by Jude Chao

Sheet Mask Stocking Stuffers & T-Beauty Under the Tree: What I’m Giving Out for Christmas

Some products featured in this post were provided by Beautibi, which is currently giving $5 credit to new customers who create an account using my referral link. All opinions and recommendations in this post are my own. Learn more about my rules for store partnerships by checking out my sponsorship policy and sponsor list.

Christmas is less than two weeks away! Do you have all your gifts bought and wrapped and ready to go? Yeah? Good for you. Go have a cookie. But if you’re like me and in the throes of OH SHIT WHAT AM I GIVING TO AUNT SASSY AND COUSIN SALTY AND THE FAMILY DENTIST AND EVERYONE AT WORK holiday panic, however, read on. Maybe my Christmas gifting strategy will give you some ideas.

The Best Way to Gift Skincare

If you’re falling in love with the AB life or reading this post from the bottom of the rabbit hole, then gifting your loved ones some amazing Asian cosmetics may seem like a no-brainer. And in some ways, it is! But in other ways, it’s not.

The thing is that skincare is a very personal thing. If you’ve ever struggled with skin issues and winced at some well meaning friend or relative’s attempt to help you “fix” your face with gifts of cleansers and creams and ointments, then you know: skincare gifts can be embarrassing and often less than useful. The Law of YMMV states that what works for you may not work for anyone else. On top of that, putting together an effective skincare routine is not a short or easy process.

Morning Korean beauty skincare routine
A thing of beauty such as this takes time and effort to put together.

That doesn’t mean you can’t share your love of skincare with your friends and family, though. It just means that instead of looking to make a significant addition to your loved ones’ skincare routines, you should look to give the gift of fun for their faces. And what’s more fun for a face than sheet masks? That’s why this year, many of the presents I’m wrapping up and handing out are hand-curated boxes of my favorite sheet masks. As a bonus to myself, I may or may not have reserved several or more of those sheet masks for my own holiday face. Everyone wins. Here are the masks I’m giving out and where I’m getting them!

From Amazon Prime: My Scheming and My Beauty Diary

If you follow my Instagram account, then you probably already know about my current raging boner for Taiwanese sheet masks. With the exception of Hey! Pinkgo Girl, every Taiwanese sheet mask brand I’ve tried has been stellar, providing spectacular hydrating, plumping, and brightening results at generally very reasonable prices. I get the majority of my Taiwanese sheet masks from Amazon. Here are my current favorites, all of them available for delivery before Christmas as of today.

My Scheming sheet masks for Christmas
It would be very Grinchy to comment on the terrible quality of this picture, by the way. The lights on the tree gave me some problems.

My Scheming Hot Spring Water Moisturizing Silk Facial Mask

I’ve been using these almost every night and I have no regrets about it. I might be a sucker for fancy water, but there’s no denying that these give my skin a ton of bounce and a translucent glow.

$14.95 for box of 10 (affiliate link)

My Scheming Deep Ocean Water Saccharide Isomerate Mask

A “saccharide isomerate” is a humectant sugar molecule with strong skin-binding properties. In layman’s terms, it grabs on to water and clamps it against skin for hours and hours, resulting in lasting plumpness and hyration.

$14.95 for box of 10 (affiliate link)

My Scheming Provence Lavender Soothing Mask

Make the flower lover in your life happy by stuffing a couple of these delicately fragranced sheet masks in their stocking. Or, if you really like that person, slide a whole box of these masks under their tree.

$14.95 for box of 10 (affiliate link)

My Scheming Snail Essence Hydrating Silk Facial Mask

You didn’t think I was going to put together a sheet mask gifting guide without throwing in some snails, did you? I love these for their skin-smoothing, redness-soothing properties, and the cute graphics may make snails more palatable for the first-time snail slatherer.

$14.95 for box of 10 (affiliate link)

My Scheming Honey Hydrating Silk Facial Mask

Snail might not be for everyone, but who could turn down the sweetness of honey infused in an exceptionally comfortable silk mask sheet? These intensively moisturizing masks feel great on and make skin feel great all through the next day.

$14.95 for box of 10 (affiliate link)

My Beauty Diary Platinum Series Sheet Masks

I still love My Beauty Diary masks for everyday use, but I’m not as into them for gifting, simply because I find the package designs of the regular MBD masks a little lacking compared to other T-beauty brands, and gifts should be as pleasing to the eye as they are pleasurable to use. MBD’s premium Platinum masks are an exception, though. These come four apiece in elegantly shiny foil packets nestled within storybook-style boxes, making unboxing a treat. The Platinum Hyaluronic Acid masks are among the most plumping that I’ve ever tried, and the Platinum Snail Total Effects masks excel at evening skin tone and firming skin texture. These are slightly challenging masks to put on for the first time, though, so you may want to reserve them for the sheet mask veterans in your life.

My Beauty Diary Platinum Hyaluronic Acid sheet masks
See? Pretty and shiny.

My Beauty Diary Platinum Hyaluronic Acid Mask, $12.00 for box of 4 (affiliate link)

My Beauty Diary Platinum Snail Total Effects Mask, $12.00 for box of 4 (affiliate link)

From Beautibi: L’Herboflore and Maskingdom

In the last year or so, the North American AB store landscape has expanded significantly, with a number of new shops vying to snag some market share. I haven’t felt compelled to make many buys from the new shops (or non-Memebox US-based AB stores in general)–except when it comes to Beautibi. Seriously, I love Beautibi. The owner, Jennifer, has curated a gorgeous selection of lesser-known Taiwanese sheet masks, among other Asian cosmetics that I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of. Here are some of my favorites.

L’Herboflore

I binged hard on L’Herboflore when I first decided to spend some money at Beautibi. I’m dying for the distinctive artwork on the big, beautiful sheet mask packets–artwork that makes these masks uniquely suited to gifting. It doesn’t hurt that the masks inside the pretty packages have been uniformly great for my skin, either.

Among my favorites are the Eight Elixir Royal Whitening Mask ($6), the Job’s Tears Brightening Mask ($6), and the Soy Milk Hydrating Mask ($6), which was an absolute skin-saver for me when my face was going through a pretty hardcore eczema flare.

I also really enjoyed the Camellia Nourishing Hydromask ($4), the Marine Collagen Resilience Lift Mask ($4), and the delicious-smelling Grape Anti-Aging Hydromask ($4).

The really cool thing about Beautibi’s L’Herboflore selection is that right now, Jennifer is helping customers curate their own custom L’Herboflore boxes by providing a free L’Herboflore signature box with every order of 5 or more masks! It’s really cute and a great way to present these presents to your favorite skincare lovers. I have a few people in mind who’ll go crazy over these.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_CoMArAoj3/

MasKingdom

MasKingdom is another Taiwanese sheet mask brand that combines quality sheet masks with beautiful, unique packaging design. Each line evokes beauty in a different way, from the classic elegance of the Secret Recipe masks to the sexy retro-chic of the Metropolitan masks. Jennifer sent me an assortment of MasKingdom masks to try, and I found a few more favorites to hoard and give.

MasKingdom Imperiale Repairateur Moisturizing Masque
Not only is this an amazing piece of illustration, but this mask got rid of all the fine lines on my face in 45 minutes and they stayed gone until the next evening.

I’ve had great results from every velvety-soft Secret Recipe MasKingdom mask I’ve tried, and they’re available at Beautibi in a set of 5 for $25. The Chinese Medicine masks are wonderfully hydrating and calming when my face feels a little upset; those are also packaged in a set of 5 for $25. And the Very Precious Mask from the Metropolitan Series has an amazing ingredients list and the ability to bring my face back to life no matter how little sleep and how much stress I dealt with the day and night before.

MasKingdom Very Precious Mask is very precious indeed at $8 but totally worth a splurge.

All this talk about sheet mask gifting kind of has me itching to gift myself some sheet masks, too.

Are you giving out any AB presents this year?

Affiliate links in this post generate commissions that support Fifty Shades of Snail and Fiddy’s further skincare adventures. Full disclosures can be found here.

© 2015 unless otherwise noted (copyright and sharing policy)

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18 thoughts on “Sheet Mask Stocking Stuffers & T-Beauty Under the Tree: What I’m Giving Out for Christmas”

  1. I was sold soon as I read “raging boner” 😂
    I mean holy snailsssssssss! I was drooling after reading the ingredients on each mask and now need every single one as well as both those facial oils! I want to try them before binging to make sure they work for my oilslick prone face! Lustinggggg hard over this post Fiddy! 😍💞🙌

    Liked by 2 people

  2. I just handed out my Christmas presents at work today, and, yup, I gave away sheet masks left and right. I enjoy giving them away. They’re fun, functional, and I like the idea that it’s something to counteract the effects of work-related stress. I wish we had access to more brands where I live, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality of Etude House sheet masks (versus Tony Moly and The Face Shop), so I gave those away. Hopefully, I get “great boss” brownie points for those presents.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh dude! I totally agree with you on Etude House vs. Tony Moly and TFS masks. I always have a few EH Vita Complex and Royal Jelly around because they’re awesome. And I’m sure you’ll get lots of brownie points for those presents. They’re way more thoughtful than another Starbucks gift card!

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      1. Right? I’m so impressed, to think that the EH ones are about 25% cheaper than TM’s where I am!
        I gave away some Vita Complex (it’s one of my “ooooooh!” masks, in that it made me say that when I took it off, along with the Benton Snail Bee), Tea Tree, Hyaluronic, and Rice Masks. I might give the Royal Jelly another try on your recommendation, although I found that I liked the Honey version better. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I may be thinking of the honey actually. It’s whichever one does not have the lotiony essence. I don’t like masks with lotiony essence.

        I’m still pretty mad about how crappy the TFS Essential Mask Sheets are 😡 I may end up rage-purchasing a few more Etude House just to make myself feel better.

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  3. Oh my goodness I give everyone sheet masks. As for people wanting to take care of my skin…it’s more the other way around. My paki mom wants me to take care of her skin…I tell her well I can give you a product and you can try it. So I ask her many questions…”I don’t know just make me look younger”. My older and younger sisters are the same but with acne. I am just like -.- YMMV I just buy a product for each on singles day and end up with a million samples for them to try.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. You really do make me laugh both on your blog and your snapchat! (“my current raging boner for Taiwanese sheet masks”) 😂😂😂. Since I don’t order sheet masks often because of the current exchange rate + shipping costs to AUS I usually hold all my masks close like Gollum and don’t want to give any away, but maybe I should spread the AB love a bit. (Now if I went to HK or Korea I’d probably run around throwing out sheet masks to family and friends like Oprah…)

    Liked by 2 people

      1. “Where did all our Kelp masks go? I swear I restocked them less than an hour ago?”
        “Oh, this lady came in with a massive suitcase and bought out every single kelp mask we had on shelf, put them in her suitcase and moved over to Banila Co for their Miss Flower and Mr Honey Hydrogels.”
        “I saw the employee there watch as she took every single one of them off the shelf, and it was a massive display.”
        “Well good luck to the rest of them.”

        Liked by 3 people

      2. Hahahaha! This sounds like my sister and I planning a trip to Korea… Main objective is to EAT and SHOP. Not sightseeing, not culture. Eating and shopping. That’s it.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. I’m giving myself some L’Herboflore masks this holiday season muahahaha! But I’ve been giving AB gifts ever since I got into AB aka March. I’m happy to say they’ve loved everything I gave them! I’m constantly giving my friends sheet masks and I’m getting my friends Korean lip tints for their birthdays.

    I work hard on my mission to convert people into the AB life. ✌🏽️

    Also, I think everyone needs to strive to find an SO who will buy them L’Herboflore. “I will make you cupcakes and cookies of all kinds, just give me AB baby” – my Grindr for AB nerds bio.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Fab post! Yup, I’ll be giving out some AB gifts this year, some of which I purchased with the intent of giving as gifts, other things that I’m gifting via shopping my own stash.

    For a good friend of mine: a set of Hanaka Macaron masks that I picked up in Taiwan–no idea if they work very well, but they’re so pretty that they make a lovely gift, and this friend appreciates aesthetics (and loves macarons). Also might give her some of the Maskingdom beauties I picked up from their flagship store if I can part with any of them. And then she’ll get a couple of non-AB things.

    For my nieces: some Hello Kitty/My Melody/Rilakkuma masks I picked up in Taiwan, along with some Berrisom lip tints. May also throw in some other cute things, and I’m knitting a hat for each of them.

    For their mother: we don’t really exchange gifts, but I am giving her some token gifts of a couple of Lavender Sage Kao Steam Eye Masks, a Freeset Donkey Milk hand cream, and a handmade hat. Also, looking to regift a Fresh Black Tea Anti-Aging set that a friend gave me (since I have an AB regimen going on) and am going to see if she will accept my regift.

    For my other sister with whom I do exchange, and who is somewhat into AB and has thus requested certain items: some crazy sheet masks I got in Taiwan, such as “Will You Be a Dog?” and a Berrisom scary clown from a horror movie mask; the Etude House Etti headband; nicer sheet masks such as some by My Beauty Diary, Tosowoong, L’Herboflore, Lovemore, etc. depending on what I’m willing to part with; Alishan Ginger Enough Essential Oil (寶島阿里山夠姜天然滾珠精油) (it’s an herbal product with a roller ball that you rub over your skin—I believe it helps muscle aches and the like); the Saem Chocopie hand cream; stuff she asked for, like the Tony Moly banana hand cream and sleeping pack, Skinfood salmon concealer, lip hydrogel… + non-AB items.

    For a friend who won’t get her gift package until after the holidays for reasons I won’t go into here: Coco & Kerry’s book–she loves skincare and knows a little bit about AB. Since she’s ordered from Sokoglam, I figured she might already have Charlotte’s book, so I thought I’d give her one she probably wouldn’t know about.

    I’ll also take the samples I’m not crazy about and distribute them to the above people in cute little packs.

    Oh, and I haven’t packed a damn thing either. Most of my shopping is done, but not all of it. I have to finish some work projects before I can finish my shopping.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Oh my God! You totally win at AB gifting!!! I’m sure everyone will love your gifts…and I’m dying with envy over your visit to the MasKingdom flagship store. I’d love to just win a small lottery and then go fling it all at MasKingdom right then and there!

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      1. Unfortunately, Maskingdom is really, really expensive, even in person. It’s also full of incredibly beautiful masks and I wanted to purchase one of everything, but there’s no way I could afford that, plus I don’t want to use any of them because the packaging is too gorgeous. I’m finally almost done with my write-up of my shopping adventures in T-Beauty, which I’ll post either tonight or tomorrow on Reddit. I just need to finish writing and post my photos to Imgur.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I transferred to a division that has 15 women (I came from one where it was two gals and 40 guys.) Everyone gives gifts to everyone! I decided to order a pack of sheets masks. I tied each one with baking twine, a cute tag, and a card. I gave the gift of relaxation! It was a huge hit.

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