Review: Paula’s Choice Skin Recovery Hydrating Treatment Mask

Ah. Paula. While I enjoy referring to her Beautypedia website, I hesitate to rely on her articles because of the blatant conflict of interest that is her own product line. No matter that now, I purchased the Skin Recovery Hydrating Treatment Mask a year ago and I think it is appropriate for me review now. The product claims to:

• Be suitable for normal, dry, very dry skin
• Suitable for anti-aging, eczema, extra sensitive skin, redness, rosacea, wrinkles
• Rich cream repairs dry skin, smooths wrinkles and fine lines
• Leaves your skin looking radiant
• Calms redness and flaky skin

This is a product that I’m really undecided about, even though I’m close to finishing a tube. The product dispenses as a creamy, thick cream, then dries down to a transparent layer on the skin, like a layer of wax. I try to touch my face, but the feeling is quite curious. It may crack around the lips where there’s most movement, and looks like a patch of dried and cracked earth on my skin. The next morning my skin feels hydrated, like any decent moisturizer.

The mask however is fantastic when used on damaged skin, like blistering or peeling from the sun. It tingles, but it doesn’t hurt. I was glad I had this on hand when I was suffering from terrible skin earlier in the year.

In addition, the mask helps to reduce appearance of wrinkles (though it never claims to do so). When applied in a thick layer, facial movement is restricted, and thus it is close to impossible to raise eyebrows and frown. It works like the frownies, actually, by restricting muscle movement to relax appearance of wrinkles. The effect is purely temporary, though.

I’ve experimented this on half my face above my serum, and on the other half I applied my regular moisturizer. The next morning I saw no discernible difference between both sides of my face. To be fair, I should have applied the mask on half my face when I was peeling like a snake from the sun, but then putting a product to the test wasn’t my priority then, resting my skin was.

Repurchase? Maybe, I don’t know. While it is a good product to have on hand when sunburns/dry spells happen, they occur about once a year. Is it worth it?