What popular Taiwanese mask brands can you name? I’m almost certain most people would list My Beauty Diary first, because I would too. Some others that might come up: My Scheming and Lovemore. But did you know… L’Herboflore is also apparently one of the top-selling mask brands in Taiwan? Never heard of the brand? Phew. Me too.

L’Herboflore is a Taiwanese brand that has been around since 2013, but I only heard about this year when my interest in Taiwanese masks was rekindled after incidentally rediscovering my love for MBD (post for another day!)

L’Herboflore has many different series of masks and I was intrigued by the “Oriental Herb” line, so I picked up the Eight Elixir Royal Whitening Mask. Mostly for the name because it sounded the most impressive of the lot hahaha. The rest are just ordinary-sounding names like Honeysuckle Balancing Mask and Soy Milk Hydrating Mask (is soy even a herb? ok, apparently google says it is).

L’Herboflore Eight Elixir Royal Whitening Mask

First impression: These things don’t come cheap! They’re about $5 per piece!

First impression, for real: The packaging and design is classy. And you can tell straight away that it’s not a cheapo brand because the package is large (about 1.5 times the size of an MBD mask) and even has UV spot printing! You know, where some parts of the surface has a glossy and smooth coating? I love to run my fingers over those!

Then there’s the mask itself.

There’s no other way to describe it but… exquisite.

It is made of ultra thin silk fibers and blends seamlessly into my skin!

On the right near the nose is before I pressed the mask into my skin. After it adheres to my skin, you almost can’t tell where the mask starts! Look at how it wraps around the end of my eyebrow! Yes, the mask is over the eyebrow! Amazing stuff, eh?

It sits extremely well on the skin and unlike most other masks, it doesn’t shift even if I move my facial muscles.

Note: The mask is sandwiched between two backings. So don’t throw away or wear the wrong piece!

1. First, remove the white pearlised plastic backing. The mask and a blue backing will be left.
2. Place the mask (white side) on the face with the blue side facing out.
3. Peel away blue backing and discard (after rubbing over neck/hands/legs).
4. A lot of serum will remain in the packet. Apply to [insert body part] or save in fridge for another day of masking.

One packet contains 30ml of serum and this is the amount leftover! I saved them for another day (because $5 a packet!!!) I soak peelable cotton pads – I currently use this brand, but in large size. I also used Muji’s in the past – and then stick them on my face. An easy way to mask!

Here is a picture of how the mask fits:

It almost looks as if I’m not wearing a mask, doesn’t it?! Despite how thin it is, it’s surprisingly tough for its looks. I handled it very gingerly because I feared I might rip it. But at the end of the masking session, I tried pulling it apart to deliberately rip it, and it actually took a fair bit of effort before it gave way!

The coverage is great around the eyes and mouth. I literally had to squeeze my lips into the tiny slit of an opening to fit them in. The nose area though, not so good. I guess I have a bigger nose than the template *shrugs* There are some extra bits at the edge, but I’m not too bothered by them. It just means I have a smaller face! Heh.

The mask lasted about 40 minutes on me before I had to remove it, so that’s pretty good.

As for the effects?

“Eight Elixir is a skincare regimen used within the Imperial Palace to brighten, soften and rejuvenate the skin. It contains the extracts of eight specifically selected Chinese herbs – white peony root, white mulberry root-bark, white poria, white cogongrass, Yunnan Bletilla, white job’s tears, white lotus and white almond that can effectively and naturally moisturize, repair, brighten and whiten skin.”

After two masks, I didn’t see any repairing, brightening or whitening. I know my skin is pretty fair, so it’s quite tough to have any observable brightening/whitening effect. But I was hoping my freckles would benefit. No such luck here :( The moisturizing effect was also minimal, if at all.

Verdict

This mask is a DREAM to wear, but that alone is not enough to justify the price tag. The lack of effect from this mask was honestly quite disappointing. I expected more for this price point.

That said, I am still open to try other masks from L’Herboflore because of the mask quality. And yes, next time I will do my research rather than choosing based on names -_-

Rating: 3/5

Price

Very little online stores stock L’Herboflore masks. I bought mine – a set of 3 for $14.24 (free shipping) – from eBay.