Review: Forencos Selene Project Silk Mask Series

As a child I’ve been very curious about ancient cultures, like the egypt, roman or greek. I read so many children’s science books back than and I knew many of the facts by heart. Today, I almost forgot everything, but nevertheless the topic still makes me very curious. I received this Forencos Selene Project Silk Mask series with my BNT News Box a couple of weeks ago and- apart from the fact that I love sheet mask- this mask series made me very excited because it has sheet masks for each day of the week related to the greek gods who are behind them.

Forencos is a Korean brand which sells enviromental cosmetics since 1988. The brand has quite a range of skincare and makeup products, but in the internationally known skorean online shops they don’t have a lot of products from this brand, which is why it is quite unknown. They have 7 main issues within their brand philosophy: skin rejuvenating, skin refreshing, skin revitalising, skin relieving, skin regeneration, skin revival and skin resolution.

The Forencos Selene Project Silk Mask Series is a sheet mask series containing 7 sheet mask for daily use. Normally, I do not use sheet masks daily, but I heard many (koreans) do that. Honestly, on most of the days I forget or I’m to lazy, tired or busy :D Having a sheet mask series like the Forencos Sele Project Silk Mask Series is great, because each of the sheet masks is themed for a day of the week and each weekday is translated to the ancient greek good for that specific day. This way even a person like me is motivated to keep using the sheet mask on a daily basis.

As you can see from the images, each of the 7 sheet masks comes in a different color and has a different key ingredient. These sheet masks consist of two steps. Each mask has a sachet with a mask base ampoule attached, which contains 2 ml and is used before applying the sheet mask. The week starts with Tuesday, the Forencos Hephaestus Volcanic Ash Detox Silk Mask. Hephaestus was the ancient greek’s god of metallurgy, fire and volcanoes, which make Jeju volcanic ashes the key ingredient of the mask. Volcanic ashes eliminate dead skin cells and clean and contract pores. Wednesday‘s mask is dedicted to Poseidon: The Forencos Poseidon Caviar Moistuire Silk Mask will provide your skin with moisture and increase the collagen production. The key ingredient are caviar extracts which have a similar texture to skin it in terms of amino acids, minerals and vitamins. On Thursday it is the Dryas Tee Tree Relax Silk Mask. Australian indigenes were already using tea tree leaves to cure infectious diseases. Tea tree oil, the key ingredient here, is amazing at calming and soothing the skin.

On Friday you can use the Forencos Midas Gold Regenerating Silk Mask, which treats wrinkles and helps blood circulation while delivering minerals with 24k pure gold. For Saturday the Forencos Gaia Mayu Elastic Silk Mask helps to make the skin more elastic. Mayu, or horse oil, is similar with human sebum and helps control its secretion. It also contains ceramide for skin regeneration and elasticity. Forencos Helios Black Pearl Whitening Silk Mask is dedicted to Sunday. Pearl was even loved by Cleopatra for its high mineral and amino acid concentration as well as for the bioactive substances it contains. It reinforces skin’s immunity and acidity for a bright complexion. Last but not least, the week ends with Forencos Selene Swallaw’s Nest Total Care Silk Mask on Monday. Swiftlet’s bird nest contains 2000 times more sialic acid that human saliva and 200 times more than royal jelly for a total turnover: moisture, elasticity, skin tone, it cleans and protects the skin (if you are interested in other bird’s nest products read my review on SNP Bird’s Nest Aqua Eye Patches >>here<<).

Unfortunatelly, apart from the sheet mask names you’ll not find any other English description here. Everythink is written in Korean, even the ingredients. I would have loved to read more about that specifically, since the advertised key ingredients sound nice. As I said, these masks consists of two steps, a base ampoule and the sheet mask. Each sheet mask sachet shows in an image how to use the ampoule in a first step and add the sheet mask on top. The Hephaestus Volcanic Ash Detox Silk Mask is the only exception as it seems (at least this is what I interpreted from the images). First of all, this mask is the only one which is soaked in a brownish, almost creamtype essence. You have to put on the sheet mask first and wait until it dries off. I waited for almost 1.5 hours, but the mask only dried partially. Nevertheless I took it off and the feeling was a bit like using a peel-off mask. I expected a tighteing effect and it was indead tightening, especially while the mask was drying. Unfortunatelly, I had the feeling that it was too drying on my skin.

I used the ampoule after the mask in this case, hoping that it would somehow moisturize the skin after the tightening mask, but the ampoule is a very sticky, viscous and rich one with a milky color. It feels like putting liquid glue on your face and has an instant warming effect. I think it is designed this way to keep the moisture inside the skin. I don’t know if it was correct to use the ampoule afterwards, since my skin was so dry. MAybe I should have used a moisturing toner before.  It even didn’t absorb that way, so I had to wash my face because I could not bear the sticky feeling.

All the other masks of the Forencos Selene Project Silk Mask Series are liquid essence masks. For the other sheet masks I first used the ampoule and added the sheet mask on top. I had no problem with the other masks and all of them were really refreshing and nicely soaked with the essence. The sheet masks themselves contain silk, as the name suggests. They are thinner than regular cotton sheet mask, but not as thin as some other maks. They didn’t dry out either. The fit of the masks was not perfect for me, but this is something which depends to your face and the shape your face has. The scent of all the masks was the same. It was quite strong and noticeable and had a soap scent. I would have loved if the scents were slightly different from mask to mask, for example that the tee tree mask smells of tee tree oil. Unfortunatelly, because of the really rich and sticky ampoule, the sheet masks leave the skin quite sticky even after they absorbed fully into the skin. But I must say that putting a sheet mask on top of the ampoule still leaves the skin better than using the ampoule on its own.

All together, I like the concept of Forencos Selene Project Silk Mask Series. It is nice to have a specific mask for each day of the week and the relation to the ancient mythology is a nice idea. I also like the idea of having a boosting ampoule before using the sheet mask. I didn’t like the ampoule in this mask series too much, because of the super sticky consistency. The warming effect it had might be good to open up pores for example, but I cannot imagine that the ingredients of the sheet mask essence can penetrate through this thick and gluey ampoule. My skin felt moisturized afterwards, but I couldn’t see any real differences between the single days although the key ingredients were supposed to be different in each mask. It would be nice to know how the sheet masks perform on their own without the ampoule for example. I hope that I can try these masks again in the future and maybe I can make some more indeep review of specific single masks of this series. This Forencos Selene Project Silk Mask Series containing 7 sheet masks retaills at the official Forencos page for around 21 US$. As far as I checked it, it wasn’t available at any other of the online stores I normally buy Korean products from.

This product was provided to me by BNTnews for reviewing. Don’t forget to visit the other BNTGirls Doris, Celine, Alene and Bella and check out their reviews. And visit BNTnews for the latest Korean news and trends:

Official Page |Tumblr | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter

Just as a short reminder: All products mentioned and reviewed on this blog are of my personal opinions. This product here was sent to me for reviewing purpose by http://www.bntnews.co.uk/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.