Most Revealing - - Introducing The Organic Pharmacy’s Corrective Face Mask Collection
Ooh I do love a mask! It was as if my skin sighed in gratitude when I opened the parcel delivering the brand new Corrective Mask collection from The Organic Pharmacy.
Today’s world is relentless on our skin. However healthy and considered our life choices, there is ultimately always a barrage of external factors that affect the health and stability of our complexion. The recent events of the last year and a half have tested our bodies defence systems beyond our comparable memory.
We are living at a time where things feel vulnerable and uncontrollable; it is now, when exercising a small level of power over something as simple as the condition of your skin, can give you some sense of control back.
Have you met The Organic Pharmacy yet? Have you tried their beauty and wellbeing products?
I suggest it’s worth your time to explore. It is rare to find a truly pioneering skincare brand in recent history and in a noisy category it is hard to make your mark.
MEET THE BRAND: THE ORGANIC PHARMACY
‘It can’t be done, we can’t achieve what you want.’
Crushingly disappointing and off-putting or, for entrepreneurs who are destined to redefine our choices, further drives you to show people it can indeed be done, but it requires vision, belief, dogged determination and resilience.
If the space is full, rethink and create a new space to make your own.
The Organic Pharmacy has been a trailblazer in the world of natural skincare solutions with proven skin science. Co-founder Margo Marrone turned a childhood fascination into a global beauty and wellbeing brand that has been part of the movement to redefine the space that natural skincare occupies, helping challenge expectation and encourage us to rethink our choices based on viable alternatives, education and performance.
Inspired by traditional chemists growing up in pre-revolution Iran, with handcrafted tinctures and remedies, backed by her pharmaceutical training, further homeopathic learning and driven by an unrelenting belief that her calling was to work “closer to nature” and offer people a destination for health and beauty aligned to the organic food movement.
In 2002, the doors opened to the first store on London’s Kings Road.
Today’s landscape of natural beauty and wellbeing solutions is a very different space. Technology and creativity as advanced to accommodate the shifting expectations of 'skintellectuals'.
Now a global brand, The Organic Pharmacy holds that groundbreaking, pioneering respect with their diverse range of skincare products fast approaching their 20-year anniversary in 2022.
The challenge with any brand that helped forge new ground in the market, is to retain that position of leading innovation, pushing boundaries, establishing standards and redefining expectation - as the rest of the market rushes to catch up.
The Organic Pharmacy is committed to optimising each ingredient used, clinically testing to prove efficacy and maintaining no compromise on quality, fusing natural-organic with state-of-the-art techniques.
THE CORRECTIVE MASK COLLECTION
So, back to the parcel arriving!
MASKS! 4 of them! Goodness what a treat.
The joy of masks is that they can slot into your skincare wardrobe, you can reach them when your skin tells you what it needs, you don’t need to adopt a full skincare regime with a brand and can simply augment your choices with targeted solutions as and when.
Masks are instant gratification – you see the results from first application. During lockdown, their use became key as they represent accessible self-care, skin rescue and re-nourishment, especially for skin that was thrown into flux with the occlusive nature of face covering, stress and an altered sense of wellbeing.
This collection partners with serums that already exist in the portfolio, positioned to target the key aspects of 360-degree skin health management:
- Brightening – using Vitamin C
- Hydrating – Triple weight Hyaluronic Acid
- Clarifying – Plant acids (coming soon)
- Refining - Retinol
Each of the masks use the same lightweight, fresh gel-like texture that is soothing in application, delicately tinted to reflect its categorisation with an iridescent pearl.
I have tried 3 of the 4 masks, I could not use the retinol sample as I was already using a retinol-based product and I couldn’t combine.
Hyaluronic Acid Corrective Mask
Coming soon
Shot with an iridescent blue pearl, this gel mask quenches the skin and plumps from within, smoothing expression lines and helping re-energise the complexion.
I already love the award-winning Hyaluronic Serum from The Organic Pharmacy and this new mask works so beautifully to soothe, plump, firm and hydrate the complexion, it was instantly apparent that my skin felt smoother and happier.
Hyaluronic Acid is an essential to our skincare wardrobe, but so many brands fail to talk about the different weights and how beneficial a multi-molecular complex of this ingredient is for the skin. This mask features triple molecular weight Hyaluronic Acid at 0.2%. What does that mean? Well, by employing the differing weights of this super-hydration specialist, it benefits the skin on a multitude of levels. Smaller weight molecules penetrate deeper into the skin, while the medium and high weight molecules work just below the surface to deliver that instant effect of plumper, smoother skin.
If you try one product from the collection, I would recommend without hesitation to try this. We can all suffer with dehydration so this will work on all skin types to deliver a radiant glow.
Clinical results show a measured improvement of 16.2% moisturisation and elasticity increased by 10.1%.
It’s a long, thirst quenching drink for your skin this one!
Stabilised Vitamin C Corrective Mask
Vitamin C is good for us. Fact. Known and loved for its revitalising, brightening, collagen-boosting and skin tone-evening properties.
The difficulty is its inherently instability meaning light, air and water render it inactive in a formulation.
The Organic Pharmacy has used a stabilised form of the ingredient so that it can support the proliferation of firmer, more elastic skin cells and boost natural free radical protection to support the inhibition of hyperpigmentation that can occur because of damage caused by external aggressors such as UV exposure.
My skin looked and felt smoother directly after use, I would say that it had a more uniform luminosity also. In my experience, Vitamin C is an ingredient where you see an instant improvement overall but that the results and difference in complexion radiance are seen with repeated use, the impact of its efficacy are compounded with regularity.
If your skin is prone to looking run down and a bit lacklustre, look to introducing this ultimate glow getter into your routine. It will without doubt boost your radiance and help reduce pigmentation irregularity in the skin, while also helping support collagen synthesis which builds structure, tone and strength within the skin. Follow with The Organic Pharmacy Stabilised Vitamin C Serum for optimised results, this is where I really noticed the difference.
Four Acid Peel Corrective Mask
As awareness of the efficacy of acids on our skin increases, the word acid in relation to skincare is not quite so scary, in fact, quite the opposite, associating it with glow, refinement of texture and skin smoothing.
AHAs and BHAs are super exfoliators, absolute experts at ridding the skin of unevenness and clarifying pores, whether naturally derived or synthetically replicated. Our understanding and exploitation of their benefits and the different types of AHA means that they remain a ‘hot’ ingredient. The main benefit of an AHA is that it is not a physical polishing of the skin which can lead to micro tear damage, arguably counteracting the benefits.
This high -performance, resurfacing mask is a blend of 4 exfoliating acids glycolic, lactic, citric and tartaric. The AHAs are water soluble which means they penetrate pores readily to clarify, lifting away dirt and dead skin cells to support a clearer complexion, inhibit breakouts, stimulate cellular renewal.
As you are stimulating fresh skin to surface it is important to wear SPF to protect this more vulnerable skin to prolong the benefit of exfoliation.
This mask is best used at night and no more than 1 or 2 times a week so that skin is not over-stimulated.
Retinol Night Corrective Mask
I didn’t use this mask as I was already using a retinol-based product and couldn’t overlap.
There are myriad benefits of using retinol – it improves firmness, pigmentation, boost collagen and smooths the signs of age and lifestyle damage. The issue is that many are wary of is its propensity to cause reactivity, sensitivity and irritation.
By using encapsulated retinol, the brand has created a treatment that enables penetration and release at a deeper level, rather than activating on the surface. This achieves optimal strength and no irritation.
Remember with retinol products – use your SPF as new skin is vulnerable.
Beauty Insider Tip:
Because these formulations are all very similar in consistency – you could create a perfect masking situation by adding specific masks to the key area of your complexion requiring focus simultaneously, a patchwork of treatment optimisation.