The Best of French Beauty: Cinq Mondes Kaolin and Herbs Mask

I'm starting this new Best of French Beauty series of posts to share my favorite products from France with you. It will answer the question "what should I bring back from a trip to France?" besides wine and a few extra pounds from eating too many pains au chocolat. 

Cinq Mondes Spa Paris is a high-end brand of spa treatments and skincare, offering a wide range of products inspired by beauty rituals from all over the world: rituals from Bali, Kyoto, Bangalore, etc... 




The Kaolin and Herbs Mask is part of the ritual from Aleppo, Syria, which had been a major commercial hub for oriental beauty products for thousands of years before it became the center of a tragic civil war in the past months. Formulated with kaolin (pure clay), grapefruit, henna, rosemary, sage and other vegetal extracts, this mask is recommended for combination skins and has a purifying and detox effect, while it's supposed to reduce the appearance of pores. 



It's free from silicones, mineral oils, artificial colorings and parabens, which is good for your skin and also for the environment (that's important for me!). It comes in an easy-to-use squeeze tube containing 60 ml (about 2 fl oz). 

What's really great about this mask is that, unlike all the other clay-based masks I know, it doesn't feel thick, sticky or heavy at all. It's nicely creamy, the texture is thin and feels fresh, and it has a slightly herbal scent. Its texture and smell kind of remind me of tzatziki/cacik, the  Eastern Mediterranean.yoghurt, cucumber and herbs dip! 

Another advantage of this mask compared to other clay masks is that you don't have to be afraid that it will dry out on your face, thus becoming very uncomfortable. You only need to let it sit on your skin for 5 minutes, and it's still as creamy and soft as it was just out of the tube by the time you wash it off. 



It works fast and well, leaving my skin refreshed, soft, and looking perfectly clean and pure. I feel like it reduces the size of my pores a little bit, and it also does a good job of absorbing oil. Unlike other purifying masks I've used before, this one never broke me out. 


This is one of my favorite masks, and I think it's great for normal to combination skins, for busy women who can only spare a few minutes for their skincare routine, or for all the girls who usually find clay masks gross

The price tag reflects the high-end status of the brand, so for $58, it's really not budget-friendly, unfortunately...

Where to buy: in the US, at Dermstore.

Disclosure: I'm not affiliated to the brand in any way, and did not receive any kind of compensation for this post. I'm giving my personal and honest opinion of the product here. I was lucky enough to win this particular mask in a beauty blogger's sweepstakes in France.


4 comments

  1. This sounds lovely! I love me a good mask and if it's French-even better haha! And now I want some pain au chocolat. Sigh. I could eat them nonstop!

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    1. It is really lovely. Let's not talk about pain au chocolat, I might just lose my mind looking for them...

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  2. This mask sounds right up my alley!!! I'm impressed with the texture you describe and love that it still stays creamy when left on. My dream is to roam the French pharmacies for days on end...le sigh :-)

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    1. Hehe! It's true, France has an incredible variety of brands and products sold in pharmacies. I miss some of them!

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