Given K-beauty’s knack for collaborations with cute cartoons and mascots, it was only a matter of when, not oeuf, a Gudetama collaboration would happen.
Well Holika Holika fulfilled this egg-lover’s dream in May with a skincare and makeup collection featuring everyone’s favorite lazy, apathetic egg. I seriously can’t get un oeuf of my Gudies.
And THEN I discovered that there were also Gudetama sheet masks from Japan and Taiwan (by My Scheming no less!) Apparently, un oeuf is not un oeuf when it comes to milking a cash cow.
I didn’t need any egging on before buying ALL the sheet masks. *
*By “all,” I mean “not all” because I only bought 2 out of 5 varieties from My Scheming.
I’ll BOIL my thoughts down to two categories:
- Eggs Factor (like X Factor, get it?): Regardless of actual product quality, how Gud-looking is the product? Do you look like you have egg on your face–in a good way?? Score is out of a dozen eggs.
- Reggcommendation: Would the mask be worth buying if it weren’t Gudetama?
Now let’s get CRACKING. SCRAMBLED in no particular order, these are the masks reviewed in this post:
- Holika Holika x Gudetama Lazy & Easy Character Mask Sheet
- Holika Holika x Gudetama Lazy & Easy All Kill Sheet
- Gudetama Narikiri Face Pack
- My Scheming x Gudetama Lazybone Hydrating Mask
- My Scheming x Gudetama Lazybone Nourishing Mask
Holika Holika x Gudetama Lazy & Easy Character Mask Sheet Review (Korea)
Eggs Factor: A dozen out of a dozen eggs.
Worthwhile for any Gudetama fan so long as you check your eggspectations about how it actually performs as skincare. The whole mask is yellow and not creepy like some other character masks, successfully making you ova into the little guy.
As further evidence of its commitment to the theme, egg yolk extract and egg white (albumen) extract are the 5th and 6th ingredients. It could only be made better with a bacon-shaped neck mask that I could pull around myself as I let out a resigned sigh.
Reggcommendation: PASS.
Printed sheet masks tend to be stiff, thick, and dry quickly–this was no eggception. It’s too stiff to cling well, so lay down and scratch yourself for 10-15 minutes while it dries. Topping it off with a silicone mask cover buys you quite a bit more time.
However, after wearing it for an hour with the silicone mask cover, the results were still resoundingly “meh” to quote the Allmighty Gud. I didn’t get even half the brightening or plumping that ordinary sheet masks give, and the egg ingredients didn’t tighten skin. And an area where a zit was forming was bright red when I took off the mask.
Holika Holika x Gudetama Lazy & Easy All Kill Sheet: Cleansing Tissue & All-In-One Mask Sheet Review (Korea)
As Gudetama demonstrates, this product consists of multiple steps: (1) wipe face clean with the cleansing tissue, (2) apply sheet mask, and (3) do the backstroke. Oops, that last one might not be right…
Eggs Factor: Two out of a dozen eggs.
Egg yolk extract and egg white extract are ingredients in both the cleansing tissue and the sheet mask. Unfortunately, the products themselves are void of any semblance to Gudetama. I awarded 1 egg each for (1) sheet mask essence that’s gooey like egg whites and (2) the eggceptional illustrations on the packaging.
Reggcommendation: PASS.
The cleansing tissue (i.e., makeup wipe) is a lightly perfumed fabric that’s big enough for face and neck. Soaked in a thin, non-oily solution, it took off all makeup except for waterproof mascara (ouch, does it sting if you get it near eyes). Although it left skin moisturized yet not oily, it’s not ideal for anything but the laziest nights because it can’t replace double-cleansing.
The sheet mask is a slightly stiff mesh fabric that uneggspectedly clings well and is soaked in an egg white eggsence. Directions say to leave on 10-15 minutes and the mask started to feel dry after 20 minutes. Results? Meh. Skin was plumper and moisturized but not brightened or soothed (red bumps around my nose were still there).
Gudetama Narikiri Face Pack Review (Japan)
Eggs Factor: A dozen eggs for printing Gudetama on the mask minus 100 dozen for making him (and me) look like a serial killer. A sheet mask hasn’t scared this much bejesus out of me since the infamous bear mask.
Reggcommendation: PASS.
The ovo/oval shape means that the mask is too wide–overlapping my hair and ears–with a very short nose. The fabric is thick (though not as stiff as other printed masks) and it clung on while I walked around. The essence didn’t drip (there’s only a measly 20 ml anyway) and has a soft vanilla/Japanese eraser scent that goes away while wearing the mask.
Directions are to leave on for 10-15 mins. After 25 minutes, the mask was still damp but definitely on its way to drying out. Results were meh: no brightening, light moisturizing.
Ingredients (translated and pasted from Google Translate app, missing commas and all):
Water, glycerin, PEG / PPG – 17/6 copolymers, egg yolk extract, milk protein extract, lactic acid bacilli / fermented soybean extract, Hamakarisu water Roman chamomile flower extract, aloe vera leaf extract erythritol, hyaluronic acid Na hydrolyzed collagen, arbutin, allantoin , tocopherol acetate, glycyrrhizin acid 2K xanthan gum polysorbate 80, EDTA -. 2Na, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben perfume
My Scheming x Gudetama Lazybone Sheet Mask Reviews – Hydrating & Nourishing (Taiwan)
I bought the Hydrating and Nourishing varieties, but there are 3 others (Anti-aging, Moisturizing, and Deep Clean?? the translations vary…). In addition to the sheet masks, this collab also featured a foot mask and a bubble mud mask!
Eggs Factor: One out of a dozen eggs.
Way below eggspectations. Sure, there are some cute illustrations on the packaging. But My Scheming just jammed a regular mask into cute packaging. Sigh.
Renee’s bloodhound nose also detected a smell in the Hydrating mask that one could argue is true to eggs…OK, fine, she said it “smells like fart” and peeled it off in disgust after 2 minutes. For the record, I smelled nothing, but her comment will now haunt me as I use up the remaining masks.
Hydrating Mask
Reggcommendation: PASS on Hydrating unless you like Lovemore masks; YES on Nourishing.
I tried the Hydrating mask while Indya from Bella Noir Beauty tried the Nourishing (snail slime) one. They’re both made of thin, second-skin fabrics that come with a plastic backing to help you unfold and apply them.
The Hydrating mask is Gud quality perhaps if you’re into silk Lovemore masks–but I’m not. This mask lasts a little longer than Lovemore but is still too quick to dry on my normal-to-dry skin and far short of what I’ve come to expect from My Scheming. Directions are to leave on for 15-20 minutes, and it indeed began to feel dry after 20 minutes. And the results after 30 minutes? Skin was hydrated, but the mild plumping and brightness lasted all of 10 minutes. Lazybone results for lazybone time commitment.
Nourishing Mask
Indya had a better experience with the snaily Nourishing mask. “So much snessence!” she raved. Skin felt soft and moisturized afterward, and her sheet mask reverse-tan lasted 15 minutes. Her only critique was that the mask didn’t cover her forehead fully.
BOTTOM LINE: As one would eggspect of novelty items, Gudetama sheet masks are hardly ova-whelming. A sheet mask was either Gud-looking or Gud skincare, but not both.
For entertainment, the Holika Holika Lazy & Easy Character Mask Sheet wins for its non-creepy makeova into Gudetama. For skincare, the My Scheming sheet masks were the only ones with potential for repurchasing after the novelty wears off.
And so I hereby pronounce Korea and Taiwan tied as winners of these 2016 Ovolympics!
Well that’s all, yolks! I’ve CRACKED enough YOLKS for a lifetime. Yuk, yuk, yuk!
In case you haven’t had un oeuf, I leave you with Christina Hello‘s epic Gudetama haul from Hong Kong and this playlist of Gudetama shorts.
