Summer. The wonderful time of year when students have almost nothing to do. For me that means hours spent wandering aimlessly around the mall. This, of course, means I made an array of purchases. I spent a bunch of time at Ulta. While there I bought an array of face products.

One of the products I bought on a whim was the Neutrogena light mask. This mask is supposed to be a part of a long term acne treatment. Unfortunately I was unable to use it long term. Why? The mask would not turn on, as in the lights would not turn on. I have seen many other people have this problem in the comments of websites selling it. I attempted to use it several times, and it only turned on once. It was not worth the money, so I returned it.

After that unfortunate experiment I picked up an array of one-time use face masks.

A recent beauty trend was the bubble mask. This trend was in the peak stage in May 2017. I tried the Miss Spa bubble mask. The mask is supposed to exfoliate, clarify, and even skin tones. This mask does fulfill the promise of bubbles, yet it did nothing for my face. It made it feel soft for a day or so, but nothing else.

Other face masks I picked up were from the Say yes to brand. I had two of my friends try them out with me. I tried the cucumber sleep mask, which is supposed to calm and soothe skin. Within two minutes of application this mask began burning intensely. I immediately washed it off with water and a washcloth. While it is fine if certain products burn as that is how they warn that it works, this one did not have a warning on it.

I bought a grapefruit sheet mask that is supposed to refine pores and make skin glow. My pal Chelsea Roundtree tried this one.

“The grapefruit face mask definitely smells like grapefruit, and it did make my skin seem smoother the next day,” said Roundtree, 12.

The other one that one of my friends, Mary Barnett, tried is the tomato and charcoal sheet mask. This mask is supposed to detoxify and clean pores.

“It tingled quite a bit, as the package warned it did. I did not see many results from it though,” said Barnett, 12.

Face masks are great, but they are no replacement for a proper skin-care routine. They can help for a small amount of time, but not for a long period. I say it is better to just invest in good skin-care products for the long-term.