LUSH Catastrophe Cosmetic Fresh Face Mask

Another day, another mask to smear all over my face!

I tried another one of LUSH's Fresh Face Masks and thought I'd share with you my opinions on it. This time I picked up Catastrophe Cosmetic, a "blueberry-packed maintenance mask," as the LUSH site describes it.

This was on my list of "next masks to try" because - as I've said before - my skin is a real bitch and it needs all the extra love it can get. From the LUSH site:

Prevent disasters by taking regular care of your skin with our deep-cleansing, nutrient-rich blueberry mask. The little blue bulbs are packed with vitamins, and blended into calamine, rose absolute and chamomile blue oil to soothe redness, irritation and cleanse the skin without stripping it of its natural oils. This one is wonderfully soothing on sensitive skin. Treat your face to Catastrophe Cosmetic as often as you can to keep your skin looking its best.

I was already broken out, so I guess "preventing disasters" was not in the cards, but a nutrient-rich mask with calamine sounded like it couldn't hurt.

Like the other face masks I've tried (Oatifix and Cupcake) Catastrophe Cosmetic should be applied over a clean face and left on for 5-10 minutes before being rinsed off with warm water.

CC is more clay-like than Oatifix or Cupcake. (As a reminder, Oatifix was like an oatmealy banana bread batter and Cupcake had more of a brownie batter consistency.)  The smell of these masks seems to be a big deal for me, personally. What they smell like - and how strongly they smell that way - can be either a selling point or a huge deterrent. In this particular case... it's a bit of a deterrent I'm sad to say!

Catastrophe Cosmetic smells like chalky blueberry floral clay. Yep. Read that a few times. Weird. Anyway, I did as instructed and smeared a nice thick layer of it all over my clean face. You may have seen me show off the look on Instagram. (Oh yeah, by the way, I'm sort of on Instagram now ~> find me at @akaBaileyBlog. Don't mind the lack of a profile picture - I haven't felt beautiful enough to take a selfie in like a month thanks to all of my aforementioned skin problems.)

.  but i will take this blueberry-smeared selfie!  .

This mask felt like it dried on my skin a lot faster than the other two, I found. I left it on for about 10 minutes before rinsing it off.

Several minutes after washing off the mask, I noticed that my skin didn't feel clean - it felt like there was still residue on my skin. So I went and re-rinsed. My face still felt un-clean after the second rinse! Did I do something wrong?? My hands even felt dried out, having touched the face mask!

Over the next week or so, my skin did not improve at all. I'd even say my breakouts got worse, though I wouldn't blame the face mask for that. I blame a combination of bad luck, hormones, and possibly... a less-than-stellar diet. #HelloDoughnuts. #HelloIceCream. #HelloSaltyPopcornTwists. #GOODBYESELFRESPECT.

I'd heard that you can actually use these fresh face masks beyond their expiration date if you keep them in your refrigerator. I still had plenty of product left, but my skin was so out of control that I was hesitant to use the CC mask again while I was broken out, so I decided to keep the mask for about a week beyond the expiration date.  When I was finally feeling brave enough to use it again on my face, I opened it up to discover a few spots of mold inside the product, so I had to throw the rest of it away. (By the way, I also rinsed out my little black pot and stashed it with my others, because if you bring back 5 of the empty pots, they'll give you a face mask for free!)

So all in all, I won't be repurchasing this mask. I didn't care for the smell and didn't like the way my face felt after using it. So far the winner of LUSH's face masks is Oatifix, which smells incredible and left my face feeling really soft and moisturized.

Here are all the ingredients inside of Catastrophe Cosmetic:

Calamine Powder , Talc , Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus) , Fresh Blueberries (Vaccinium myrtillus) , Glycerine , Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis) , Rose Absolute (Rosa damascena) , Chamomile Blue Oil (Matricaria Chamomilla) , Sweet Wild Orange Oil (Citrus Dulcis) , *Limonene , Methyl Ionone , Perfume

LUSH's fresh face masks come in 45g pots that cost $6.95. Let me know in the comments if you have tried one of their masks and think I should check it out!

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I purchased this face mask myself!