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It's time to share this month's beauty standout and it's another skincare item! Over the past few weeks I've been enamoured with the Glow Recipe Avocado Melt Sleeping Mask | £41. I recently did a brand overview of Glow Recipe, which you can check out here, but for a while this product wasn't available in the UK, so of course I snapped it up as soon as it launched on Cult Beauty. It's already one of my favourites from the brand and my go-to night mask. Here's why it's so great...
Glow Recipe is one of those uber-cool South Korean skincare brands; think pretty pastel packaging, glass skin and fruity-themed ingredients. This product comes in a premium-feeling glass pot; not only does it make the experience a bit more luxurious when compared to plastic, but it can be recycled a virtually infinite amount of times, making it a less wasteful option. It also comes with a little spatula, which is good for a potted product, so you aren't getting bacteria in the formula by sticking your fingers in there. There are two versions of this mask but - for whatever reason - only the original formulation is available in the UK, alongside the retinol version of the eye cream.
The starring ingredient is obviously the avocado, so I want to jump into what skincare benefits this fruit can deliver, but first I want to have a look into the claims Glow Recipe make about this product. They describe it as 'creamy, yet breathable' and claim it's a quick fix for dry and dull skin. With fruit and vegetable skincare ingredients; the main thing I'm looking out for is if they're actually beneficial applied topically or if actually it's a bit of a gimmick and you're better off just chowing down on your avo toast to get those skin benefits. Avocado is packed full of fatty acids, along with Vitamins A (from which retinol is derived), E (which is incredibly nourishing) and D (this may have anti-aging benefits). These antioxidants can have both healing benefits for the skin and they can help protect against free radicals. Applied topically, we know that avocado can calm irritation and soothe the skin, making it really nice on sensitive skin, particularly around this time of year. The fruit extract is second on the ingredient list and the oil derived from avocados is third, so this mask isn't a gimmick; you really are getting a nice hit of the star ingredient in the product.
Looking at the other ingredients, there's glycerin - a good humectant for drawing moisture into the skin - cacao butter is also in there, which I enjoy, but it could be a bit rich for some. Kaolin is in there, which was a little surprising, as you usually find this in wash-off clay masks and given this is a nourishing night treatment, I wouldn't expect to see it here. However I don't really see any negative skin benefits from this being included in a leave-on product like this, perhaps because it's pretty far down on the ingredient list. This also contains PHAs, a very underrated form of chemical exfoliation; this ingredient has a large molecule size, making it far more gentle than the more-famous AHAs and BHAs you may have heard of. The inclusion of this ingredient will help the skin look smoother and more radiant overnight. My only negative is that there are some flower waters midway down the ingredients list, which can be sensitising for some.
The formula itself is a lovely light-but-nourishing cream and you don't actually need a lot of product, which is good given how small the pot is! I've been using this every other night and have loved how it leaves my skin softer, smoother, healthier and more nourished after use. It's exactly what my skin has been craving lately and I'm very grateful to have it in my routine. My skin is combination / normal but this product doesn't smother or overwhelm my pores and there's no excess left my skin's surface after use; it just drinks the product right up. Overall, I think this is set to be a winter skin staple for me!
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Glow Recipe is one of those uber-cool South Korean skincare brands; think pretty pastel packaging, glass skin and fruity-themed ingredients. This product comes in a premium-feeling glass pot; not only does it make the experience a bit more luxurious when compared to plastic, but it can be recycled a virtually infinite amount of times, making it a less wasteful option. It also comes with a little spatula, which is good for a potted product, so you aren't getting bacteria in the formula by sticking your fingers in there. There are two versions of this mask but - for whatever reason - only the original formulation is available in the UK, alongside the retinol version of the eye cream.
The starring ingredient is obviously the avocado, so I want to jump into what skincare benefits this fruit can deliver, but first I want to have a look into the claims Glow Recipe make about this product. They describe it as 'creamy, yet breathable' and claim it's a quick fix for dry and dull skin. With fruit and vegetable skincare ingredients; the main thing I'm looking out for is if they're actually beneficial applied topically or if actually it's a bit of a gimmick and you're better off just chowing down on your avo toast to get those skin benefits. Avocado is packed full of fatty acids, along with Vitamins A (from which retinol is derived), E (which is incredibly nourishing) and D (this may have anti-aging benefits). These antioxidants can have both healing benefits for the skin and they can help protect against free radicals. Applied topically, we know that avocado can calm irritation and soothe the skin, making it really nice on sensitive skin, particularly around this time of year. The fruit extract is second on the ingredient list and the oil derived from avocados is third, so this mask isn't a gimmick; you really are getting a nice hit of the star ingredient in the product.
Looking at the other ingredients, there's glycerin - a good humectant for drawing moisture into the skin - cacao butter is also in there, which I enjoy, but it could be a bit rich for some. Kaolin is in there, which was a little surprising, as you usually find this in wash-off clay masks and given this is a nourishing night treatment, I wouldn't expect to see it here. However I don't really see any negative skin benefits from this being included in a leave-on product like this, perhaps because it's pretty far down on the ingredient list. This also contains PHAs, a very underrated form of chemical exfoliation; this ingredient has a large molecule size, making it far more gentle than the more-famous AHAs and BHAs you may have heard of. The inclusion of this ingredient will help the skin look smoother and more radiant overnight. My only negative is that there are some flower waters midway down the ingredients list, which can be sensitising for some.
The formula itself is a lovely light-but-nourishing cream and you don't actually need a lot of product, which is good given how small the pot is! I've been using this every other night and have loved how it leaves my skin softer, smoother, healthier and more nourished after use. It's exactly what my skin has been craving lately and I'm very grateful to have it in my routine. My skin is combination / normal but this product doesn't smother or overwhelm my pores and there's no excess left my skin's surface after use; it just drinks the product right up. Overall, I think this is set to be a winter skin staple for me!
Have you tried Glow Recipe or used avocado skincare before?
Don't forget to follow me on:
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