I’d never heard of this company before, but while I was in Irvine checking out my cousin’s art show, I dragged my aunt to a near-by shopping plaza and there was an Asian beauty store!!! Lots of goodies, albeit with pumped-up prices — it is a business, after all. Seriously, a tub of Clean It Zero! was thirty dollars when you can get it for half that price or less online! Yikes. But they had a great variety of merchandise — I spotted Japanese, Korean, and Chinese brands, which is always nice. Nothing wrong with a little browsing. And they had a ton of sheet masks. I should have taken a picture because there were literal boxes on the floor and on top of boxes and on shelves and I wanted to bury myself in these boxes and never come out.

Guys, I love sheet masks so so so much. They are hilarious to wear and their effects are QUICK, like moments after taking the sheet mask off, you can see how beautiful, bright, and glowy you are. I am an impatient millennial and demand immediate gratification, so this makes me happy. I like to use them the day before or the day of a date or going out, so that my skin looks extra bright and lovely. So of course, seeing some on sale, I had to pick up at least ten (hyaluronic acid, gold snail, white pearl, green tea, honey) and convince my aunt and cousin to get some, and, yeah, I picked up some for my mom too…

Rather than post individual reviews, since these are all the same brand, I thought I’d do a sheet mask mega-review.

GREEN TEA

INGREDIENTS: Water, Disodium EDTA, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Powder), Sodium Citrate, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Alginate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Fragrance, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, 1,2-Hexanediol, Phenoxy Ethanol, Camellia Sinesis Leaf Extract, Sodium Dehydroacetate. Since it was not listed, I added it to CosDNA.

CLAIMS: “Norishing (sic)”, “shining”, “vitality” — sounds like it’s meant to brighten your skin and moisturize it. It’s intended for “exhausted & weary skin”, “the skin which gets behind make-up when time is gone” (I am still not sure what they mean by this; I’m guessing you don’t have time to put on make-up??? Or not enough time to take it off at night??), and “dark skin which is not bright skin” (this has more to do with bright vs. dull than fair vs. deep, I think, though many Asian products boast of some whitening component since Asian beauty ideals, y’all). The label also says “green tea extract from nature makes your skin healthy and glossy by adjusting oil-water balance. It also soothes rough and sensitive skin comfortably and makes your skin moist.” Sounds awesome to me.

DEETS: I stayed out in the sun for too long the day before and had the beginning of a sunburn under my tan (the redness in my cheeks). Although it wasn’t anything too crazy, I wanted to reduce the redness/sooth my skin since I was planning on going out to the movies that day. Guys, don’t do this — you get irritation and stinging, and it’s not fun. I should’ve remembered my skin can get a little mad about alcohol when it’s already irritated, but I thought I could tough it out. Don’t be a bitch to your skin like I was. When I used it a second time, after waiting for that sun irritation to die down, my skin was feeling much better and the mask felt so much better on my skin. I had much better results too.

The smell was definitely green tea, not unpleasant or too strong — I had to stick my nose in the package to get a good whiff. It’s more similar to the green tea frappuccino, there’s a hint of something sweet, and also a little bit of a grassy smell too. I liked it! If it bugs you, it goes away after a few seconds. The amount of essence was good; it wasn’t drippy or anything, but I could tell the cotton was soaked through. Any excess, I wiped on my neck and chest. After about thirty minutes, I removed the mask. It dried a little sticky, so I tapped it in with my fingertips. After a few moments, my skin felt very soft and smooth, and the stickiness went away.

OVERALL: Not bad!!! Although my initial run-in with the green tea mask resulted in a bit of stinging, I had a much better experience the second use and suspect my skin was feeling a bit irritated from other things. Once the moisture level of my skin was back up and my skin no longer irritated, the stinging I felt the first time I used the mask didn’t happen again and I was left with a firm, moisturized face with only a little sticky residue to pat in. I’m not sure if I would repurchase this one, but it did give me a bit more confidence to give the other varieties a go.

WHITE PEARL

INGREDIENTS: Water, Disodium EDTA, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Powder, Sodium Citrate, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Alginate, Niacinamide, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Fragrance, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, 1,2-Hexanediol, Phenoxy Ethanol, Pearl Extract, Sodium Dehydroacetate. Added to CosDNA; it’s worth noting that besides the pearl extract, this variety contains niacinamide (this is a good thing). Plus, there are no major irritants or other ‘danger’ ingredients! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

CLAIMS: Supposedly it is “whitening” and will make your skin “pure” and “shining”; consider me sold! Since my skin is dry and easily dehydrated, the hardest thing for me is to maintain a healthy, pretty glow. This is the kind of ‘Asian’ glow I’m after, not what happens to my face when I drink too much. There’s an additional tidbit on the back that states that “by the synergy effects of the extracts of Whitening functional and the Pearl which has much more mineral, makes the dark and dull skin to bright and clean. Also, it has the freckle relief and shining skin texture” (sic) — poor translations aside, I’m into what this product is supposed to do.

DEETS: Decided to put this mask on first thing in the morning, so after taking a shower and rinsing off the remnants of my sleeping pack, on it went. The scent is different from the other varieties, sort of like cold cream: powdery, old-lady floral, not unpleasant but definitely present. It reminded me a lot of how the TONYMOLY Panda’s Dream Magic Cream smells. It ended on that grassy note again, which I’m assuming is one of the ingredients (perhaps the licorice root?), and sort of helped temper the intensity of that powder smell.

There was some itchiness around my chin area, but no stinging, so I kept it on until it dried out (approximately 25 minutes). Again, I had abused my skin the past weekend (4th of July) and was busily restoring my poor moisture barrier after shitting on my routine for four days. America, not-so-beautiful, despite overattentive and near-obsessive application and re-application of sunscreen. Well, there’s only so much you can do. My skin was now decidedly bronzed and I was hoping that the mask could help remove some of the subsequent dullness I had gotten from not following my routine and baking to a crisp.

OVERALL: It’s a well-soaked mask, but I have to be honest — besides general moisturizing and plumping of my skin, I didn’t see the effects of the white pearl extract. Any brightening I was expecting just didn’t happen, which is a shame, since my skin was looking pretty blah and could have used some help ●︿●

SNAIL GOLD

[Somehow I forgot to take pictures of this one… I am so sad.]

INGREDIENTS: Water, disodium EDTA, Glychrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Powder, Sodium Citrate, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Alginate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Fragrance, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castol Oil, 1,2-Hexanediol, Phenoxy Ethanol, Adenosine, Snail Secretion Filtrate, Sodium Dehydroacetate. Added to CosDNA; it seems these face masks are consistently safe, with no major red flag ingredients.

CLAIMS: For “renovation”; “anti-aging” and “beautiful” skin. I love the snails swimming in that unidentifiable amber liquid. Champagne? Snail slime (probably). God, I love snail products — snail filtrate has done so much for my skin and is what helped get me into AB. Besides the appeal of a weird ingredient, snail does wonders for skin. Anti-acne and aging, if you consider it for what it is — the mucus that keeps a snail moist and helps heal its wounds — it does kind of make sense, even seem intuitive, that it would do the same thing for human skin. Or as DABO charmingly puts it, “Adenosine examined by KDFA makes the cutis pendula smooth and tight. Also, it manages to the younger skin status and moist by proding the snail secretion filtrate.”

More simply, Adenosine is anti-inflammatory, and snail filtrate contains a crapload of awesome ingredients: allantoin, collagen and elastin, glycolic acid, and hyaluronic acid. According to the Paula’s Choice ingredient dictionary (always awesome):

Allantoin – anti-irritant

Collagen and elastin – skin-firming

Glycolic Acid – an AHA leave-on exfoliant; however, it needs a pH of 3-4 and a higher concentration to exfoliate, so most likely this just acts as a water-binding agent

Hyaluronic Acid – boosts skin’s moisture content, reduces inflammation, and helps prevents moisture loss

It’s pretty much a powerhouse combo, so I’m kind of excited to see how this mask pans out.

DEETS: No stinging!!! No real memorable smell either, mostly because it dissipated so quickly and I couldn’t really identify what it was. Definitely not unpleasant. After using, my skin was noticeably plump and bright. It’d been feeling pretty dull and boring after the abuse of the weekend, and it seemed like even the extra-indulgent attention I’d been giving it had yet to restore me to my glowy days of glory. But this mask! Bam, as soon as I took it off — my skin was shining, firm, I couldn’t stop tapping my cheeks (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و Definitely a win. There was a little bit of sticky residue and even when drying down, the tackiness took a while to go away, but my skin felt so cool and smooth and PRETTY FUCKING AMAZING. I’d definitely repurchase this one.

OVERALL: My favorite out of the pack, I’d definitely purchase this for some cheap filler masks in my normal routine! My skin was so pretty after using this and it had the most dramatic brightening effect. Plus no irritation! Wins all around here for snail gold. ₍₍ ( ๑॔˃̶◡ ˂̶๑॓)◞♡

HYALURONIC

INGREDIENTS: water, disodium EDTA, glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) root powder, sodium citrate, xanthan gum, potassium alginate, sodium hyaluronate, glycerin, propylene glycol, fragrance, PEG-60 hydrogenated castor oil, 1,2-hexanediol, phenoxy ethanol, persea gratissima (avocado) fruit extract, sodium dehydroacetate. Added to CosDNA here~ It’s a safe, not very exciting list of ingredients imo.

CLAIMS: Hyaluronic acid is one of those ingredients that seems to do it all, and if you ask most skincare enthusiasts, they love that shit (myself included). Additionally, this mask has avocado fruit extract. Avocados get a lot of love in skincare too, because those fatty oils do wonders for skin, leaving it moisturized and plump. I’m assuming that the extract here refers to oil, because I can’t really imagine any other avocado-derived molecule trumping that.

The buzz words for this are awesome, if ambiguous: “Moisture”, “Aqua power”, “lifting up”. I’m not really sure what the last one means, but maybe it’s supposed to provide some sort of pseudo-face lift? Anything to keep my skin firm works for me. Additionally claims that it “Provides the Aqua Power Moisturizing to the dry skin and makes it keep having the moisture and vitality for the health and beautiful skin”. Basically, all the stuff hyaluronic acid is supposed to do.

DEETS: Nice smell, not like avocado or floral or anything, and it immediately dissipates just like the others. Soaked in essence, etc. I used this as part of my morning routine before going out for the day, and it stayed pretty moist on my face for the forty-five minutes I had it on. Unfortunately, when I took it off, this had about the same level of results as the green tea, meaning negligible in terms of brightening. My skin felt firm and moisturized, true, but not anymore so than the other varieties in my humble opinion.

OVERALL: A good filler mask if you’re looking for something cheap to hold you over between more ~glamorous~ varieties but like the green tea, you can find something better for your skin with the same ingredients, I imagine. I wouldn’t repurchase this one, though I’d pick it over the green tea for the lack of irritation and the fragrance, which I liked more here.

HONEY

INGREDIENTS: Water, Disodium EDTA, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Powder, Sodium Citrate, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Alginate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Fragrance, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, 1,2-Hexanediol, Phenoxy Ethanol, Honey Extract, Sodium Dehydroacetate. Added to CosDNA here! Immediately concerned that honey is so low on the list,

CLAIMS: “Moisture”, “health of skin”, and “shining” — this is a moisture-rich mask, as all honey-related masks typically are. I mean, we’ve all heard the stories about Cleopatra bathing in honey and milk (two ingredients we know are excellent for moist, springy skin) and I’m sure a good chunk of us have done a DIY honey mask or two. There’s nothing too surprising here.

On the back, it says, “richly nutritious honey extracts make surface and inner skin healthy. It also gives vitality and energy to tired skin from stress.” Yes, please make my skin healthy!, I say as I proceed to pour a honey jar all over myself. Just kidding, why do that when I can JUST USE THIS MASK??????

DEETS: After forgetting to moisturize after putting on my BHA the night before (yes, I fell asleep in the middle of my routine, don’t judge me!!!!!), I thought a little kick of extra moisture could do me well.

I was too excited for this one; honey is one of my favorite skincare ingredients, my skin just responds to it so well and the idea of slathering myself in honey just really strongly appeals to me. Personal bias at work here, but hey, is that so bad? The mask smells honeyed at first but as you get closer up, that grassy smell all the masks have sort of overrides it (▰˘︹˘▰) i’m not familiar enough with scents to tell if the smell is ‘artificial’ but it strongly reminded me of honey from that teddybear bottle. I’ve smelled worse honey scents for sure. It seemed like the essence was more thick at first? more viscous, and the mask felt heavier as a result, but there was so much, I was just like ahhhh putting it on after splashing my face with water in the morning.

A little bit of itching around my chin but that’s pretty typical for me; I think my face just gets antsy with sheet masks and I resisted the urge to scritch-scritch because I didn’t feel that urge about anywhere else on my face.

OVERALL: Pretty moisturizing and especially good if you’re working with a dehydrated face, but honestly? Not really that great. It can work as a good pick-me-up before putting on make-up or finishing the rest of your routine, but I’d probably skip over repurchasing this mask entirely. It’s a decent mask but if you’re looking for an insta-miracle worker or at least something that wows you, this one isn’t going to be it.

This was my first experience with Dabo masks, and while I enjoyed my purchases for what they were, I don’t think I’ll be purposely seeking them out for purchase. Still, it’s not a bad purchase.

So let’s talk about sheet masks. What are your favorite brands? What’s your sheet mask routine? Let me know in the comments!