Gimme Five: Face Masks

Well done me for the world's greatest gif (not!)

Hello and welcome to Just Bananas' latest feature: a series in which I road test five products of the same category and give you my honest, inner most thoughts on each. It's gonna be hella exciting folks... hence the gif... or at the very least it may be mildly interesting, I hope!

Today's edition, as you may have guessed, is about face masks. A couple of these you will probably have heard of - there's one pricey little pot you will definitely be familiar with - but there may be others you may want to keep an eye out for...

First off we have Glam Glow and as I've mentioned previously, it was a major disappointment... For £40 for a very small tub, I had some very high hopes and I must say I was underwhelmed. It's got a very strange, fizzy feeling that I found mildly irritating, but after washing it off (you are meant to rub it into your skin, as it contains little green bits to help exfoliate) I can't say my skin looked or felt any better than it does with any other mask. I will say it did kill the head of a spot near my mouth, but otherwise... Go to Lush I say, I feel like their masks have a similar vibe to this!

Next is a current nightly favourite, Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask. It smells so freakin' good: apricot is one of my favourite smells and this is a gorgeous, apricot scented leave-on treatment that contains plant glycerine, avocado oil, apricot kernel oil and (YAY!) hyaluronic acid. It provides a really nice layer of hydration and has not broken me out. I bloody well love it.

Liz Earle's Brightening Treatment Mask is a strange one to me: you leave it on for no more than a couple of minutes and as it's an off-white cream, there's no chance of it setting whatsoever. It says contains camphor oil and witch hazel and promises to brighten dull, tired and lack-lustre skin. I found that it didn't seem to do anything slapping on a moisturiser wouldn't... It's the cheapest one of this line up but one that I think made the smallest difference to my skin.

I really liked the Aromatherapy Associates Rose Hydrating Face Mask. It was joint favourite with my next mask until I picked up the Origins one, I liked it so much! It's a clear gel that can be applied for ten minutes or as an overnight treatment and contains aloe vera and rose to hydrate the skin. It's lovely but I won't be repurchasing it, at its £37 price tag.

My last pick is the Clarins HydraQuench Cream Mask which was specifically formulated for dehydrated skin, according to the Clarins website. I thought this was really wonderful stuff; at £33, it's not cheap, but you're getting a product that does everything it says on the tin (and it contains our best mate, hyaluronic acid). It's a good mask, but for now my Origins love fest continues!

I am definitely going to do another Gimme Five: Face Masks so let me know of any masks that are rocking your world and I'll happily give them a whirl! Also brownie points to anyone who guesses what the next Gimme Five category will be...