Olive Face Mask from Montagne Jeunesse

If I received a pound for everytime I slated the packaging of Montagne Jeunesse face masks, I think I would have accumulated a small fortune. The scalloped rounded shape of the face mask is actually quite nice but it's in the active ingredients of the mask shoved into layered onto the model's eyes which I have a problem. And it's for this this reason only that I hadn't bought a montagne jeunesse until now. But I am big fan of olive oil, my last discontinued face cleanser was made with olive oil, Montagne Jeunesse is getting quite a bit of love in the bloggosphere, so I thought what the heck and made the plunge to go and get one.







They say:

Nourish our cold pressed Virgin Oil mud masque for soft and supple skin. We've added ultra moisturising rich Shea & Cocoa Butter to leave your skin super smooth and deeply cleansed.

For me, a face mask is so much more than the efficiency alone: it's a multi sensory experience. It needs to have to have the right fragrance, a colour which pleasing to the eyes, nice texture to work with, easy to apply, easy to remove and of course I need to have experienced what it says on the packet.






My first impressions were disappointing: When opening the packet I was greeted with a mint green texture when I had bought a olive mud mask. Now this might be a small detail for you but for me it's a big deal. Ideally, if I buy an olive based mask, and regardless of the other ingredients, I'd expect something of an olivy colour. I don't care what it takes and if you need to add a natural colourant in there, but give me an olive for goodness' sake: I paid for olive and I want olive.



Fragrance wise, again the mask let me very cold, like the virgin oil it contains. The smells was very pleasant and fresh but it didn't smell one bit of olive oil. I don't remember what the smell reminded me of, but it certainly didn't smell remotely of olive oil.


As far as the texture is concerned, I have found it very rich and very thick. That's got to be right, right? It was too thick for my liking and I found that the application took so long that it was going to start drying in places before I finished the whole face. To be fair, I was trying to be neat, with the purpose of taking a snapshot of me, wearing the mask but still, the face mask felt a bit too thick for my liking.


I always have the habit to leave face masks a bit too long but I was good this time and stuck to the 15 recommended minutes. Now if I thought that application was hard work, the removal process was hard work but on a whole new level, which flew off the chart of hard work. It felt as if I was trying to remove an inch thick of mask and by the end of it, I was down to using some tissue paper to help me with it. Worse, I ended up using my cleanser to help me remove the last bits of minty green texture.






By the end of it, I was left with a red face with lasted until the following morning. Now all clay/mud masks tend to leave me with a reddened face but the redness usually subsides after a few hours. Did it leave my skin deep cleansed? No. I just felt dirty from the whole experience and felt sorry for myself to have to resort to my cleanser to remove the mask. On the plus side, I am happy to report that my skin felt more moisturised the day after.


So to summarise: colour was wrong, fragrance was wrong, texture was too thick, application was hard work, removal was excruciatingly laborious, face was too red (sensitive skins beware) I didn't feel deep cleansed and too many negative to put up with for a more moisturised face at the end of it. Would I purchase this again? I think you've read my mind already. If you haven’t, perhaps the expression on my face in the picture below will give you a clue






What: Montagne Jeunesse Olive Oil Mask
How much: £1.00
Where: Superdrug and Boots nationwide, even the ‘crappy’ little ones :)