I’ve always taken more of a “double-tap only” approach to Instagram beauty. I’ll watch as bloggers do weird stuff to their face in the name of entertainment all day, but I’m intensely critical of what I’ll put on my own skin. (Rosacea plus derm horror stories will do that to you.) So when the Hanacure face mask starting popping up all over my feed earlier this year—thanks mostly to a viral endorsement by Drew Barrymore and the fact that you look a thousand-years-old once it dries—I politely kept my distance.
But that was a few months ago, and still the hype wasn’t dying down, so—caving to the FOMO and the curiosity of what I’ll look like 40 birthdays from now—I added myself to a wait list and got KiraKira on standby. What’s the point of using this thing if you don’t Insta Story it, right?
Currently you can buy the Hanacure treatment mask in only one spot: its own website. If you’re a binge-masker with some cash to spend, there’s a $110 kit minimally packaged and impossible to open (until you figure out, you’re an idiot, and it’s a flip top from the side) that includes four vials of serum, four peel-back gelling “solutions,” and very fancy brush to apply the mask with. Or, if you’re just mask-curious, there’s a $29 single-facial kit option.
The steps are easy enough to figure out using the guide inside, and prepping the mask is fun in that geeky, playing-your-own chemist kind of way. You peel back the foil top of the solution, pour in the serum, and shake it all together to activate. Then it’s time to paint it on. I didn’t do a spot test because, sorry, I know better, but who actually does that? And then went straight to putting the cold, serum-y goop all around my chin, cheeks, and forehead—evenly, as the directions stated.
From there, you’ve got 30 minutes: optimal time to catch up on Riverdale, laugh at yourself in the mirror, and blast off a handful of Snapchats. The drying effects are almost instant, and by 10 minutes in, you’re wondering how the hell this stuff is actually supposed to make your skin look better. It tightens so much moving any sort of muscle on your face becomes near impossible—sort of how I imagine Botox would be: not painful, just odd and uncomfortable. By the 25-minute mark, my boyfriend, amused by my frozen, expressionless face, started showing me cat videos, and with each restrained smile a new line on the mask emerged. At this point I’ve sworn to be more diligent about my skin care routine (this look into the future ain’t great) and returning to KJ Apa’s abs can no longer distract me. This mask is tight AF, and not in the way your kid brother uses that phrase.
At 30 minutes, I was at the sink, using only water and circular motions to get all the remaining bits of wrinkled, dried-up gook off my face. As a disclaimer on the instructions warns pale people, the lifting compounds that stimulate blood flow to your face may leave you red, which is a slight understatement. Immediately after my face is angry. But trust the process. The ingredients do have reputable workhorses: calming botanicals with anti-inflammatory properties, several peptides that brighten and minimize lines, and—my most needed component—moisturizing compounds responsible for delivering the promised afterglow, which actually arrived for me the next morning.
Upon waking, a glance in the mirror tells me this thing isn’t only pure spectacle. My jawline looks a little tighter, my cheeks a little dewier—it wasn’t exactly enough of a difference that someone else could tell looking at a before-and-after. But I know my face and how much I love salt, and this looked like I hadn’t touched a fry in days. (Ha. Joke’s on my ass!) There was still some residual redness, but if I can find something that solves that problem, rest assured you’ll know about it.
Hanacure Multi-Action Treatment Mask Starter Kit, $29, hanacure.com
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