Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask

Hi everyone! On my blog I rarely ever focus on skincare and that's definitely because I am the first to admit that I have neglected my skin in the past, I just never saw the point in it and I thought that having to buy skincare was such a chore and it led to my skin being in poor condition. I finally decided to sort my skincare routine out when I realised I was buying all these really cool make up products but they didn't look at all how I wanted them to look on myself because my skin was so bad. I just felt like my make up didn't look good on my skin at all and it led to me investing a lot more into a better skincare routine. Whilst my biggest problem is dry, dull skin I also have a problem with pores and blackheads on my nose so I felt like I needed to get some products to help, I was in London recently and Selfridges had an Origins counter and I have recently seen Zoella talking about how much she loves their Active Charcoal Mask and the sales assistant was telling me it was their most popular mask so I thought why not try it out and see if it works for me!

"Active Charcoal acts like a magnet to draw out deep dwelling pore-cloggers, White China Clay absorbs environmental toxins. Lecithin dissolves impurities. Without all that "stuff" down there, skin "breaths a sigh of relief"". 

I'd always just used face masks for fun in the past and never part of a skincare routine so I was actually quite excited to try this and see how it felt. I do have a problem with my skin rarely feeling fresh and clean, especially as some days when I have university 9-4 and then work 6-10 I will be wearing make up all day and my skin feels so cakey and gross by the end of it so I absolutely love that this claims to get rid of all that and make your skin really clean.

I was definitely a bit intimidated by this product as first as the colour of it is a bit scary! You do look a bit like the moon face emoji when you're wearing it but it washes off absolutely fine, it didn't stain my skin like I was worried it would. The consistency of it is so nice, I think sometimes face masks actually can feel like clay, but this is quite light and creamy for a mask and I found that it didn't feel too heavy once you had applied it. There is a slight scent to this product, nothing overpowering though, I was a bit indifferent to it really it didn't have a scent I loved but it didn't have a scent I hated which is a bonus because I was also scared it would have a weird smell!

When I applied it I didn't have to use a lot of product at all, it's so good because I've used it a few times and it still looks like I've hardly used any so you get really good value for money. It dried very quickly, it did dry quite firm so your face did feel quite tight but I always like that because it makes me think it's actually working! I don't know if anyone found this but I felt like it was heating up slightly when it was drying, I'm unsure if this is just me because I hadn't seen anything about it heating up anywhere before so I'd love to know if anyone else has tried this and found the same thing. I left it on for about 10 minutes while I was in the bath and just rinsed it off, thankfully as I mentioned before it didn't stain which I was so worried it would and that I'd be looking like the moon face emoji for a couple of days! The first thing I notice when I wash it off is how much fresher my skin feels, it really does feel so clean and I completely understand what it means when the packaging says your skin will breathe a sigh of relief because that's exactly how it feels! In terms of blackheads after using the blackheads on my nose did look slightly reduced, it definitely wasn't a miracle worker that got rid of them in one go but I did see an improvement so I'm excited to keep using it and seeing how it works.

I really would recommend this product, the only issue is that it is quite expensive, I bought mine for £23 however you get 100ml of product and I think it will last you a really long time, it is recommended that you use it once a week or as often as needed so I think I will have this product for a while. It is also a really good investment if you are wanting to see and feel a change in your skin which really was a must for me, I'm definitely more willing now to spend money on skincare because my skin really does need sorting! Let me know in the comments if you've tried this or any other face masks from Origin!