This blogpost uses affiliate links. Please read disclaimer.
One of the few ads from my youth that did stick with me was for cigarettes. It was after the Marlboro Man had ridden off into the eternal sun set and PR companies had realized that it was, indeed, time for a new take on manliness and smoking.
So they introduced the Cucumber Man, a smart looking guy wearing yoghurt on his face and two slices of cucumber to cover the eyes.
He did, of course, laugh and smoke and managed to neither get the yoghurt nor the ashes all over his perfectly fitting shirt.
The new man was born, progenitor of the metrosexual species that made an appearance ten years later.
In case you didn´t know, placing sliced and cooled cucumber onto your eyes was a thing back then. People told you it would reduce puffiness and hydrate, but looking back it was more the fact that cucumber straight from the fridge had a cooling effect than anything else.
Still, cucumber in skincare (and smoking men) don´t seem to go anywhere, as the Peter Thomas Roth Cucumber Gel Mask Extreme Detoxifying Hydrator proves.
What Peter Thomas Roth claims
This ultra-gentle gel helps soothe, hydrate and detoxify the look of dry, irritated skin with botanical extracts of Cucumber, Papaya, Chamomile, Pineapple, Sugar Maple, Sugarcane, Orange, Lemon, Bilberry and Aloe Vera. Excellent for helping to calm and soothe the skin’s appearance after sun exposure, peels, waxing, facials and extractions.
Facts
Prize and size
One pot contains 150 ml and retails for 52$ on the website here or on Sephora here.
Texture and smell
Green and cooling and much fun to use as you’d expect from a green wobbly gel. A thin layer sticks to your face so you can walk around while masking, but transfers to anything (or anyone) you touch.
The scent is very subtle and fresh.
Application and effects
It is cooling for sure, slightly hydrating, but other than that I didn’t notice any effect.
Ingredients
Favorable ingredients
- Butylene Glycol: Humectant, draws moisture to the skin
- Cucumis sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract: Rich in Vitamin C, other antioxidants and trace minerals
- Ananas Sativus (Pineapple) Fruit Extract: Contains bromelain (exfoliating) and Vitamin C
- Vaccinium Myrtillus Fruit Extract: Antioxidant
- Carica Papaya (Papaya) Fruit Extract: Enzymatic exfoliant due to Papain, rich in Vitamin C
- Acer Saccharum (Sugar Maple) Extract: Natural source of Glycolic Acid (very weak)
- Saccharum Officinarium (Sugar Cane) Extract: Natural source of Glycolic Acid (very weak)
- Aloe Barbadensis Juice: Antiinflammatory, soothing
- Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract: Soothing
- Sodium PCA: Humectant, naturally occurring in skin (drop with age), protecting skins acid mantle, antiinflammatory
- Allantoin: Aminoacid, soothing irritated skin
- Glycerin: Humectant
Other ingredients
- Citrus Limon (Lemon) Fruit Extract: Fragrance, Vitamin C, potentially irritant
- Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Fruit Extract: Fragrance, potentially irritant
- Mangifera Indica (Mango) Fruit Extract: Fragrance, Vitamin C
- Propylene Glycol: Solvent
- Disodium EDTA: Binding Agent
- Sodium Hydroxide: pH adjuster, can be irritating
- Citric Acid: Preservative
- Carbomer: Thickener
- Triethanolamine: ph adjuster, potential irritant
- Polysorbate 20: Surfactant
- Potassium Sorbate: Preservative
- Sodium Benzoate: Preservative, should not be mixed with Vitamin C as it could form benzene, a carcinogen. Highly unlikely in the amounts used in skincare, but some people may prefer to avoid it.
- Phenoxyethanol: Preservative
Unfavorable Ingredients
- Lemon and Orange fruit extract: potentially irritant
- Yellow 5 (CI 19140)/ Blue 1 (CI 42090)
To be honest, the ingredient list surprised me after reading the claims. Apart from a few humectants and soothing ingredients it does contain enzymatic exfoliants. Yes, they are the gentlest way of exfoliating, but I would not necessarily apply any exfoliant to a skin “after sun exposure, peels, waxing facials and extractions”. On top of that it does contain Lemon and Orange Fruit extracts, potential skin sensitizers.
Nothing that I personally shy away from in my products, but not what I expected in a mask aimed at soothing irritated skin.
Does it live up to its claims?
Hm. No.
It is a nice, cooling and hydrating mask that I enjoy especially in the summer, but as it claims to be calming and soothing irritated skin I can´t get on board.
Would I repurchase?
No.
Not because it doesn´t live up to the claims, simply because I don´t think that it is aimed at my skin type. It is more suited to dehydrated or dry skins than to my oily face.
Who do I recommend it to?
People with dehydrated skin, people that enjoy a gel over a cream and people that want a very gentle exfoliation to refine the skin texture a little.
More from Peter Thomas Roth? Check the search box for my other reviews.