Between the sheets
Homegrown skincare brand Minenssey reimagines the humble sheet mask, loading it up with actives, Australian native ingredients and prebiotics. By Remy Rippon.
Homegrown skincare brand Minenssey reimagines the sheet mask.
IF WE ANALYSE the life cycle of a beauty trend it usually goes something like this: a spiffy new product formula is dubbed the skincare game changer we all need in our kits (cue the YouTube beauty tutorials) and then one of two things happens. It either fades away as quickly as it arrived – good but not worthy of a permanent place in our regimen – or it becomes so ingrained in our daily routine that we’re unsure how we ever went without it.
Sheet masks fall into the latter. And for good reason: when applied weekly, a sheet mask is designed to deliver a super-charged dose of nourishing ingredients and also top up moisture stores that can be zapped by acids or cleansers that strip the skin. The skincare benefits are both instant and long-lasting: “Facial masks are found to be a convenient and more immediate way of delivering active ingredients to the skin. With the serum from the mask left on the skin, and massaged in, it helps to deliver lasting benefits,” says dermatologist Dr Philip Tong. “Although you can use products after the mask, such as a vitamin A cream or retinol, most of what the skin requires can be found within the mask already.”
Which is precisely the case with Minenssey’s newest arrival: the Nutritious Skin Treatment Mask. Spiked with Australian botanicals (antioxidant-rich lemon and aniseed myrtle and kangaroo paw) and reliable actives (hyaluronic acid and niacinamide) to heal, hydrate and exfoliate, what sets this mask apart, according to Tong, is the neat addition of prebiotics.
Why do they matter? Prebiotics promote healthy bacteria – called probiotics – in the skin which “provide a health benefit and can be found in large populations on skin – this is called the microbiome,” explains Tong. It’s for this reason that the Nutritious Skin Treatment Mask lists ‘Prebio Defense’ among its star ingredients: the prebiotic solution nurtures a healthy microbiome, which is good news for anyone prone to acne, rosacea, dehydration or even eczema.
Equally important is how you use it. To get the most out of this mask, use them up to three times a week. Apply the geraniumscented mask to clean skin and let it settle for 15 minutes. Upon removal, you’ll notice a serum residue: massage this into the face, neck and shoulders for benefits that persist well beyond the initial lit-from-within glow.