LUSH Cupcake Fresh Face Mask

I take a lot of my beauty advice from bloggers and YouTube beauty gurus. It's fabulous to live in a day and age when product reviews are right at my fingertips, so if you know what's good for you, you'll take advantage of that.

LUSH is already one of my favorite stores - I love their bath bombs SEW MUCH - but it can be daunting to branch out to try some of their large array of handmade goodies. There really are a ton of different types of products that LUSH carries, and since some of them can be a bit pricey it's important for me to really know what I'm getting into before dropping my hard-earned #DollaDollaBills on them.

But after seeing MissGlamorazzi raving about LUSH's Cupcake fresh face mask on more than one occasion, and having read a great review about the LUSH Oatifix face mask from a local Vancouver blogger (Jayne at Cosmetic Proof), I felt pretty good about going to pick up both of those products within the last couple of weeks. Today I'll tell you about my experience with Cupcake!

This fresh face mask was designed for oily, troublesome skin. I don't know if my skin is "oily" but it's certainly troublesome.

From the LUSH site:

Cupcake is our one Fresh Face Mask that was created for a bit of fun. At the time, our inventor’s daughter was a young girl having slumber parties with her girlfriends every weekend, so he whipped up a chocolate mint mask for young, oily skin (officially solidifying him as the coolest dad ever). If you suffer from oily or spotty skin, slather it in this cocoa concoction. With spearmint oil to cool, vanilla absolute to calm redness and Rhassoul mud to deeply cleanse- Cupcake is a sweet savior for young faces. Smothering yourself in chocolate for clearer skin? Every teenage girl’s dream.

Um, yeah. My 29-year-old dream, too. Chocolate-mint is my FAVORITE flavor in the world. I saw nothing wrong with smearing a little of it (or a lot of it) all over my face. So following the instructions on the container, I made sure my face was clean and then used about half of the 60g pot on my entire face, avoiding my eyes and mouth:

At first I was all, 

"Ooooh!!!! This is exactly like wearing a tingly face mask of chocolate mint cupcake batter!" 

That's really exactly what it smells like!

But after leaving it on for a few minutes, it became clear that it... still really smelled exactly like chocolate mint cupcake batter. Like, riiiiight in my nostrils. Reeealllly strong. This face mask's scent means business, people.

After about 7-10 minutes or so, I used a washcloth and warm water to rinse the mask off. I think I was hoping that my face would instantly feel... something. Softer? More hydrated? Squeaky clean? Something! But it didn't... no instant gratification there. There weren't any discernible instant benefits, but there was something I noticed a little while after removing the mask:  I COULD STILL SMELL THE CHOCOLATE MINT.

Guys - believe me when I tell you that chocolate mint has been my favorite flavor combination my entire life. My parents would tell you that mint chocolate chip has always been my go-to ice cream combo. (I've mentioned that here, here, and here.) So for me to say that I couldn't handle the potency of Cupcake's smell says a lot, I think.

It was definitely too much for me, so within about five minutes of rinsing off the mask, I had to apply a nice layer of Arbonne night cream to my face to try to cover up the smell of Cupcake. That worked, more or less.

I still have one more mask's worth of product left in the pot, so for the sake of not wasting my money I'm going to use Cupcake at least one more time. If any miraculous revelations about the product make themselves known after that application, I'll be sure to update you... but for now I'm going to go ahead and say that due to the overwhelming scent of this product, I won't be repurchasing it. However, scent is such a personal thing - and some people have stronger olfactory sensitivities than others - that I wouldn't go so far as to NOT recommend that you try this out. After all, many people love and repurchase this product all the time!

Here's a bit more info about Cupcake Fresh Face Mask, to make sure you've got all zee facts:

• Due to the fresh ingredients, you have to keep these face masks refrigerated. There's even a little mini-fridge right in the LUSH store where they keep the masks!
• This mask has a quick expiration date! Again, due to the fresh ingredients.
• You can't buy this product online - it's in-store only, because it needs to be kept cold.
• This mask is vegan.
• In Canada/US, a 60g (2.1 oz) pot of Cupcake Fresh Face Mask retails for $6.95.
• If you bring back 5 of these little black empty pots, you'll get a free face mask! #RecyclingIsSexy
• Here are the actual ingredients in Cupcake:
• Rhassoul Mud , Glycerine , Linseed Infusion (Linum usitatissimum) , Talc , Cocoa Powder (Theobroma cacao) , Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao) , Fresh Mint (Mentha arvensis) , Sandalwood Oil (Santalum austro-caledonicum vieill) , Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia) , Spearmint Oil (Mentha viridis) , Peppermint Oil (Mentha piperita) , *Limonene , Perfume

If you were to read the reviews of this product on LUSH's site you'd see that most people really enjoy this product - some even say that it's a real pore-minimizer. So I feel kind of like a weirdo for not loving it... but to each her own!

The good news is that I also purchased another LUSH face mask - Oatifix - and had a much better experience with that one. Stay tuned for a review of that mask!

Have you tried Cupcake? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

What is your favorite LUSH product?

Do you have a favorite face mask - of any brand? I'm all for trying out more!

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{Linking up with I Feel Pretty} Disclaimer: I purchased this face mask myself!