A few months ago, I received a Fresh Rose Face Mask as a sample from Sephora.
I loved it. I used it as a sleeping mask, and wore it overnight. The ingredients were gentle enough that I could wear them overnight instead of washing it off after 15 minutes like the packaging recommends. The mask smelled like a thousand roses marching together, a shower of rose petals flying out of the jar to wrap you in the illusion of a rose garden in full bloom. I can’t wax eloquently enough about how much I loved the smell. Remember, I have a terrible sense of smell, so something that smelled so strongly of roses made me extremely happy while the beats-you-about-the-nose-with-a-thousand-petals scent was too strong for others. OSHA hasn’t gotten around to regulating strong, foul smelling chemicals in lab, so I’ve probably destroyed or desensitized a good portion of my olfactory bulbs. Digressions aside, I love that mask, and was curious about buying the full-sized version. I was floored to see that the full-sized version was $62 USD.
For that cost, I can get most of my AB routine. Let’s break it down from RRS and Amazon: $9.99 for Mizon’s Snail Ampoule, $5.96 Skinfood Black Sugar Cleansing Oil, $12 for shipping from RRS, $8.99 for Skinfood Black Sugar Scrub from Amazon, $9.99 Mizon Recovery Snail Cream, and $8.99 for Biore Sasara UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence Sunscreen SPF50. The items from Amazon were free shipping at the time of this post, so my grand total comes out to $55.92. Compared to one tub of Fresh Rose Face Mask at $62 not including sales tax, I couldn’t justify the cost of a new tub. Thus started a quest to find a rose-scented moisturizer that wasn’t going to eat up the majority of my skincare budget. Enter in Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping Mask.
I’d gotten it as part of an order from RRS shop where the shipping was $12 for 4 items. RRS currently sells the sleeping mask for $10.16, so with an average cost of shipping, it came out to about $13.16. Mamonde clearly dyed the Rose Honey Mask to resemble a pretty pink rose extract with pretty pinker petals floating in it. The Fresh Rose Face Mask from Sephora is an brown-red that looks like oxidized pink rose petals with equally oxidized rose petal bits floating in it. As far as texture goes, they’re the same to me. Both products are a gooey, clear gel with psuedo-rose petal bits that dissolve when rubbed into the skin.
As far as performance goes? The Mamonde Rose Honey Mask works better for my skin than the Fresh Rose Face Mask. I just wore the Fresh mask last night, and woke up with dry, flaky patches on my skin. I’ve been using the Mamonde Rose Honey Mask regularly for about two weeks, and it hasn’t left any dry patches on my skin the next morning. it’s been wonderful to use, I don’t wake up with dry or tight skin. So wonderful, in fact, that I’m thinking of using it as a daily moisturizer to seal in the products I’ve applied at the end of my routine. I could layer sunscreen on top of it and be happy. I’ll be using Mamonde’s Rose Honey Mask for exactly that purpose this weekend as we travel, so I’ll let you know how that works out. I’ve been needing a good, occlusive moisturizer to seal in all the lovely moisture I put on my skin. I’ve noticed towards the end of the day that my skin will feel tight, and it occurred to me that the products I use are great on the emollient and moisturizing front but not so great on the occlusive front. Quick review: emollient ingredients of skincare products add moisture to the skin, occlusives help your skin barrier retain that moisture. You need both in a healthy balance to keep your skin happy. Looking at the ingredients of both products, they do have a lot in common.
Here’s the ingredient list for Fresh Rose Face Mask from Sephora:
Aqua (water), Butylene glycol, Glycerin, Pentylene glycol, Peg-60 hydrogenated castor oil, Rosa centifolia flower, Maris aqua (sea water), Rosa damascena flower water, Cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit extract, Anthemis nobilis flower oil, Camellia sinensis leaf extract, Porphyridium cruentum extract, Rosa damascena flower oil, Aloe barbadensis leaf extract, Aspalathus linearis leaf extract, Faex (yeast extract), Sodium hyaluronate, Carbomer, Tetrasodium edta, Sodium hydroxide, Caprylic/capric triglyceride, Glyceryl acrylate/acrylic acid copolymer, Caramel, Maltodextrin, Parfum (fragrance), Bht, Citronellol, Phenoxyethanol.
Here’s the ingredient list for Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping Mask from CosDNA:
Water, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Glycereth-26, Rose Extract, Rosa Canina Flower Oil, Honey, Eclipta Prostrata Extract, Moringa Pterygosperma Seed Oil, Citrus aurantium dulcis, Lavandula Angustifolia Oil, Theanine, Epigallocatechin Gallate, Camellia Sinensis Flower Extract, Kaempferol, Nelumbo Nucifera Flower Extract, Prunus Mume Fruit Extract, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer, Behenyl Alcohol, Xanthan Gum, Jojoba esters, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Kaolin, Tromethamine, Sodium polyacrylate starch, Ethylhexylglycerin, Adenosine, Theobroma Cacao Extract, Dextrin, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Fragrance, Alcohol, Phytantriol, Poloxamer 407, Caffeine, Fragrance, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance, Hydrogenated Poly(C6-14 Olefin)
I’m deliberately not doing a side-by-side comparision of the ingredients because they are regulated differently from each other. Fresh is a US-based brand while Mamonde is a South Korean brand, and they’re under different regulations requirements that dictate how they list their ingredients. The post I linked to goes into depth about how the regulations are different for listing ingredients if you’re a South Korean company versus an American company, and it’s pretty different. So it wouldn’t be fair to compare each ingredient on the list like they were equal concentrations, because they’re not. I’m just using Fresh Rose Face Mask to compare Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping Mask, because Fresh is a brand carried by Sephora with better recognition in the US compared to a South Korean brand like Mamonde, which I can only find through online retailers. Fresh Rose Face Mask is what I’m using for a basis of comparsion for the Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping mask.
FWIW, the Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping Mask did so much better for my skin than the Fresh Rose Face mask. It never left my skin feeling tight or dry the next day. It never left dry patches on my face. It didn’t break me out. From the CosDNA ingredients list, Mamonde’s Rose Honey Sleeping mask only as 1 ingredient that’s a possible acne trigger and that’s butylene glycol. It’s a common ingredient in many of the sheet mask that I use, so I’m not even worried. Both products have a rose oil extract. Mamonde uses Rose Canina Flower Oil, while Fresh uses Rose Damasca Flower Oil. Mamonde’s rose oil is the fifth ingredient down on the list, while Fresh’s rose oil is the twelfth ingredient on their list, which suggests to me that there’s a higher proportion of rose oil in Mamonde’s product than Fresh’s. I know my skin responds better to rose hip oil, and plant oils, so this is important to me. Both products felt wonderful going on, absorbed quickly, and smells wonderful. I could smell the rose scent through the sealed packaging of Mamonde Rose Honey Mask.
Scent-wise, the Fresh Rose Face Mask has a stronger rose scent than Mamonde Rose Honey Mask. I can smell Fresh Rose Face Mask as soon as I open the jar. From an arm’s length away, I can smell the Fresh mask. Both products smell strongly of roses when first applied, but it fades away. Honestly, based on how well they performed on my skin, I would buy Mamonde’s Rose Honey Sleeping Mask over the Fresh Rose Face Mask. It’s more cost-efficient and performs better on my skin. Did I forget to mention that Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping Mask comes in a 80 mL jar? It’s pretty large, and I wound up decanting it into a smaller sample jar for ease of use and so I wouldn’t contaminate the larger jar. I’m on a quest to find occlusive moisturizers that work well with my skin, and Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping Mask fits the bill. I’ll definitely be buying it again, because I love roses! And apparently roses love me back. The Mamonde Rose Honey Sleeping mask is available on Rose Rose Shop, Jolse, and Amazon.
The Quest for the Golden Nautilus 