Product Review: A Couple of Affordable Masks For Daily Use

I’m a “sheet mask every day” kinda girl. Sheet masking helps me with the constant battle I’m fighting against dehydrated skin.

That being said, it can be a bit of an expensive habit if I’m not careful. This is why I’m always on the lookout for inexpensive, decent masks.

Today I’m going to share a couple of the best, most affordable masks I’ve tried.

cartoon woman with mud mask and cucumbers

Mask Criteria

Just because I’m cheap doesn’t mean I don’t have standards, guys.

These are the things I’m looking for when I’m trying out a potential product for bulk masking:

  1. Comes in a pack of at least 7-10 masks
  2. Works out to be less than $1 per mask (shipping included)
  3. Can be worn comfortably for a minimum of 20 minutes
  4. Provides better hydration than just spraying my face with mist a few times

Bonus points if I can buy said masks on Amazon Prime. Because who doesn’t love near-instant gratification, right?

Now that you know my criteria, I’ll dive into quick reviews of a few masks that are MsMerriam-approved.

Dermal Korea Collagen Essence Line

The Korean brand Dermal actually has quite a few mask lines, which I didn’t realize until I was writing this post. In retrospect, I should have assumed that they did, but I’m usually just focused on their Collagen Essence line.

Let’s run through the list:

  1. If you purchase these on Prime, you can get packs of 10, 15 and 30+ individually packaged masks. Some are variety packs and others are single-flavor.
  2. Again, on Prime the price per mask generally works out to be between $0.50-$0.98 per mask, which is perfect for me.
  3. The fabric on these masks is a nice, stretchy cotton that’s not suffocatingly thick. I can easily wear these for 30+ minutes without them flapping around or being fussy.
  4. They definitely provide a good amount of hydration. No additional special effects, but that’s okay.

This means that Dermal Korea is 4/4 on MsMerriam’s Bulk Masking Criteria.

I’ve tried at least 15 different flavors of masks from this line (there are a TON), and I’m just gonna say it: Honestly, it doesn’t matter which flavor you slap on your face. Not a single one of these has given me any sort of special effect aside from hydration.

Obviously, if you’re allergic to an ingredient or hate a certain star ingredient’s scent, skip that one. Otherwise, go wild. They all perform equally.

If you’re feeling Excessive Choice Anxiety, I recommend grabbing one of the giant variety packs so you know which ones you like and which ones smell funny. One of my favorites is the Orostachys Japonica flavor because it has a piney, hanbang-ish scent that I like.

LuLuLun Moisture Masks

I’ve tried the pink packaging variety (which is officially the “Balance Moisture” flavor) and the blue/purple variety (“Rich Moisture”).

These tend to be polarizing for a lot of people due to their packaging. Whether you get the seven pack that comes in a Ziploc-style package or the huge 32 pack box that looks like a baby wipe container, all of the masks are in a single stack with no separation.

Personally, I don’t mind this. If I’m being meticulous, I just quickly sanitize a pair of tweezers and use them to pluck the top mask out of the pack. If I’m being lazy (which, let’s be honest, is most of the time), I wash my hands and just pinch off the top mask without touching any of the others. My face hasn’t fallen off yet, so either method seems to be just fine.

On to the list:

  1. The small packs contain seven masks, while the economy-sized ones contain 32. I like having a tissue box of sheet masks, so I usually go for the 32.
  2. On Prime, these packs work out to be $0.70-$1 per mask, depending on the flavor you get.
  3. Usually, 20 minutes is the maximum time I get out of these masks. At the 15-minute mark they start getting a bit flappy and dry on the chin area, which is annoying.
  4. They do provide considerable hydration, and the Balance Moisture variety is even a leetle bit brightening.

All in all, I’d say that the LuLuLun masks fulfill 3.5/4 criteria for me. The “wearing comfortably for 20 minutes” part leaves a bit to be desired, but the convenience and price are what keep me coming back to these.

A word of caution: If you have oily skin like moi, I would recommend sticking with the pink variety.

The blue “Rich Moisture” ones always left a bit of an oily film on my skin. I have two dry-skinned friends who tried the blue variety though, and neither of them had that problem.

Bonus: The “Save Your Money” Section

I’ve tried a lot of cheap masks so that you don’t have to. Most of them are cheap for a reason, so I’m gonna give you a quick rundown of a few that aren’t even worth trying.

3W Clinic

I’m not really sure why Samsung is making sheet masks to begin with, but these masks are total garbage. Even the “premium” ones suck. The ingredients are super unimpressive and the fabric feels like several layers of stiff paper towels.

Pass.

The Creme Shop

Honestly, I’m salty about these partly because not a single one is creamy. I LIKE cream masks. These are not. False advertising is strike one, guys.

Strikes two and three come from how crappy the material is and how much $%^#!&* alcohol is in every. single. one. I’ve tried several flavors over many years and every time I’m bowled over by the disgusting reek of alcohol. My skin isn’t sensitive and yet it still burns to put one of these masks on my face.

Pass.

Nature Republic Real Nature

I won’t drag these too hard, but I just found them to be really disappointing. The watery essence flavors really didn’t even leave lasting hydration, and the creamy essence flavors just sat on top of my skin. All of the scents were painfully artificial, and the mask fabric was super stiff and annoying to settle onto my face.

Pass.

What do you think?

I know I haven’t tried all of the economy mask packs that are out there! These are just a few I liked and a few I didn’t.

Do you have a favorite cheap mask that I should try? Let me know in the comments!

8 thoughts on “Product Review: A Couple of Affordable Masks For Daily Use

    1. I liked the two I tried from you! I’m gonna stop being salty with them over discontinuing my rice and red ginseng ones and try the rest.

  1. This was an amazing post. I am going to try those Dermal masks have always thought they looked decent enough. I wish lululun masks were available in india. It would have been nice to try them.
    Thank you for this amazing post.

    1. Thank you! Sorry to reply so late – I didn’t get comment notifications for this post! I’ll be making a second post rounding up a few more cheap sheet masks I enjoy so hopefully more of those will be available in India!

  2. Those Dermal masks were my first ever sheet masks! I thought I’d hate them after branching out but they hold up pretty well. I’ve actually tried all of these masks you mention except The Creme Shop (no loss there it seems!) and agree with you on everything 🙂 The Etude House and Innisfree one’s are probably my favourite cheapies but I think they need to be on sale to be truly cheap.

      1. Hi Nina! If you have Amazon Prime, you can purchase variety packs for around $1-1.25 per mask for both the Etude House and Innisfree masks! Otherwise, you can find the Innisfree here and the Etude House here via Beautytap.com! You can use my affiliate code “msmerriam” to save an extra 15% off if you end up ordering there. Hope that helps! 🙂

    1. Ugh those Creme Shop masks are awful. I’d rather just put a wet paper towel on my face and call it a day, haha. I took a risk with those Dermal ones because I was desperate for some super cheap masks and had that lovely 2-day Prime shipping. I’m glad I did. They’re good workhorse masks to stuff all the other serums and oils I layer under them into my skin.

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