If you've heard about multi-masking in the recent beauty trend, you're not the only one. I jumped into the bandwagon and found myself drowning but my skin starts to react differently probably due to the over-drying and dehydration. But I still love my clay mask though. Being an oily skin girl, clay mask has become my staple lately besides tonnes of sheet mask in my collection. When everyone are so into multi-masking, I personally like to do double-masking - it's kind of spa level facial treatment at the comfort of my own place.

Clay mask beautifully comes in many different colors to serve different purposes with different benefits. The most popular one are from France, despite many good one also comes from Middle East, Australia, Morocco and US as they contain high level of minerals and purified for cosmetic use. Despite the popularity and widely used all over the world, bear in mind clay masks are not for everyone actually. What? Yes, they are not for everyone. Let's dig into the details.

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Who Can Use The Clay Mask?

Clay masks are basically for oily or combination skin due to the nature of the skin that are prone to pore clogging. The clay mask actually helps to soak up all traces of dirt, grease and even toxin. Meanwhile the dry skin girls should stay away from the clay mask as clay mask could irritate the skin even more and makes the skin dehydrated. Choose the sheet mask instead. Thanks to the innovation of Korean beauty regime.

How To Properly Use The Clay Mask?

Cleansing Stage
Firstly, I will remove my makeup if I'm wearing any with my favorite makeup remover - my skin loves the micellar water as it's didn't leave my skin feeling tight. You too should take off your makeup properly with a suitable makeup remover. Then, I like to use a gentle non-foaming facial cleanser and rinse with lukewarm water to let the pores open and breathe. You can use Cetaphil if you want, as it's non drying and still cleanse the skin thoroughly. I believe in double cleansing just to make sure the skin is really clean from any trace of makeup and impurities. This is to ensure the skin can absorbs all the benefits from the clay minerals. Now the skin is clean, I like to pat dry skin by using paper towel.

Treatment Stage
Apply the clay mask evenly all over the face, neck and decollete or as per manufacturer instruction - yes, you must always read the instruction. There's a reason why the manufacturer stated so. Avoid the skin at the eye area as the skin is quite thin and and can damage easily.  Some mask offers dual-action performance; exfoliant/scrub. If I'm wearing one without any dual-action, I will leave it for 7-10 minutes or follow the instruction given. They are three phases of a clay mask:

• First phase - The damp phase where the skin drinks in all the beneficial minerals from the clay mask. 
• Second phase - The start of the drying phase where the skin starts to feel slightly tight, this is when it starts to exercise the capillaries and stimulate blood flow. 
• Third phase - The dry phase, this is the phase that you want to avoid as it draws out moisture from your skin, causing dehydration, feeling extremely tight and could irritate your skin; itchiness.