Skinfood Strawberry and Black Sugar Wash Off Mask

When it comes to exfoliator, instead of the now-popular acid toner or peeling gel, I like the good old fashion grainy scrubby scrub. Polyethylene (plastic filler beads)and nut shells (sharp but loosely spaced) are no-nos for me, so sugar scrubs are my go-to picks as they smooths out with the shower heat, becoming less harsh.

Freeman Sugar Scrub had been an old standby that's (frankly a tad too sharp) harder to find in drugstore so I have looked elsewhere for my melty sugary fix. Skinfood Black Sugar Wash Off Mask is not just popular on reddit, it actually ranked No.1 on cosme.com. Since there are already so many great skincare available in Japan, a Korean product making their local consumers award much means a lot. I started with a jumbo size last fall and I have been repurchasing since!

Each of the wash off mask costs around 10 bucks and contains 100g of product. It's often discounted on Amazon that you can get the double sized for 13-14 bucks. Even though they are called masks I mainly use them as PM (in shower) facial exfoliator.

The original black Sugar has a soapy black sugar scent and a very thick texture that's full of grainy crystal. It's very potent at scraping dead skin away while nourishing the skin. What I was not used to is that it foams a little and leaves a film on the skin afterward, it didn't strip away moisture, caused any break out or reaction so I am fine with it. Overall it feels like a luxurious and less harsh version of Freeman sugar scrub (now I am using for my legs) and I can use it more frequently, like twice a week on my face without thinning skin barrier. 

The Strawberry version had a sorbet like texture with less sugar particles and a more emollient base (oh did I mention that it smells delicious!). It feels more moisturizing but still effective. With this texture, I am able to use it as cleansing balm to remove sunscreen, when I don't want to do the whole makeup removal step (to just get the sunscreen off),  such a treat to the senses. 

Both are great and I really want to get another double sized strawberry version, but I shall finish the backup black sugar first. Btw, don't get the honey mask since all the sugar would dissolve in the honey base before you get to it.