underneath was red and dry started heating up. The redness was really blotchy and didn't go down (even after I'd applied some nourishing oils) for a few hours.

I don't like posting super negative reviews but I thought this was worth sharing - especially that last one since the mask actually seemed to be damaging. I am really disappointment since there's lots of other products in the Nspa range that are really nice, amazing value products but these are just not great.

Bathing With Therapie

I wrote a post a few weeks back about some skincare products I'd picked up from Therapie (clicky link here) and in that post I mentioned having a review on a few of their bath and body products coming up, so to stick to my word, here's that post. I picked up their discovery set from Cult Beauty a few weeks back and just need enough time to actually try all the products and it made sense to split them into a skincare post and a bath/body post as I could try the skincare pretty quickly but the bathing products for me needed a bit more time.

So the product that I was desperate to try was the much blogger-hyped Therapie pick: The Himalayan Detox Salts. They have a lovely calming scent to them in the pot and the crystals dissolve really well in a warm bath but my main issue with them is to do with the luxury factor. When the salts dissolve in the bath, they leave no silky-smoothness or bubbles in the water and the smell isn't very potent in the water at all. It's kind of like bathing in a regular bath that you haven't added any product to. So when I first used them I was quite disappointed. That being said, after use I could feel the tiredness seeping in as soon as I started draining the water and the next morning I woke up feeling refreshed like I'd had a really good sleep. So while they're not a real luxury experience, they do seem to really work for helping with sleep.

My opinion on the Equlibrium Bath & Shower Essence is very much the same. I acutally prefer this to the bath salts as this does leave the water feeling smooth and soft like a regular bath oil in addition to having the sleeping benefits, so for me this does seem like more of a luxury product and it's definitely the format I'd choose of the two.

The final bath/body product I've tried from Therapie is their Boost Hair & Body Wash, and again, it didn't really hit the mark for me. I like to take baths in the evening and showers in the morning (not both everyday obviously) so I thought I'd really like this product as it has one of those amazing zingy citrus scents to it that can really wake you up in those early morning showers, but the formula is just not my favourite. It's quite a liquid-y body wash so it doesn't really lather up all that well. The packaging does suggest to use an exfoliating glove to work the product in but I prefer the puff type shower scrubbies and I just couldn't get the product to work the way I wanted it to. I did try this with an exfoliating body brush to see if that would give more of a lather but even then it didn't seem to do much for me, which is a shame because the scent is amazing.

For me when it comes to high-end bathing, I love Aromatherapy Associates and Laura Mercier and unfortunately the Therapie products don' really do it for me but their skincare range is lovely.