SKINCARE | Glamglow #GlitterMask GravityMud Firming Treatment

I am going to be the first to admit that I bought this NOT for the skincare benefits, but for the hype. The Glamglow #GlitterMask ($79.00CDN/50g) is skintertainment at its finest and when I saw this available online at Sephora, I snapped it up and was ready to both revel in the glitter and absurdity of this "serious" skincare mask. I have used all of Glamglow's masks and cleansers in deluxe sample format, but I have never purchased a product of theirs until now because well, you all know that I love skincare, masks and obviously glitter so allow me to take the $79 bullet for you to give you my personal low down!

Glamglow Glittermask Gravitymud Firming Treatment Review

I take my skincare fairly seriously and I generally will judge hyped up, influencer-loving products with a much more stern attitude as I feel that most of the time these products are oversold on cool factor. Yes, they will make your skin feel nice, but the ingredients are often just silicones mixed with pixie dust and trending hashtags. Glamglow is the Hollywood brand that has kind of pioneered this type of social hype, but I have to hand it to them for making it work AND on occasion using some reasonable ingredients that kind of make me go "Huh. That's actually a pretty good one."

Glamglow Glittermask Gravitymud Firming Treatment Review

Glamglow Glittermask Gravitymud Firming Treatment Review

This mask is actually a glittery version of the silver peel-off GravityMud Firming Treatment which we saw take YouTube by storm last year. Just like its predecessor, this mask is intended for all skin types and claims to firm, lift, tighten, tone, reduce pore size and give your skin some "sexy contours" aka firm your skin in all the right places. We also now have a bonus of cosmetic grade glitter that will not clog pores or scratch the skin (although the stars were a bit pointy).


Application of this mask was pretty fun and it looked pretty awesome once it was on! It is gooey and best applied with the brush provided. I also used a silicone spatula for larger areas of my face like forehead and cheeks, but the brush really was best for contoured small areas like my nose and above the lip. The only thing I didn't like was how much the brush seemed to soak up.

Though the ingredients list isn't the best, there were a few ingredients that I would consider useful in this mask one of which is marshmallow extract. This acts to soften the skin and I have used moisturizers before with marshmallow extract with great success. There is also kelp and chondrus crispus which is a seaweed containing vitamins and minerals and acts as a skin conditioning agent. There is also Sodium Hyaluronate, but having it be close to the end of the list makes me think its effects are minimal.


The bulk of the ingredients are actually going towards the texture and consistency of this mask. Polyvinyl Alcohol is what makes you able to PEEL OFF this mask and serves no nourishing purpose to the skin other than as a thickening polymer. There are also quite a few clay-based ingredients like Montmorillonite, Illite and Canadian Colloidal Clay which serve to detoxify and give skin the feeling of firmness. Pullulan is a film former, often found in the making of breath strips, that can quickly form an instant tightening effect across the skin that temporarily improves appearance (Truth in Aging, January 2018). All of these textural ingredients are what make your skin feel more firmed and contoured so if you are looking for a temporary treatment, this will do the job. Long term, probably not.


Ingredients: Water\Aqua\Eau, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Alcohol Denat., Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Ethylhexyl Hydroxystearate, Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Water, Montmorillonite, Pentylene Glycol, Illite, Polysorbate 20, Canadian Colloidal Clay, Caprylyl Glycol, Althaea Officinalis Leaf Extract (Marshmallow Extract), Tapioca Starch, Chondrus Crispus (Carrageenan), Colloidal Platinum, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate (Licorice Root Extract), Alcohol, Ascophyllum Nodosum Powder (Kelp), Polysorbate 80, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose, Citric Acid, Lecithin, Pullulan, Porphyridium Cruentum Extract, Soy Isoflavones, Sodium Hyaluronate, Xanthan Gum, Fragrance (Parfum), Coumarin, Disodium Edta, Phenoxyethanol, Sorbic Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Bismuth Oxychloride (Ci 77163) 


GlamGlow advises that for the best "peel off selfie", apply the mask generously and let FULLY dry for up to 40 minutes. I felt a slight tingle on my skin almost immediately which evolved into a minty sort of sensation.

I realized that applying a thinner layer (see the area around my nose) still allowed me to do a solid "peel off", dried more quickly, but I could feel the scratchiness of the glitter pieces on my skin upon application. In general, thicker is probably better and for the sake of these photos I made sure I had a freakin' galaxy on my face!

Glamglow Glittermask Gravitymud Firming Treatment Review

Once the mask was dry, I could barely move my face and was easily able to peel the mask off in one fell swoop. It was a bit uncomfortable peeling it off, but I have to say...my skin looked kind of magical. Pores seemed tighter, skin tone more even and bright and even skin texture felt more smooth! And all without the use of silicones which was great! So many masks of them to make your skin's texture look better so I was glad to see this was not the case with this one!

Glamglow Glittermask Gravitymud Firming Treatment Review

Final verdict: God, I loved this mask even though I had some serious doubts about its efficacy. I would have TOTALLY used this the morning of my wedding! Firstly, it really IS just as pretty as you can imagine and the whole process from application to waiting to peeling was just a lot of fun. The results were actually fairly good with my skin looking rebooted upon removal, but what was a bit disappointing were the ingredients. This mask has "mega targeted ingredients comprising a TEAOXI complex of Licorice and Marshmallow Leaf which are present in decent amounts and the types of clay did aid in helping my skin feel detoxified, but I think I am used to skincare with peptides, AHAs, BHAs even in mask form so I have mixed feelings about saying I would buy it AGAIN. I am not disappointed that I have it and if anything, I can't wait to use it again because it quite literally brightened my day and made me feel like a magical creature!

The Glamglow #GlitterMask is available at Sephora ya'll.

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