Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is easily the best mask I've ever used - in fact, it's the ONLY mask I've tried that's yielded very noticeable results over a very short period of time. Like many others, the reviews on this Origins product lured me in. On site after site I found THOUSANDS of consumers consistently ranking it with four or five stars, with several happy customers even going as far as to say they wept with joy when they looked into the mirror after just one use. I have extremely sensitive, acne-prone skin, with very enlarged, clogged pores covering nearly every inch of my face. I have been searching for "the miracle" for years at this point, so my expectations for this were staggering after reading the reviews. When I returned home from early voting last week and saw the package from Amazon on my doorstep, I bolted as fast as I could from my car to the kitchen so I could prep my skin for first use with a steam facial - YOU MUST STEAM YOUR FACE BEFORE YOU USE THIS IF YOU WANT MAXIMUM RESULTS. I applied the mask after steaming for about 15 min and allowed it to dry for a full hour. I experienced an immediate onset of disappointment as soon as I washed it off, as my face looked red and dry and a fresh crop of pimples was forming on my chin. My nose, cheeks, and forehead were still inundated with blackheads, and all in all my skin looked a lot worse than it had before trying the mask. Turns out this product is not a sob-with-happiness miracle that will magically erase every blemish in one fell swoop. I was unwilling to believe so many others who bought and loved it were just lying, so I looked a bit further into the reviews and saw many users reported an initial breakout while the activated charcoal first begins to draw the most deeply imbedded impurities from the skin. I decided to give the mask seven days to prove itself to me, and I'm VERY VERY glad I did. I (successfully) treated the initial breakout with Neutrogena's topical 2.5% benzoyl peroxide cream. Within 48 hours, all traces of the breakout had vanished and I was ready to try the mask again. I steamed my face (I cannot emphasize enough how important this step is), applied the mask, waited 45 minutes, and voila! I saw results. It certainly did not "vacuum" every trace of gunk from every pore, but it did immediately clear several very stubbord blackheads around my nose and cheeks, and despite a little over-drying, my skin looked cleaner than it has in years! I waited another full day (to offset how much it's dried my skin) before trying a third round, and I almost couldn't believe the difference! Many of the blackheads on my nose and cheeks had entirely vanished! The majority of my pores weren't simply swept clear - the mask drew out blockages to the point that little sebum plugs were poking out all over my face, and I achieved manual extraction of these without inflicting trauma or damage to my skin. I'm 25 years old and after three uses, my pores are cleaner, smaller, and less visible than they've been since I was 14. Needless to say, I LOVE ORIGINS CLEAR IMPROVEMENT! It's not a perfect miracle cure - nothing is - but I believe consistent use of this product will yield the results all the hundreds of other masks and cleansers I've tried have been unable to provide. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED if you don't see a dramatic change or even if your skin looks worse after the first try - be prepared to treat the possibility of an initial breakout and have your favorite moisturizer ready, and then give it a week or two to let the mask show you what it can do. I'm still getting a pimple or two with each use but this period of adjusting to the product is absolutely worth the trouble as the benefits are clear and significant. If you have been battling large, clogged pores for years and have acne-prone skin that won't cooperate with harsh exfoliants, TRY THIS MASK! I'd like to add that while this mask is definitely drying at first, it's no where near as bad as most masks are and probably won't be a problem for you if you don't already have sensitive skin.