Winter Is Coming: This New Face Mask Instantly Calms, Clears, and Hydrates

Welcome to Deep Reviews—your one-stop destination to discover the absolute best products and brands the beauty industry has to offer. The Who What Wear staffers you already know and trust will research, test, and review the market's most sought-after and buzzed-about products to see which formulas (of the hundreds up for consideration) are truly worth your hard-earned money and attention. You can expect honest, completely uncensored feedback and no-BS recommendations our hard-to-please testers endorse without reservations.

The majority of our Deep Reviews will feature our editors' honest, ultra-hot takes on entire product categories or multiple products from a particular beauty brand, but every so often, we'll sprinkle in a special single-product format called Honestly, I Love It. As the name suggests, these reviews will hone in on one standout beauty formula our editors quite literally can't shut up about. This time around, I'm highlighting Shani Darden's Signature Nourishing Mask ($58).

Doing a good face mask brings me a lot of comfort and joy. If I don't reach into my arsenal of masks at least once or twice a week, my routine feels somehow incomplete. Some people might see it as an extra step in their skincare routine that they’d rather skip, but I like to consider it part of my job to try any standout new offerings in this department, especially ones that are serious multitaskers—like Shani Darden's Signature Nourishing Mask ($58).

There's no mystery surrounding why I love Darden and her line of incredible products. She's a celebrity esthetician with an impressive clientele list and a wealth of skincare knowledge, so if she brings something new to the market, I know it's going to be good. Before I gave her latest calming, soothing, hydrating, and clarifying mask a go, my roster of products from Darden's line included the Cleansing Serum, Hydration Peptide Cream, and Facial Sculpting Wand. To be honest, I'd need a whole separate story to talk about how much I love each of those, but the Signature Mask did not disappoint either. 

First, let's talk about the application experience. The mask has a light, whipped texture that feels really nice on the skin. It does tingle a bit upon application, but it's nothing too uncomfortable. Before I applied the mask, my skin was a bit red around my cheeks and nose. I've been dealing with moisture-barrier damage for the past year or so, and my skin has taken some time to recover. That's why I've also been careful not to overdo it on masks that exfoliate or contain harsh ingredients. I love that Darden's mask is great at clearing congestion with ingredients such as bentonite and kaolin clays. It doesn't contain any BHAs or AHAs, so you can use this in place of exfoliating one or two nights a week. It even helps repair the skin barrier with hydrating ingredients like squalane. 

After letting the mask sit for 15 minutes, I rinsed it off with warm water and noticed that the redness around my nose was gone instantly. A day later, I also noticed that the size of an inflamed pimple on my cheek had reduced significantly. I think I may have just found my perfect weekly face mask. Although I love trying new things, it's nice to streamline my routine when I find something I really like, and this one is a winner! What's also great about this mask is that it's gentle enough for skin conditions like eczema. It can even help calm a lot of the redness and irritation that can come with it fast. I really appreciated that this mask didn't dry my skin out at all. It does leave your skin looking matte thanks to the clay elements, but I never had that tight, dry feeling I usually associate with a clay-based mask. Overall, if you're looking for a do-it-all face mask to add to your regular skincare routine a few times a week, I can't recommend this one enough.

This mask is packed with ingredients that soothe, hydrate, and clarify the skin gently. It's great for stressed, acne-prone, and barrier-damaged skin since it contains a triple-tea complex (white, green, and chamomile) to calm redness and reduce irritation. The addition of hydrating and barrier-repairing ingredients like squalane and glycerin keeps the mask from being too drying. Squalane is one of my favorite skincare ingredients—I even keep a bottle of 100% pure squalane oil handy for days when my skin gets extra dry. It's hydrating and helps your skin repair without clogging your pores. 

Colloidal oatmeal in this formula calms irritation and locks moisture into your skin so it's less likely to get dehydrated. Lastly, as I mentioned above, this treatment contains a blend of kaolin and bentonite clays, two powerful oil absorbers that clear out congestion deep within the pores. It's a great way to decongest without having to exfoliate, something I've definitely been guilty of on occasion.

Darden explained a bit more about this mask and what inspired her to create it. "[It was] inspired by the masks I mix together in each facial to soothe redness and irritation," she says. "I love to create a custom mask for each client, always with the same base that the Signature Nourishing Facial Mask was inspired by. I whip it under the steamer, which gives it this beautiful, fluffy texture that feels amazing and provides so much nourishment to the skin. It took me years to create the right formula for at-home use, matching the ingredients and texture of my professional mask as closely as possible."

Darden will also bust this one out at home on occasion herself: "I love to use this mask anytime my skin is feeling sensitive or irritated and in need of calming. I recommend using the brush to whip the mask in the jar prior to applying it. I leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes, and then I love to use wet cotton gauze to remove it." 

If you're also a fan of at-home peels (like Darden's Triple Acid Signature Peel), this mask is great to use afterward to calm the skin. Darden says, "[It] is great to use after the Triple Acid Peel to soothe and calm the skin if you're prone to redness and sensitivity." Darden adds that you can expect your skin to look brighter and replenished after using it.

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