I need to start this review off with a little story. I've talked about it a lot here on the blog the past couple of weeks, but it bears repeating in this case. When I went to Florida earlier this month, which was INCREDIBLY hot and required quite a bit of sunscreen for days in theme parks as well as long floats in the lazy river at our resort, my skin went insane. When I say my skin went insane, what I mean is that I broke out worse than I have since I was a teenager and the overall appearance and texture of my skin was absolutely awful. No lie, I was waking up every morning after the second day I was there with a new raft of pimples and uneven skin texture and just absolutely hating my skin. A couple of days after I got home, I received a package with the new VICHY masks, including the VICHY Pore Purifying Clay Mask*, and it seemed like it was the perfect time to try it out - since my pores were in desperate need of some purifying. If ever there was an opportunity to really, really test a product, this was it.

About:

Our first mineral mask associating 2 white clays with Vichy Mineralizing water for unclogged pores and purified skin with a soft touch finish.

• Remineralizing Thermal Water: reinforces the skin’s natural moisture barrier, giving it time to regenerate and rebalance.

• Kaolins & Bentonite Clays: Absorbs impurities and excess sebum from the skin, while minimising pores

• Aloe Vera: To soother and hydrate

• Allantonin: Extracted from the roots of the perennial comfrey plant to soothe damaged, fragile skin.

I was a little bit surprised by the texture of this, because I found it to be more gel like than a lot of clay masks that I had used in the past. I actually really liked this texture and found that it was really easy to apply a light, even coat over the skin without it feeling heavy and cakey. I like to apply this type of mask with a flat foundation brush because I feel like it's a little less messy and I tend to waste less product, and I found that this method worked really well with this formula because it applies it smoothly and evenly.

There's a slightly cooling feeling on the skin, which I kind of fell a little bit in love with, if we're being honest. It made it really refreshing when it was on the skin, but it wasn't too intense and it didn't have that minty smell that a lot of other masks with a cooling feel tend to have. As I wore this, it dried down really evenly and never felt tight or uncomfortable.

Now for the awesome slash gross part. Once this was dried down and I was ready to rinse it off, I could literally see the gunk that it had pulled out of any active breakouts that I had. I couldn't see it anywhere else, but wherever I had an active breakout was a little white spot in the otherwise matte, grey surface of my skin. And it was gross, but also invigorating. Anyone else feel that way. Once I rinsed the mask off, my skin felt really clean without feeling stripped or dried out from the clay. 

And now for the best part... The morning after I used this, I woke up without any new breakouts for the first time in almost a week and my skin looked and felt really soothed and as though it was on its way to healing. A lot of the smaller pimples that I'd had were barely noticeable and anything that had been a little bigger and more intense was distinctly diminished. I swear, I've never seen such immediate and obvious results from any mask I've used before.

I'm in love. Seriously. I love a mask, I really do, but the VICHY Pore Purifying Clay Mask* just jumped right to the top of the pile. I think in the future I'll definitely be reaching for this whenever I'm struggling with the hormonal breakouts that I get every month or if my skin has a freakout like the one after my trip. In love. If you have problematic skin or are like me and just get occasional breakouts, I absolutely recommend this.

The VICHY Pore Purifying Clay Mask*, as well as the two other new masks from VICHY, are available now on Vichy.ca and in pharmacies nationwide!