Donna Marie French Pink Clay Mask

 A sample size of Donna Marie Perfumes & Balms’ French Pink Clay Face Mask was my Day 2 gift in my Beautiful Christmas 2016 Advent Calendar.

The rose pink clay powder was packaged in a small glad bag with a decorative matte black and shimmery purple cardboard wrapper. Stuck on the back of the cardboard was a sticker that read: “French Pink Clay Face Mask. Stimulates circulation & ideal for dry skin. Mix with water, milk or yoghurt into a paste, apply on face & neck, leave for 20 minutes & wash off with warm water.”

I chose to mix the powder with one and a half teaspoons of water to get a nice smooth, thick paste that I applied to my face with a flat foundation brush that I keep to use with masks. The mask looked more of a rich chocolate brown after it had been applied but once it was dry, it looked more of a dusty pink colour.

After 10 minutes, my face started feeling funny, like the clay was squeezing my face out of shape. It wasn’t a bad sensation and I know it was just the clay drying but if felt really odd, almost like my chin and bottom lip were sticking out at an odd angle. Haha!

After 20 minutes had passed, I washed the clay off my face & neck. This was a little difficult to do at my bathroom basin (as we have an oddly shaped rectangular one) and it made a huge mess. It would have been a lot better if I’d planned ahead and had this mask on before I showered, so that I could have simply rinsed it off in the shower. It’s the prefect kind of mask to relax in the bath with but, unfortunately, we don’t have a bath in our house. If you do have to rinse this off at the basin, like I did, be careful not splash any clay or water onto your clothes, as I found that it did stain a little. Drape an old, darkly coloured towel over your shoulders to protect your shirt from any clay or water splashes.

Once the mask was off, my pores looked clean and my skin felt smooth, even if it was a little on the dry side. This was easily fixed by using a toner to remove any left over residue before moisturising with a rich, nourishing night cream.

Personally, I’m not a fan of masks that I have to mix myself, purely because I don’t like the hassle and mess of having to mix them, and they can’t be mixed in bulk and stored, as they tend to go mouldy (I leant this the hard way with a previous DIY face mask, read more about that here). I much prefer the ease of pre-mixed masks in a tube, so I doubt that I would purchase a full sized bag of this product in the future.

If you do like the idea of mixing up your own face mask, then give Donna Marie French Pink Clay Mask a try. It was a really nice mask and it did work well on my naturally oily skin.

Donna Marie products are available from selected stockists.