Do Men Need Their Own Sheet Mask…?

We were already off-put by the name and it didn’t help that the back of the package advertised a “man glow”: fragile masculinity much? But seeing as it won Best Mask in Men’s Health 2019 Grooming Awards and The Manual Guide’s 2019 Grooming Award, we figured we were obligated to try it. Boasting vitamin B3, collagen, green tea, ginger, and licorice extract, the mask aims to firm and even skin tone. Applying the face mask however was an ordeal: after tearing open the package, we noticed that the mask came in two parts. This is so that men with beards can also use the mask by only utilizing the top half. This is all good in theory, until you realize that both parts are wrapped in their own plastic (further contributing to waste), and that peeling the mask away from the packaging quickly results in it becoming tangled. Once you manage to put one part one your face, you’ve got one more to do (unless of course you have a beard) which is meant to overlap this top pice. And yet, it never quite manages to do so, with both pieces moving like glaciers across the expanse of your face, never covering everything and never laying flat in certain parts. Once we had the mask covering as much of our face as we could, we squeezed the bag for the hefty volume of serum that sank to the bottom and slathered it on top of our mask. Unlike a cotton sheet face mask that you can usually continue to watch television while wearing, this requires you to lie down to prevent the mask from fully falling off of your face. This isn’t such a bad thing as it does force you to relax for the the 20 minutes it advises you to leave the mask on. We give it major points for it being made of hydrogel which resembles living tissue and is used in medical applications for drug delivery and wound healing. It was very Star Trek. In the end we were a bit peeved at how cumbersome the mask application process was and the fact that at $7.00/mask, we hoped that all of our face would covered and the serum wouldn’t end up in the sink. We recognize the good intent behind the mask: making certain men more at ease with taking better care of themselves and trying to solve for those with beards. And yet there just doesn’t seem to have been any testing involved with the pain points mentioned. It’s a pass.

Jaxon Lane Bro Mask, $28.00 (for 4)

Price Point: High

Details: Free from sulfates, parabens, mineral oils or dyes