Review: Lush Catastrophe Cosmetic Fresh Face Mask

Hope you all had a fun weekend! I have been nursing a bitch of a head cold today, so I'm about to curl up with some tea and Captain America comics before calling it a night. Good thing I have the day off tomorrow so I can hopefully catch some extra sleep.


Anywho, I'm gradually working my way through Lush's entire Fresh Face Mask line and sharing my impressions on each mask. So I'm excited to talk about one of my very favorites today: the blueberry bliss that is Catastrophe Cosmetic! All of the Fresh Face Masks are geared toward a specific set of concerns and Catastrophe Cosmetic is Lush's soothing, balancing mask for skin that's prone to irritation and blemishes.

Catastrophe Cosmetic contains calamine (soothing), talc (cleansing), Irish moss gel (softens skin) and, as you might have inferred from the picture, fresh blueberries (rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals). It's gentler mask but that doesn't mean it's not effective. I like to think of it as a chill pill for your skin. When you're struggling with chapped skin, redness or impending breakouts, Catastrophe Cosmetic helps soothe and restore you skin to a balanced state, without agitating it any further.

There's no burning or tingling sensation that you sometimes experience with other deep cleansing masks, so it's a nice mask for wintertime when I need to baby my combination skin to keep it from veering into dry, flaky territory but it's also very refreshing in warmer weather too. Once I remove the mask, my skin feels clean, soft and supple. If you've found other acne spot treatments or masks tend to dry your skin out, give this one a shot. It's not so harsh that it'll make your face feel tight but it's not so mild that it feels like it didn't do anything.

I love how Catastrophe Cosmetic soothes and clears my skin, plus the smell is absolutely amazing--assuming you enjoy blueberries, of course. It smells like real blueberries instead of some fake fruit scent like blueberry Runts. I always crave fruit after I use this, which I suppose isn't a bad thing.

If you're new to Lush face masks, Catastrophe Cosmetic is a fabulous mask to start with, because it's nice and mild, plus it has ingredients that will potentially benefit all skin types. Whether you're dry, oily or somewhere in between, this mask will sort your skin out and bring it right back where it needs to be!

A single pot costs $6.95 and you can get about six to eight masks per pot, depending on how thickly you apply them, so it really is a great value. The masks need to be refrigerated because they contain fresh ingredients with no preservatives, so the only place you can buy them is in-store. They have a shelf life of three weeks, but personally I just treat them like food: So long as you store them properly and check for changes in scent and consistency, you can get away with using them a bit longer than the official shelf life. Or, as my friend Ash has suggested, you can also try freezing them!

If you're curious to learn more about all of the different Fresh Face Masks, check out my other reviews too: Cupcake, Love Lettuce, BB Seaweed and Cosmetic Warrior.