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16 weeks ago, I saved a video from Beauty+’s Instagram to my kbeauty research database. It showed a curious mask that has a syringe full of liquid that is injected into a sheet mask pouch before the mask is removed and applied to one’s face. I wondered where I could even buy such a mask.

4 months later and the answer is: just about everywhere. They’re now stocked at Global Interpark, Memebox, Soko Glam, Amazon, and eBay. But should they be?

When I brought the term “skincaretainment” to attention one year ago, I highlighted the fact that kbeauty products are exciting because they offer not just an entertaining, fun experience, but also tend to work pretty damn well. The danger, of course, is that products will become convoluted and ridiculous for the sake of higher levels of skincaretainment and Instagrammability without offering a corresponding jump in quality.

Which brings us to the Oozoo Face Injection Mask, Hydro Lift version.

Review: Oozoo Face Injection Mask

I bought what turned out to be a box of 5 for about $15 on Global Interpark one month ago. At that point, the listing didn’t specify how many masks would be sent, so I just opened the fanserviced war chest and threw money at GI for the sake of finding out. It arrived at my office last week in a rather large box. I was shocked that I received a whole box of 5 masks and I found the concept rather hilarious in person, so I immediately shared one with my colleague who also loves kbeauty. I made a video of the mask prep mechanics for Instagram. And then I tried it.

It’s not a bad mask. It doesn’t hurt or scratch (fuck you, Botanic Farm hydrogels). The fragrance is ok (it’s just a “fragrance” fragrance, nothing special).

That said, it’s not a particularly good mask for my skin either. It’s one sheet of fairly thick mask fabric coated in an essence that somehow feels both sticky-ish and dry at the same time, if that makes sense. The ascorbic and citric acid are likely to blame for the dry, powdery feeling of the essence and there seems to be too many or too many of the wrong thickeners in the pot–it just doesn’t feel like a very sophisticated essence. The fit is surprisingly slinky and snug for a thicker, one-piece mask, so the essence is the boner killer.

The results aren’t anything crazy. My skin felt more hydrated, but I wasn’t blown away. The sticky, heavy essence felt somewhat gross on my acne-prone skin and I thought about washing it off. I looked at the pile of three remaining masks on my table and plotted how I could give them away ASAP to avoid having to make room for them in my mask drawer.

Some commenters on my Instagram were horrified by the amount of packaging that would be thrown away or recycled (although there’s only so much of this that one can recycle) from this mask. I’m not exactly an eco activist, but I can see their point, especially after seeing the size of the shipping box.

The biggest thing that bothers me about the Oozoo mask and the recent Etude House Bubble Tea Sleeping Pack that I reviewed is that these products seem to be like the junk food of kbeauty–designed to lure us in with fancy packaging while not offering a whole lot beyond that. This Oozoo mask, thankfully, at least hydrates my skin (I can’t even say that about the Etude House sleeping pack). But the mask isn’t particularly pleasant to wear and I spend a lot of time while wearing one looking at the clock to see if I have at least hit 15 minutes so I can take it off without feeling wasteful.

As someone really passionate about kbeauty, I’m pretty bothered by the fact that you can now buy this rather meh mask just about anywhere, but you can’t easily buy certain masks that truly work well, but look less enticing on social media.

We’re all different. You may actually really love this mask. I think it makes sense to try it once, if it seems interesting–but I’d urge caution about stocking up before at least trying one because I don’t see this mask as a potential HG for a lot of people.

How to Use the Oozoo Face Injection Mask

This video from Oozoo shows the process really well.

1. Syringe: press the little colored stopper into the larger stopper.

2. Shake the liquid in the syringe.

3. Open the syringe insert button thing on the mask pouch side.

4. Inject the liquid from the syringe into the mask pouch.

5. Squish it around I guess.

6. Remove the mask sheet from the pouch, remove the mesh backing, put it on your face, and let it sit for 15-20 minutes (longer, if you’re into that sort of thing).

The whole syringe concept is bullshit on a few counts. First would be the construction of the mask package itself. There’s a small amount of liquid in the syringe, which is injected into the mask pouch. The problem is that the mask is actually folded up on itself and already drenched in essence, so even if you really mush the packaging around to mix it up, the syringe liquid isn’t going to penetrate the mask folds and mesh backing and somehow displace the existing mask essence on the sheet already–at least not uniformly. If Oozoo’s claims about the syringe liquid being a source of fresh nutrients or whatever are true, the fact that the syringe liquid isn’t evenly distributed would be a problem. But I have doubts about the syringe liquid, too.

Oozoo Face Injection Mask Ingredients

Syringe (2.8 ml, 0.09 fl. oz.): Phellinus Linteus Extract, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, 1,2 Hexandiol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Dimethicone, Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, Ceramide 3, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Beta-Glucan, Adenosine, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Ectoin, Propanediol, Water, Myrothamnus Flabellifolia Leaf/Stem Extract, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tromethamine, Xanthan Gum, Carbomer, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance. CosDNA analysis.

Mask essence (27 ml, 0.9 fl. oz.): Phellinus Linteus Extract, Butylene Glycol, Glycereth-26, Glycerin, Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate, 1,2 Hexandiol, Trehalose, Ectoin, Ceramide 3, Propanediol, Water, Myrothamnus Flabellifolia Leaf/Stem Extract, Adenosine, Beta-Glucan, Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Methyl Glucose Sesquistrearate, Bis-PEG-18 Methyl Ether Dimethyl Silane, Xanthan Gum, Tromethamine, Carbomer, Tocopheryl Acetate, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance. CosDNA analysis.

So let’s see what the syringe liquid brings to the table that you can’t get from the regular mask essence–I’ve bolded the things that only the syringe has:

Syringe Mask Essence Phellinus Linteus Extract

Butylene Glycol

Glycerin

1,2 Hexandiol

Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride

Cetyl Ethylhexanoate

Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate

Dimethicone

Acetyl Hexapeptide-8

Ceramide 3

Glyceryl Stearate SE

Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate

Hydroxyethylcellulose

Beta-Glucan

Adenosine

PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil

Ectoin

Propanediol

Water

Myrothamnus Flabellifolia Leaf/Stem Extract

Ascorbic Acid

Citric Acid

Phenoxyethanol

Ethylhexylglycerin

Tromethamine

Xanthan Gum

Carbomer

Disodium EDTA

Fragrance Phellinus Linteus Extract

Butylene Glycol

Glycereth-26

Glycerin

Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate

1,2 Hexandiol

Trehalose

Ectoin

Ceramide 3

Propanediol

Water

Myrothamnus Flabellifolia Leaf/Stem Extract

Adenosine

Beta-Glucan

Ascorbic Acid

Citric Acid

Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate

Glyceryl Stearate SE

Methyl Glucose Sesquistrearate

Bis-PEG-18 Methyl Ether Dimethyl Silane

Xanthan Gum

Tromethamine

Carbomer

Tocopheryl Acetate

Phenoxyethanol

Ethylhexylglycerin

Disodium EDTA

Fragrance

So the syringe is bringing Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (moisturizer made from coconut oil and glycerin, found in tons of products), Dimethicone (emollient), Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 (supposedly works like Botox, but that’s BS), Hydroxyethylcellulose (thickener), and PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil (emollient) to the party. All of these are regularly included in skincare products without an injector syringe including much cheaper, less packaging-heavy My Beauty Diary sheet masks. The ingredients highlighted by Oozoo in their demo video–Myrothamnus flabellifolius Leaf/Stem Extract, Beta-Glucan, Ectoin–appear in both the syringe and regular mask essence.

I’m sure some marketing types would take issue with all of this and claim that the purpose of the syringe is to keep ingredients fresher etc. To that I gesture to the vast numbers of products that work fine without a syringe and ask “are these rotting then? Should we inject them with new ingredients daily to maintain their freshness?”

It’s a sheet mask. First off, I only need it to hydrate my face after putting on my nightly Curology, not renovate my face somehow. Second, it’s already in single-use packaging! If it’s not fresh as hell when the pouch opens, something has gone wrong. I can conceivably see how some ingredients would need to stay separate and preciously preserved until use, but they sure as fuck aren’t going to be found in an unrefrigerated, $3-5 sheet mask sent across an ocean to me.

I’m not exactly leading the charge on environmental issues, but I’m going to stand with the folks who pointed out the ridiculous wastefulness of the packaging of this product–it’s simply not necessary for anything other than skincaretainment. Skincaretainment without substance is just bullshit.

If this were a fabulous mask, I might be a bit less annoyed, but I think you can do a lot better.

Actually Innovative Masks

LJH Vital Firming Hydrogel

These are my favorite hydrogels–in part because LJH actually has a patented waffle texture on the skin-side of the mask that helps the gel adhere firmly to skin with no slipping.

Boob Masks

Listen, girls and boys: it’s time to get that skincare innovation directed at the ta-tas. There are actual multi-step masks just for boobs and, damn, having used a few, I don’t see how they haven’t blown up like my humps did after I discovered the wonders of pint-size ice cream; they’re nice.

23 Years Old Cocoon Willow Silky Mask

This mask is WILD. It actually goes over your mouth and around your jawline to deliver tons of moisture in the scariest way possible. It smells pretty good and has a weird, stringy essence that’s a lot of fun. Not recommended for when you’d like to get #sheetfaced (drink n’ mask), but awesome for when you’d like to get some lip moisture action. Think of it as swaddling for your face–I found it actually quite comforting.

Where to Buy the Oozoo Face Injection Mask

If the Oozoo Face Injection Mask sounds appealing, find it at Global Interpark, Memebox, Soko Glam, Amazon, and eBay.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Clicking those links before you shop means that fan-b receives a small commission, which helps to support the blog. Please see my full disclosure for more information.