Garnier Pure Active Charcoal 3 In 1 Mask Review

i used to love, love, LOVE clay or charcoal or any sort of drying out masks. but now, my skin is dry and sensitive and cant handle the jandal.

the premise is great, face wash, mask, or scrub. although i count the wash and scrub as one so. yknow. lasted me a looong time cos i only used it once or twice a week if that, my skin couldnt handle it.

results were mixed, i thought it worked great for pimples, like as a spot mask, but at the same time i also felt like it gave me extra pimples or bumps at least, which i wasnt a fan of.

i did enjoy using it as a body scrub though, any stubborn pimples that were hanging around seemed to vanish, which was nice. and it was scrubby so i felt extra clean.

This made my skin very red and irritated. I was very sensitive days after I won't use this again Didn't like it's effect

Would not recommend this to anybody. Didn't pull anything out instead left behind product in pores. Hurt like heck to pull off and even then no blackheads came out with it. Nothing. Made acne flare up in the few days after

[ First impression ] The texture is a little grainy, and gloopy. Looks like a very dark grey almost black matter considering it is derived from charcoal. Actually, the first time I saw it it took me back to Year 8 science class when we were using magnets to attract the iron filings!

Considering Garnier states it’s a 3-in-1 Wash/Scrub/Mask I tried to use it separately for each of those purposes. However, I felt like even when I was “washing” my face, due to the finely milled particles, it still felt like I was exfoliating albeit lightly. I tend to only do physical exfoliation once or twice a week so this was a little concerning considering they claim it can be used as a daily face wash. From the first use it didn’t make my face feel super tight and I did feel extremely cleansed which is great.

As a mask I love how time-efficient and fuss-free it is. You only need 5 minutes or less for it to dry then you can rinse it off just using water - no need for an extra cloth. However my face did feel quite tight after use, but that’s to be expected with these kinds of masks.

In terms of removing makeup, which isn’t its sole intention, it didn’t do a good job, but I wouldn’t remove brownie points as the product is geared towards the removal and prevention of blackheads.

[ Review ] I don’t have blackheads to begin with so I’m not sure how effective it is against that, but I do suffer from whiteheads. Unfortunately this hasn’t diminished some annoyingly persistent closed comedones underneath my left eye or some papules I’ve noticed which is disheartening. But then again, I can probably attribute this to my earlier point of it focusing on blackhead prevention.

I’ve noticed that the skin on my cheeks has become quite soft which would have likely been caused by the overexfoliation. Also due to overexfoliating since using this every day and night as a “face wash”, my forehead gets extremely shiny by the end of a work day and quite oily around my nose.

One thing I did really like about it was how easy and efficient it is to use. Just squeeze out a smidge and spread it all over your face then rinse off. What I don’t like is how they proclaim it to be a 3-in-1 solution.

Overall, I’ve taken into account what Garnier have claimed, and my experience of using this product for all 3 purposes, and I do like it, but only as a scrub or mask - most especially as a mask! I can’t get over how quick and easy it is to do especially if you’re like me and start to get antsy about taking more than 10-15 minutes on just a mask. However, considering all the factors, I probably wouldn’t repurchase as there are other scrubs and masks in the market that I prefer over this, and that I personally feel work better for my skin.

I received the 3 in 1 mask from Beauty Review as part of a trial team. I quickly put it to work, eager to test out the exfoliating action as I was feeling some texture on my forehead. My skin tends to be combo-oily.

The packaging is pretty standard for a drugstore cleanser. The cap closed very securely, making it difficult to open at times.

The product itself was black, as charcoal cleansers tend to be. It is a bit disconcerting massaging black cream onto your face though! The exfoliant in this product is perlite. I was alarmed at first because of the very plastic-like feel of it and thought it may have been micro beads. Google tells me perlite is NOT micro beads, but can be problematic in their own right. Garnier is also not cruelty free.

As for how it works, my skin felt really nice and smooth after washing but after a few hours there was much more sebum than I'd typically have, and it was a thicker consistency. Due to this, I felt that I did not want to use it as a face mask in case it ramped up the oil production even more. I did use it a few times as a cleanser though, just to be sure that it was what caused the sebum issue.

I will not be using it again. I might pass it on to my niece who is an oily skin sufferer so might have more success with the cleanser than I did.

I've used this for each purpose a few times each now. The first thing I noticed was the smell. It took me a couple of uses to realize what I thought it smelled like, and that is Windex. You know, that blue spray stuff for cleaning windows and mirrors. That's exactly what it smells like. Maybe with a hint of men's Rexona body wash haha. So that was a bit off-putting. I wouldn't say my skin is overly sensitive, but I did find I had a bit of sensitivity with this product. Not an adverse reaction or anything, but my skin was mildly stingy after use. I found it odd as a cleanser, as it contains exfoliating beads, so I wouldn't recommend for daily use. The exfoliating beads weren't too coarse, but certainly not gentle enough to use as often as it suggests (which is daily). Using it as a mask obviously will provide an exfoliating effect when you wash it off. It wasn't too bad as a mask. Not as good as say Glam Glow, but the price point is very different, so it is what you'd expect for a supermarket brand. It wasn't totally awful, but I won't repurchase, and will probably give this one to my flatmate as I prefer my Dermalogica daily microfoliant. Would be best suited to oily, textured skin. Stay away if you're sensitive.

This product claims to be a 3-in-1 wash, scrub and mask.

It's a dark grey colour with a smooth, creamy texture. It has small scrub particles that are mildly abrasive.

It has a fairly strong cologne-y scent that I find to be a bit masculine. It smells more like a body product than face product but the smell doesn't linger.

Upon application there is a cooling/minty sensation that could be irritating to sensitive skin.

As a wash: It does not foam up so it doesn't feel like a traditional cleanser. I found it to be very messy because of the charcoal powder. I ended up getting grey water all over my basin so stuck to just using it in the shower. Still, you need to make sure you rinse the shower after use. I also found that it stained around and under my fingernails, which looked really grubby.

As a scrub: I don't really understand the purpose of this "use" as you do the exact same thing using it as a wash and a scrub. I found it to be decently scrubby.

As a mask: I found it to work well as a mask. It absorbed excess oil and made my pores look much smaller/less visible even after one use.

Bottom line: Feels weird as a wash, feels just like rubbing face mask on wet skin. Stains everything but works well as a mask to reduce appearance of pores. Smells too perfumey for my liking. Would not purchase.

I have been using this wash/scrub/mask almost three weeks now and have quite mixed results! Now.. it definitely does what it claims to do which is reduce the appearance of blackheads and remove dirt and impurities, but I found my face started breaking out after using this. This could just be because of using something different on my skin though rather than my usual product.

It is quite a strong smell and the product is dark grey almost black. It gives the face a GREAT clean after using it as a wash or scrub. I would use this after rinsing my face with water then applying all over, especially to blackhead prone areas (nose and chin) then rinsing off. I found my skin was super smooth after using it is a mask, so I would highly recommend trying it as a mask while you have this product.