Do I Need This? Overnight Masks or Sleeping Packs

Disclosure: Affiliate links.

Welcome to the latest installment of my Do I Need This? series. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinion about whether or not I think a product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least.

Masks are having a moment. There are masks out there that claim to do just about anything you could possibly want. They come in creams and clays and sheets and gels and who knows what else. There are even masks for your hair and lips and various other body parts. One of the types of masks that brands are really pumping out right now is the overnight mask, also called a sleeping mask or sleeping pack--the latter especially from Asian skincare brands.

Do you need a sleeping mask?

Short answer: No. There are some nice ones out there, but you probably already have products that you can use in a similar way.

Addendum to hyaluronic acid

Here is a quick note to add something important to my recent post on hyaluronic acid. (This is what happens when you try to write something at the tail end of bad cold.) I mainly said there that I like HA because it makes my skin feel nice and has potential for long term effects. True. But I forgot to add one of the immediate results it provides that I love. HA does an excellent job of combatting flakiness from dry skin or from products that cause it, such as the peeling you can get when you start using a powerful retinol product. Regular moisturizer never really cuts it for me under these conditions, but if I use something with HA after over-exfoliating or overdoing the retinol, it diminishes the flakiness significantly. Enough that I can wear foundation without weirdness caused by my makeup highlighting dryness. So that is something to consider as a more concrete benefit of HA.

The most moisturizing body wash I've found yet (Tree Hut Shea Moisturizing Shower Wash in Almond & Honey)

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
I have never in my life had as dry skin as I've had this winter. In addition to the extreme cold and wind, the heat in my apartment is always cranked up to 90, and I have no control over it. My skin, all of it, all over my body, is tight and flaky and itchy.

I bought some of this Tree Hut Shea Moisturizing body wash in the Almond and Honey scent pretty much on a whim. I like almond scented things, and that was really the only criteria I had for choosing it. It turns out that it's great.

It cleans your skin thoroughly, unlike some body washes I've used that are advertised as moisturizing, but seem to be mostly just diluted. It doesn't leave a film or anything on your skin; it just leaves it feeling nice after you've dried off. It's pretty much the only body wash/soap I've been able to use this winter that lets me get away with not slathering my entire body in lotion immediately after getting out of the shower. My boyfriend has been using it too, and he's even drier than I am. He's been trying to find an actually moisturizing body wash (or shower gel or whatever they tell dudes these things are called) for much longer than I have. According to him, this is the best ever.

I really like the scent, though I kind of wish it was just almond without the honey. Only because I don't really like honey. It's fairly sweet and smells great while you use it, but doesn't leave a strong scent on your skin after you rinse it off. That works for me.

If you're dry and scaly this time of year too, this stuff is worth trying. It only costs about $5-7. If you don't like almond scents, they have other versions that also have shea butter, but none of them is quite as highly rated as this one on Amazon - and I haven't tried the others myself to compare. Note that the ingredients list on Amazon is not accurate. Drugstore.com has the correct ingredients (though it's a little more expensive there, which is why I included the Amazon link above). The addition of the almond oil, which is higher on the list (i.e. there's more of it) than the shea butter, might be what makes the difference. Most of the other ingredients are the same between the various scents, but with a different oil substituted for the almond.

Review: Freeman Pink Grapefruit Facial Exfoliating Scrub

Update: This product contains polyethylene microbeads, which have been determined to be an environmental pollutant. So I'm not recommending it.

I was getting a little bored with my usual method of in-shower facial exfoliation (honey + brown sugar), so I figured I'd give the Freeman Grapefruit Scrub a try. I was surprised when I first squeezed some into my hand, because it didn't look very scrubby. The particles are very fine and sparse, so I was a little disappointed and concerned that it wouldn't be especially effective.

But it won me over.