Skinfood was the first brand that I really got into. I mean, I bought makeup and beauty-type things before but it wasn’t with so much enthusiasm. Just a kind of, “oh let’s try liquid liner. Which one is the cheapest?” kind of thing. But for some damn reason, I one day read about BB creams and was just smitten so off to google I went to see where I could get one. Skinfood it was!
Korean beauty shopping in Malaysia can be quite annoying, with how marked up the products are but there is one silver lining: the samples. That’s how I discovered Skinfood Rice Mask— it came along with my purchase of Skinfood Mushroom BB Cream (also included: Skinfood Black Sugar Mask, their Lime Secret Shine Base— both brilliant products, btw– another BB cream I didn’t care much about and a bunch of skincare samples that were too tiny to judge accurately).
For a while I was using this product as a straight up mask. I mean, that’s what it’s called. I thought that it wasn’t that great of a mask since it didn’t exactly do anything to make my skin feel bouncy and hydrated the way sheet masks do. Plus it left residue, the kind of residue that you get after using a cleansing cream– that heavy, uncomfortable feeling on your face where you just know it’s going to build up and give you a breakout eventually. But since it was called a mask, I persevered. The residue had to be a good thing!
Thank God, I never actually experienced any breakouts because of this but I finally got tired of the residue so I abandoned it in favour of sheet masks and essences. Did I regret buying it? Kind of. But nasi sudah jadi bubur. However, you might find that there are times when the bubur is better than the nasi. Quite recently I’ve found a new purpose for this product which made me love it: as a very gentle exfoliant.
I’m not the first person to discover this, though. It seems like quite some people online have been using this ‘mask’ as an exfoliating wash, and for that it’s totally brilliant. It’s known that the microbeads found in the usual exfoliators are not only bad for your skin but bad for the environment, so this rice mask with its very, very gentle granules makes for a good alternative. I cannot guarantee if it’s better for the environment, so don’t quote me on that but I can assure you that it’s better for your face. It’s not going to give you that ultrasmooth, egg-like surface you get using harsher exfoliants, but it’s not going to dry you out and damage your skin the way those do either.
I’ll tell you what really kills me about this product, though. The one characteristic that I feel sets it apart from everything else. You know how nearly everyone has got those pesky blackheads on their nose, regardless of how good their skin is? I definitely have them, and I’ve given up worrying about them because, unlike acne, those suckers are not going anywhere! But with the Skinfood Rice Mask, well, they come out. All I have to do is massage it around the areas where I have blackheads and I’m guaranteed to find (this is gross) extracted blackheads all over my fingers. Those things are seriously gross, and they’re a lot bigger than you’d expect, too. It’s a very satisfying yet at the same time disgusting feeling to see them… the kind of satisfied/grossed out-ness you get after using one of those nose strips, except those nose strips aren’t good for you either since they basically rip your skin out. After I’m done exfoliating/extracting blackheads in a gentle and non-painful manner, I just wash my face with my regular face wash and that takes care of that residue issue I talked about earlier.
So maybe there are other products which manage to do the same thing, products which are ACTUALLY labelled as exfoliants and not just vaguely titled ‘Mask Wash Off’. But are they as cheap as this, and as easily attainable as this? Plus you get that nifty little Skinfood membership card thing where you can collect points and get gifts after achieving a certain level (when brands create memberships where the ‘prize’ you get after spending a certain amount is just, like, a 10% discount or something I just tune out… Spend a lot, so your reward is you get to spend more! Hurray!). PLUS the tub is really cute, despite the Comic Sans. Maybe because of the Comic Sans. Skinfood is just cute in general. I’ve always preferred their apothecary/rustic vibe over the babywoman/daddy issues aesthetic of most Korean brands.
Skinfood Rice Mask is available at all Skinfood outlets for around RM42… ish. It’s been a while since I got this product. But I can assure you that it wasn’t expensive. But you can get it for even cheaper online.
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