Review: Freeman Feeling Beautiful Star Fruit Purifying Facial Paper Mask | Hello Pretty Bird! - A beauty and not-so-glamorous lifestyle blog

05 October, 2013

Review: Freeman Feeling Beautiful Star Fruit Purifying Facial Paper Mask

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Greetings friends!

Today I'll be reviewing another mask from Freeman. I'm a little mask-crazy, I know. But this mask is actually a bit unique... wanna know why? It's an American sheet mask. Say what?

Yeah, you heard me right. Freeman Beauty recently came out with three different "Paper Facial Masks", which are indeed just sheet masks by another name. I've noticed that a few American and European brands have come out with sheet mask-like products in the past couple years, but at under $2 apiece they're the only ones I've seen so far that compete price-wise with their inexpensive Asian counterparts (such as My Beauty Diary). And Freeman is a drugstore brand, so if you're in the USA these should be relatively easy to find (I got mine at Walmart). Here are the three varieties:




One for purifying, one for hydrating and one for brightening. Seems promising, right? Today I'll be reviewing the Purifying Star Fruit variety.


Freeman Feeling Beautiful Star Fruit Purifying Facial Paper Mask


Here's the product description as according to Freeman's website:

Breakouts? Irritation? Skin needs serious soothing. This serum-infused paper facial mask with Star Fruit helps calm skin stressed by flare-ups. Lavender and Niacinamide help balance oil production. Tea Tree soothes breakout-stressed skin. Witch Hazel refreshes and minimizes the appearance of pores. Lift the paper and press serum into skin to prep for moisturizer and prime for make-up. Perfect for combination to oily skin types.


So far this is sounding like a fairly typical sheet mask experience. Ingredients:


Freeman Feeling Beautiful Star Fruit Purifying Facial Paper Mask ingredients


There is extra serum in the pouch and the mask sheet came with a plastic backing (like My Beauty Diary and My Scheming masks do) to help unfurl it without tearing. In this case, that little detail is 100% necessary because the fiber of these masks is so thin. Seriously, it feels like one step above wet toilet tissue. I didn't get a picture of the mask by itself, but here it is on my face:




Attractive, eh? I hate to say this, but the fit of this mask is really, really bad on me. The strip above the mouth is surprisingly thin and the eyeholes are just... wrong. Maybe if you have a tiny face with giant eye sockets these would work for you. And now I've suddenly found myself thinking of Mickey Mouse wearing a sheet mask... what the hell is wrong with my brain?


I WILL DESTROY YOU.


The instructions say you're only supposed to leave this on for 5-10 minutes. Normally I'll wear sheet masks for about half an hour or more, but since this was a new product to me I figured I'd be obedient and only leave it on for 10. The mask provided a very slight cooling sensation like all sheet masks do and also had a pleasant tropical fruit fragrance. Sounds normal so far, right? But when I took it off something very strange happened...


Freeman Feeling Beautiful Star Fruit Purifying Facial Paper Mask redness red face


Wow, this pic makes me look hairy. Anyway, can you see how the area right around the corner of my mouth is much lighter than the rest of my skin? That's because the mask wasn't touching that spot, and every part of my face that it did touch turned BRIGHT FUCKING RED. Ahhhhhhh!!! Definitely do not want!

Thankfully the redness went away after an hour or so, but geez. My skin isn't usually that sensitive and  "freshly boiled lobster" is not a look I want to achieve from my skincare products. I wonder if this could be a reaction to a higher-than-normal concentration of Niacinamide? Niacin can cause flushing when ingested in excess orally so... maybe? I'm not an expert though so I'm really not sure. Update: A reader informed me that niacinamide can create irritation when used with BHA/AHA. I am not sure if that was the problem in this case, but it's another possibility to consider. I didn't apply any BHA/AHA treatments prior to using the mask so if the redness was caused by a reaction of two different ingredients, it must have been two different ingredients in the mask.

So... yeah. For a mask that's supposed to do "serious soothing", this sure was a fail. I didn't notice any reduction in my acne after using this, but I was very distracted by the fact that my entire face was bright red so maybe I missed something.

Freeman Beauty, if you're reading this: I hope you will consider reformulating this mask. I am speaking as someone who has been using paper masks such as this one 2-3x per week for the last few years. I want to buy and like this product. There is a serious gap in the market for inexpensive facial sheet masks in America, so I was really delighted to see that you came out with some, but in my opinion this mask is just a big old mess. Redness issues aside (because they may just be specific to my skin), the physical construction of the mask feels cheap and uncomfortable and the fit is extremely odd. If I can buy a vastly superior box of My Beauty Diary masks from Walmart's website for around the same price per piece as your mask, why would I choose yours? I will gladly try this again if you reformulate it, but until then... no.


Bottom line: Freeman's Feeling Beautiful Starfruit Purifying Facial Paper Mask has two things going for it - it's cheap and easy to find in American drugstores. Beyond that, I can't really think of anything good to say about it.


Where to buy: In a variety of drugstores (including Walmart), or online at Freeman's website.



What do you think of Freeman's paper masks? Have you ever had a bad experience with a sheet mask?

18 comments:

  1. Eww what a shit, its supposed to soothe and it makes your skin all red, makes sense xD
    were you only red or did you also have itchiness?

    X Laura.

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    1. No itchiness, just mild tingling. It didn't even really hurt, I was just... red. Fun?

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  2. If my face turned red after using a mask I would get into a panic O.o
    Good thing that redness went away after an hour !!!
    Luckily I never had a bad experience with a sheet mask , but I had some with other products >.<
    I do not know why , but at the moment I'm a bit reluctant to buy Western sheet masks ... I think that the Asian market pay more attention to this kind of products. Perhaps in the coming years I'll change my mind :)
    Chibilaria ღ Cute Random Lifestyle and Beauty Blog

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    1. Haha yeah, I was not happy in the moment. It didn't hurt though, it was just red and tingly and odd. I would have been extremely pissed off if it hadn't gone away the same day. As for the western sheet masks, yeah, I haven't seen any yet that really looked great. And not a lot of companies have introduced them yet. I wonder why that is, because wash-off masks do sell pretty well here... is the concept too odd? Or are people just not willing to pay $2+ for something that is one-time use? I don't know.

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  3. Hm... it's sad it ended so badly... I do have some masks that works really bad for me too, but most of them I have tried works fine...

    http://www.gwiyomistyle.net/

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    1. It's true. Even the "worst" Asian sheet mask I tried never turned my face red!

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  4. I actualy just used this about 15 minutes ago and im curently freaking out about my face being red.... and I actusly feel exactly as if my face was sunburned not just in color but in the stinging as well...

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  5. I knew I was avoiding these for a reason!!

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    1. Yeah... I'm just not a fan of things that turn my face red, somehow. :P

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  6. This is happening to me also. Wony buy this away hope the red burning stops soon:(

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  7. I just tried this mask for the first time myself tonight &...boom freaky-bright-redness paired with a slight burning sensation. Why, Freeman, why?! I completely agree with you about there needing to be masks like this one to fill the gap in the American beauty market, but this one is just....bad. :( I hope my redness also goes away in an hour, cause right now I'm FREAKING out like Chicken Little when he thought the sky was falling.

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    1. I hope the redness went away for you! I really hope they reformulate it... from what I've been reading on various forums etc. it seems like we're not the only ones to experience redness after using this.

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  8. I just used this Freeman masque in the hydrating version about 10 minutes ago. My skin is extremely red right now and it is disturbing. I googled this product to see if anyone else experienced this reaction and found your blog. I hope my redness also goes away within an hour because I am supposed to go out in a couple hours and I don't want to look like a lobster.

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  9. I used the rose one a few months ago and it burned SO bad! When I took it off my face was bright red and swollen and even after I washed it off will cool water it kept burning for HOURS! I had to go buy a benadryl cream to put on my face to help and it did. I read your review of the star fruit one to see before I used it and now I wont use it in case. I use their other products with no problem, I just won't ever use the paper masks again.

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  10. Ugh, that's awful. I use their wash-off masks all the time with no problems, so I'm not sure what the deal is with these masks. I'd definitely steer clear if you had a bad reaction to the rose one though!

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  11. Same here, I've used I think every other mask and scrub they have and they work great (my favorite and current product is the charcoal and black sugar, smells sooo good!) but the paper masks just give me hell! It took almost two days for the swelling to go down.

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  12. This is super late, I know, but I found this while searching to see if anyone else had this reaction. My acne has finally cleared up and I've stopped using prescription creams so I tried this tonight. Yikes! I washed my face after because I thought I was having an allergic reaction! I'm really hoping this doesn't cause any major damage or regression in my progress...

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