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What are your experiences with hydrogel masks? Everybody who is into asian cosmetics will have heard of sheet masks, the essence soaked cotton sheets for a quick at home spa treatment of your face. While sheet masks get slowly more attention also in the western world, hydrogel masks are still new to most people. I myself didn’t try a lot yet, so I’m happy to review the MediHeal PDF A.C-Defense Hydro Nude Gel Mask today, a premium mask pack that is supposed to sooth damaged and irritated skin in a gentle way.

MediHeal is a brand by L&P cosmetics, a Korean cosmetics manufacturer. Most of MediHeal’s products seem to be masks, but they seem to have other cosmetic products as well. The design of most of the MediHeal masks is simple and kind of medical looking, which illustrations of pipettes, capsules and all kind of other scientific containers. The MediHeal PDF A.C-Defense Hydro Nude Gel Mask (btw.: PDF means Pure Derma Factor) shows a filled pipette for example. Apart from this illustration the mask sachet is simple and in golden and blue colors.

This premium mask, as it is called, contains a doubled soothing technology compared to the precursor sheet mask called Mediheal P.D.F AC-Dressing Ampoule Mask. In this way it is better suited for sensitive skin, since the double soothing technology helps the skin to rest better while controlling sebum. If we have a look at the back side of the mask sachet we will find a lot of Korean description. But apart from the Korean writings you will also find the ingredients list and an illustration on how to use the sheet mask. I added the ingredients to COSDNA and you can have a closer look at them >>here<<. What I like about the ingredients are the huge amount of natural plant extracts. The key ingredients of this mask are salicylic acid and niacinamide. Unfortunately, there is also one ingredient which I do not like here, which is Triclosan. This antibacterial chemical is often used in cosmetics, but although I wouldn’t consider it necessary or healthy. Nevertheless, the concentration of Triclosan has to be quite low, since it is listed as penultimate ingredient in the list.

If you open the mask sachet you will find this hydrogel mask is divided into two pieces. There is one piece designed for the lower facial area (mouth and chin) and a second piece for the upper facial area (eyes, forehead, nose). Each of the two pieces is protected by two plastic foils (with other sheet masks you only have one…it made me a litle confused at first). The sheets have two sides, one side is structured with a net-like surface and one side is smooth. You are supposed to put the structured side on your face, so that the smooth side is lying on the outside. It is important to first apply the upper part of the hydrogel sheet mask and then the lower part, because otherwhise the lower part will keep sliding off your face, since this hydrogel sheet is soaked very extensively with the essence. The net-like structure of the sheet makes it stay on your skin and especially makes it fit perfectly on the skin. This mask should be left between 10-20 minutes on your skin.

As for the size of the MediHeal PDF A.C-Defense Hydro Nude Gel Mask, it does fit perfectly on my face, even the nose part, which usually comes a bit short for me with other sheet masks, covers all my nose. It almost doesn’t make any pleats and feels like a second skin, except is is super cooling when applying. It absolutelly feels soothing in that way while it is on your face. Below you can also see how my skin looks before and after using the mask:

As you can see my skin looks a bit tired and pale before I put the hydrogel mask. Afterwards, it seems the cooling effect has stimulated my blood circulation and my skin looks more lively. This hydrogel mask definitively delivers in terms of cooling, but it also has a soothing effect. One day I used it while my forehead was feeling itchy and after having applied the mask for 20 minutes my skin was relieved from the itchiness. Apart from the soothing properties, this mask also claims to be moisturizing. Indeed the hydrogel sheet is super soaked with the essence and there is also some amount of essence left in the sachet, which can be used on the neck etc, but after taking the mask off my face the skin didn’t feel moisturized. It was rather feeling dry and a bit tight. This is most likely because of the sebum controll effect the MediHeal PDF A.C-Defense Hydro Nude Gel Mask provides. In this point it may be better suited for oily skintypes. for dry skin, the amount of hyaluronic acid or other moisturizing ingredients is just too low, when looking for a moisturizing hydrogel mask.

In total, I discovered that I do really like hydrogel maks and I definitively want to try out more of them. The MediHeal PDF A.C-Defense Hydro Nude Gel Mask specifically works great for soothing and cooling, but it is too drying for dry skintypes. People with oily skin might want to try it, because of its sebum-controll abilities. You can find the MediHeal PDF A.C-Defense Hydro Nude Gel Mask and other masks from this brand at Koreadepart. Each mask retails for around 2.50 US$. On W2Beauty they are avaiable for 9.74 US$, which is quite expensive.

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

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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.