Neal's Yard Palmarosa Purifying Facial Mask Review

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I have to be careful what I put on my face, the slightest imbalance of something can break me out in pretty awful acne. I try and look for supposed 'good' ingredients and try and stay away from 'bad' ingredients (when I say bad I generally mean anything OIL based, I know they say oil is good but the only good oil product I've found which is good for my skin is the Clarins Lotus Oil which I use once a week or so, very sparingly... less so during summer because my skin just doesn't need it)

I used my first Neal's Yard products in the new year when I was given their citrus hand wash and lotion for Christmas; I loved those so the next step was to try some of their skincare range. If you don't know who Neal's Yard are, they were founded in 1981 with their first shop in Covent Garden, that in itself makes me want to try more of the brand as I'm really keen to support anything British. 

Palmarosa Purifying Facial Mask £25.75 Neal's Yard*

The most striking thing with anything Neal's Yard is the smell, everything smells absolutely beautiful and really draws you into wanting to use it; it contains 59% organic ingredients; maple extract, raspberry leaf extract, hemp seed oil and geranium flower oil to name but a few. As you can probably imagine, Palmarosa is quite a heavy sweet floral scent but it's not overpowering, it's actually really enveloping and relaxing; I especially like using it while I'm relaxing in the bath, it kind of takes away the need to use a candle. 

It basically has the 3 most important skincare properties for me; 

- Deep Cleansing

- Oil Balancing 

- Minimise Blemishes

I apply a thin layer onto my skin and let it work for around 10 minutes; it doesn't dry like the usual clay masks I use, it doesn't crack as much and it's generally softer feeling on my skin. I wash it off with a clean flannel and I usually just spray my face with a bit of Serozinc afterwards. It leaves me feeling perfectly relaxed and my skin feeling clean and fresh. 

I only use this when my skin is fairly clear because I don't think it calms down spots and redness as well as the Skinceuticals Clarifying Clay Mask (maybe to do with the Palmarosa mask having less clay content) but this Palmarosa mask is significantly cheaper and nicer to use in terms of pampering experience. I do think that the SkinCeuticals mask is more functional whereas this is more appropriate for a proper pamper session. 

The Neal's Yard website says that there should be enough for approximately 5 masks in one of these pots making it £5 per mask, but I do think that's a bit of an understatement. Less is more with this mask and I've had about 5 masks out of this already and I have just under half left. Maybe I don't use enough but I only put it on areas of my skin which are affected by acne (namely my t-zone, chin and cheeks) I don't put it right to the edge of my hairline because I don't think it's necessary. I know some people would moan about it being in a pot, it not being 'hygienic' and all that but seriously, if you wash your hands before you use it, what's the problem?

I would recommend this to anyone with combination/oily skin as a really nice luxurious product to use once per week, especially as we're entering the autumn/winter months were skin tends to crave richer products and you live for the nights where you can just relax in the bath and get all warm and cosy.