My face smells like the sea: Nourishing Seaweed Mask from Mungo Murphy's Seaweed Co.

My sister gave me this mask which she recently received in her Souksouk Little Green Beauty Box to try.

Sustainably harvested by hand off the coast of Connemara in the west of Ireland by Mungo Murphy himself, this mask is made from pure powdered Ascophyllum Nodosum (also known as rockweed). 

The seaweed contains a whole host of skin loving vitamins and minerals, including softening vitamin E, brightening vitamin C, and clarifying zinc.

Unsurprisingly, it does smell very strongly of seaweed. I'm used to sweet-smelling natural oils or fragrance in products, so I was a little taken aback! The smell might put some off at first (and it's probably the reason my sister gave it to me instead of keeping it for herself.) Once I was used to it I realised that I actually really love the smell. It evokes memories of February half term holidays on the west coast of Scotland, mugs of strong green tea and steaming bowls of miso soup.

The powder can make a total of five masks. It can be mixed with water, honey, oil or natural yogurt, and can be used as an exfoliating mask in any of these forms. 
I mixed a teaspoon of the powder with water to make the mask below. I found I needed 4 teaspoons of water rather than the recommended 1 to get a spreadable texture, but the end result applied easily and felt cooling on my skin. I left it on for about five minutes before gently exfoliating with it and rinsing. 

My skin felt calm and cleansed afterwards and looked much brighter. The most noticeable benefit was that my skin felt toned and much firmer, as if I'd just had a three hour nap followed by a facial massage. 

I'll definitely use this again as I feel it worked wonderfully and more than surpassed my expectations. It would suit all skin types including really sensitive and irritated skins. It's a particularly great option for anyone looking for natural or chemical free skincare, and it's honestly one of the best natural products I've ever used. 

I feel oily and combination skins will benefit from the mask mixed with water or with honey, which contains antiseptic properties. Irritated, stressed out skin will benefit from combining this with cooling natural yogurt, and dry skins like mine are most likely to benefit from an oil and seaweed blend. 

I'm looking forward to trying Mungo Murphy's Seaweed Co.'s Sea-Bags in the bath and feeling the same detoxifying and revitalising effects across all of my skin. 

Mungo Murphy's Seaweed Co. beauty products can be bought online from Lovelula here and Mungo Murphy's Seaweed Co. here.

P.S.: the photos of me are all makeup-free and unedited so that I could show you how my skin looked after the mask.

Thanks for reading!