REVIEW: Dr. Jart+ Premium Firming Sleeping Mask

There have been a few products in my life that I’ve thought were love at first sight. The light feel and deep moisture of Scinic Honey All-In-One Ampoule; the immediate smoothing and brightening of Makeup Artist’s Choice 25% Mandelic Acid Peel; the rich, buttery application drying down to a gentle dewiness of Shiseido Senka Mineral Water UV Essence sunscreen. But I don’t know that I’ve ever felt an immediate, deep, intoxicating connection like I do with Dr. Jart+ Premium Firming Sleeping Mask. It’s like a fairytale, if fairytales were less focused on human intimacy and more focused on Amazon Prime.

What it’s supposed to do

According to the box:

“A light, quick-absorbing gel that creates a protective barrier on your skin, locking in vital moisture & nutrients while you ‘beauty sleep’. Niacinamide & Kava boost elasticity and firmness. Korean medicinal herbs help expel toxins and stimulate cell turnover for a renewed radiance. Hyaluronic Acid replenishes skin’s nighttime water supply for long-lasting moisture.”

I’ll ignore the snake-oily nonsense of “expelling toxins”, only because I love this product so much. Basically, it promises to increase hydration, firmness, and elasticity. As someone within throwing distance of 30, those are all things I can get on board with.

How to use it

This is a sleeping pack, so you put it on as your very last product before you go to sleep. It contains occlusive ingredients that lock in moisture overnight. However, it’s light enough that you could use it as a daytime product, too.

Ingredients

Water, butylene glycol, glycerin, dimethicone, alcohol, betaine, glycosyl trehalose, Portulaca oleracea extract, hydrogenated starch hydrolysate, Piper methysticum leaf/root/stem extract, ammonium acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP copolymer, xanthan gum, phenoxyethanol, carbomer, methylparaben, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, sodium hydroxide, caramel, sodium hyaluronate, Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) root extract, Angelica dahurica root extract, Cnidium officinale root extract, Corydalis turtschaninovii root extract, Paeonia lactiflora root extract, Poncirus trifoliate fruit extract, Pueraria thunbergiana root extract, Aloe barbandensis leaf juice, soluble collagen, propylene glycol, adenosine, hydrogenated lecithin, niacinamide, acetyl glucosamine, creatine, hydrolyzed extension, mica, Acacia senegal gum, panthenol, raffinose, titanium dioxide, cholesterol, iron oxides, ceramide 3, triethanolamine, phytosphingosine, sodium metabisulfite

Ingredient highlights

There’s way too much good stuff in there to delve in depth into each one, so I’ll break it down by categories.

Superstars

Niacinamide and acetyl glucosamine work synergistically to help each other perform even better: they stimulate cell turnover, fade hyperpigmentation, and increase epidermal thickness. Cholesterol, ceramide 3, and phytosphingosine are all absolute powerhouses in improving performance of your skin’s moisture barrier, maintaining overall skin health and appearance. Hyaluronic acid is a molecule found naturally in every layer of your skin and does crazy-important things for your skin’s moisture and plumpness.

Hanbang goodness

“Hanbang” means to traditional Korean medicine and personal care, and generally refers to plants and plant-based extracts that have been used in Korea for many generations. There’s a ton of that in here – pretty much everything with a binomial name (those two-part Latin names like “Glycyrrhiza glabra”) is hanbang.

Other sweetness

Ingredients like betaine, aloe juice, and glycosyl trehalose are soothing, moisturizing elements that are always nice to have.

What it’s like in action

If it hasn’t become clear from my past reviews, I’m a sucker for great packaging. This bottle makes me feel like I’m an astronaut. A beautiful, beautiful astronaut.

It’s an airless pump bottle that’s easy to use; two pumps is more than enough to cover my face and neck. The only tricky thing about this packaging is knowing when you’re running low, but here’s a SUPER GREAT LIFEHACK INSIDER TIP: shine a flashlight from the bottom of the bottle up into it. It’ll illuminate the bottle but the product will stay opaque, so you can see how much is left.

Out of the bottle, it’s a very thick, brownish gel.

It’s not runny or watery in the slightest, nor is it at all sticky. It spreads easily and soaks in fairly quickly.

It’s unscented, although it does have a very, very faint scent that, after several days of a memory on the tip of my tongue, I finally placed: it smells like Elmer’s Glue. Only a little bit, and it fades almost immediately, but there is a distinct, nostalgic Elmerian quality.

For a sleeping pack, it feels very light. Unlike other sleeping packs I’ve used, you don’t need worry about smearing this product all over your pillow; not only does it soak in completely in a couple of minutes, but it actually feels like it helps my previously-applied products soak in better, too.

My experience

I’ve been using this product every night for just over two weeks. I know it’s early, but we’re not getting any younger so DR. JART+ PREMIUM FIRMING SLEEPING MASK WILL YOU ACCEPT THIS ROSE.

The first morning after I used this product, I felt my skin and thought maybe I was starring in a real-life sequel to the classic John Travolta and Nick Cage vehicle Face/Off, because it felt like somebody else’s face had been surgically implanted over my own. It was SO. FIRM. I thought my skin was good before, but now my skin was smooth, plump, even, hydrated, and HOLY MOTHERFLIPPING SHIT, THE FIRMNESS. My skin looked and felt like I’d just woken up from a Sleeping Beauty-length nap, and also that time had gone backwards while I was asleep and now I had child skin on my adult face. (Analogies are not my strong point.)

Every night since then, applying this sleeping pack has been the highlight of my routine, and every morning, I’ve woken up to brighter, firmer, plumper skin than the day before. It’s not my most hydrating sleeping pack, so I make sure to apply a heavier cream like Cerave PM or Cosrx Honey Ceramide Full Moisture Cream beforehand; the Dr. Jart+ locks that moisture in beautifully.

I went camping last night, so wasn’t able to apply any products. This morning, even without using the Dr. Jart+ last night, my skin is still firmer and more even than it was three weeks ago. I have never experienced such immediate, dramatic, lasting results with a product like this before. The only time I’ve seen this level of rapid improvement is with harsher acids like AHAs and vitamin C; this product not only gives me crazy results, but it also is just straight-up good for my skin. I don’t need to ease into it or worry about irritation like I would with acids. Instead, I can just smooth a luxurious gel into my face and fall asleep happy.

Conclusion

While I’ve loved products before, I have such a short attention span that I rarely want to repurchase a product, no matter how much I love it, because what if something better is just waiting to be added to cart?

This is the first product I’ve ever tried – and I do mean ever – where I’m done. I’m no longer in the market for sleeping packs. I mean, sure, I’ll try new ones, but I have zero desire to find a replacement. I will repurchase this product until they stop making it, and even then I’ll bribe whomever I need to to keep me stocked.

So this is love.

Overall score: 5/5

You can buy Dr. Jart+ Premium Firming Sleeping Mask on Amazon Prime for $39. I checked all the usual K-Beauty suspects and couldn’t find it for sale anywhere – let me know in the comments if you know of any other sellers. It’s also for sale at Sephora for $48. User cbiancardi pointed out in the comments that you can also get it at Birchbox – it’s also $48 there, but Birchbox subscribers may have discount codes or loyalty points they can apply.