Fruit Salad for the Face

After so much time spent recently in hospitals, waiting rooms and in bed I feel my face is taking on a distinctly grey pallor. Time to try:

REN F10 Smooth and Renew Peel Mask

The entire bottle is made of plastic. There is no indication of what type of plastic. I pump out a splodge of gorgeous, gelatinous goo. It smells more like blackcurrants than roses. Later I read on the REN website that: “Omega 3 and 6 from arctic blackcurrant reduce skin inflammation” and that it also contains vitamin C from Barbados cherry to fight free radicals and Papain from Mexican papaya to eliminate dead skin cells. Quite the international fruit salad.

I smooth it over my face and neck, avoiding the delicate eye area and generally trying to look like one of those classic face-mask magazine ads. Instead I get quite a lot of it in my hair and a little bit up my nose as well.

After ten minutes of not using the telephone, scratching my chin or putting on my reading glasses I attempt to “pat and lift with fingertips.” Just once I would like to find a face mask that actually lifts off like a second skin. The only thing that ever came close was when, at school, my friends and I smeared our faces with clear glue and then peeled it off. There is something deeply satisfying about doing that, like picking a scab. But I no longer recommend glue as part of one’s weekly beauty regime. I think it’s probably made of cow products anyway.

Now comes the best bit. This face mask is packaged with it’s own little muslin cloth, complete with a REN label. How posh. I dampen the cloth and then rub the mask off in circular motions. The mask contains some fine granules, so as I rub with the cloth I get an extra exfoliating cleanse.

I have to say that afterwards my face feels fresh and alive. I smooth on a squirt of REN Rose 012 Ultra moisture serum and I’m positively aglow.

Ingredients (from the REN website): Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Water, Glycerine (Source Coconut Oil), Polysorbate 60 (Source Rape Seed Oil), Lecithin (Source Soybean), Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Peel Extract, Rosa Canina (Rose Hip) Seed Oil, Ribes Nigrum (Black Currant) Seed Extract, Xanthan Gum (Source Corn), Maltodextrin, Carica Papaya (Papaya) Fruit Extract, Malpighia Glabra (Acerola Barbedos Cherry) Fruit Extract, Parfum (100% Natural Fragrance), Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, Citrus Nobilis (Mandarin Orange) Peel Oil, Citrus Tangerina (Tangerine) Peel Oil, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Seed Oil, Limonene, Linalool, Citral, Phenoxyethanol (Source Aromatic Ether), Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Sodium HydroxymethylGlycinate (Source Amino Acid)