Catastrophe Cosmetic: A Lush Review

You could say this is part two in my Lush Fresh Face Mask reviews, with part one being here with Cosmetic Warrior. Even though I loved Cosmetic Warrior, I wanted to try out different face masks, and since I have bad skin, I opted for Catastrophe Cosmetic which claims to help skin 'when disaster looms', which is every day with me right now. 

I keep trying to make a doctors appointment for my skin but my doctors are stupid and you have to phone at 8am in the morning to try and book an appointment for 2-3 weeks in advance and I am always working in the morning! And when I'm not working, they're fully booked and I have to wait till the next week to book it! It's absolutely ridiculous, I have been trying for over a month now and nothings happening so I decided to buy another face mask. 

It retails at £5.75 which is a decent price, especially if you just buy the £1 face mask pouches you can only use once, this works out to be waaay cheaper in the long run. As is says on the lid in the photo above, it contains blueberries, chamomile, Irish moss and calamine, all of which are meant to sooth, calm and cleanse your skin. As with all fresh face masks from Lush, they need to be kept in the fridge and have a short life span, but if you use them all the time like me then you tend to use it all up near the end of its shelf life anyway.

This is what the consistency looks like in the pot, and it's more paste like than Cosmetic Warrior, which I'll probably compare to a lot in this post, since its the only other one I've used. When I first started using it it had a bit of liquid in the top, which was fine when I mixed it in with the rest of it, but now it's gone. It obviously smells like blueberries, what with them being an ingredient for their anti-oxidant purposes. So it smells nice, but a bit powdery. However if you don't like the garlic smell of Cosmetic Warrior for your bad skin, then maybe Catastrophe Cosmetic is better suited to you (sorry if the names are confusing as they both have 'Cosmetic' in them!). 

I'm not showing any pictures with the mask on my face like other people do sorry, but it covers my face evenly and looks more like a face mask usually does, with the occasional blue berry on your face. It says to leave it on for 10-15 minutes, but I usually leave on for longer, and forget to wash it off as I'm reading some blogs at the same time so its very dry when I wash it off. Unlike Cosmetic Warrior, its a bit harder to wash off. I wipe it off my face first to get all the crumbs off (am I the only one who does that?) and then it leaves a powdery substance behind which feels a bit weird, which I then wash off. It does reduce the redness in my skin but doesn't quite have the same effect as Cosmetic Warrior did on my skin. Whereas I used that in the morning or before going out for the night because it helped with applying make up, I use Catastrophe Cosmetic whenever, in the morning, day, night but usually after a shower since it doesn't do that much for me compared to the other mask. While I do enjoy using it and have seen improvements, I would recommend Cosmetic Warrior (which I reviewed here) over Catastrophe Cosmetic, unless you don't like the smell of garlic you vampires :P

I am a Cosmetic Warrior!

Or something.... So I've been meaning to blog about this for the past month, and I actually took these photos about two weeks ago, but at least I'm finally doing it, if you're interested. 'Doing what' you may ask, well reviewing a lush face mask of course! (Yeah maybe I shouldn't blog late at night, even though I usually do, and then change the time the next day to make it the right day, or at least before midnight! Anyway where was I?) My skin is a little bit crazy right now, or a lot crazy, which annoys me so much as I thought I was finally getting past all those teenage skin problems, but no, nature wasn't letting me off that easy. It's gotten to the point that I hate leaving the house on a bad skin day since even with make up on as my skin doesn't look right. I know everyone tells you its not that bad etc, but if you suffer from bad skin you know that people saying that doesn't help any. So this is where the Cosmetic Warrior comes in!

I popped into Lush to get some birthday presents awhile ago and they handed me a newspaper with all their products in and I eventually browsed through it a few weeks later and came across their face masks. The Cosmetic Warrior is specifically made for bad skin as it 'combats spots and soothes troubled skins' (sorry for the mega blurry photo above). It contains garlic, tea tree, kaolin and honey and we all know tea tree oil is good for the skin so I though why not. It didn't even cost that much at £5.75 for a decent sized pot. I've already used half of it up and tend to use it every two or three days but did use it every day for the first week. So if you think about it, cheap face masks in pouches are £1 and you use them once, and I've used this well over ten times already which is good value for money. 

That's what it looks like inside, its a thick paste that reminds me of wet clay, with chunks of I don't know what in, and doesn't look that appealing on (hence no photo!) but it does the job. Some say it smells foul, but I don't mind it, its a bit unusual and garlicky so if you hate garlic don't go for it! You keep it in the fridge and then apply a generous amount onto your clean skin and leave for 10-15 minutes. It goes all crumbly afterwards and I find it easier to brush the crumbs off first then wash it off, but I think I'm a bit weird like that? I don't know. It definitely made my skin smoother so I like to put it on in the morning or during the day rather than in the night, as it helps when I'm applying my makeup. It also makes my skin feel incredibly soft and reduces the redness of my skin and tightens up my face, which does a lot I reckon compared to other face masks I've used in the past. When I eventually run out of it I think I might try other face masks just to test them out, but I'll be buying this again in the future (or hopefully not if my skin clears up but it'd be good for bad days). And you know what else is pretty awesome? If you take back five clean and empty tubs (or tubes), you get a free face mask! I was given a lot of Lush products for my birthday so I have a few more tubs and only need to buy a few more and then I get a free face mask! I like things like that, so well done Lush!