Do kids still have stuff that changes colour? It was all the rage in the early 90s - lunch boxes and swimming costumes and trolls and mugs and jewellery that went from one quite murky shade to another when it got a bit warm. Even now, point out a mood ring and I won't hesitate to shove it on my finger hoping against hope that it will glow red & inform the world how passionate I am (it never does, mood rings always always tell me that I'm something crap like 'sensitive'. As if I needed a mood ring for that).
My point is, things that change colour never cease to be a thrilling gimmick so imagine my delight when I stumbled across Algenist's Alive Prebiotic Mask - colour changing for your grown up face! The fun of it all seems slightly at odds with the name of the product, which has a 'gut cleansing yoghurt' air about it, but were it called 'Pastel Face Splat' or something more appropriate I'd have only turned my nose up.
It's a pale minty green, thick but light & moussey. It paints on the face in an incredibly easy and fulfilling way. I've always seem the face mask benchmark as when Mrs Doubtfire sticks her face in the cake, and this comes up quite similar actually. Once it's applied, you're supposed to rub vigorously in circles until you you go from millennial green to millennial pink, or 'one shade of Urban Outfitters crop top to another'. The website claims that in doing so you activate hitherto dormant acids, which then come alive like Frankenstein and set to work 'addressing the problem of bacteria' which made me feel slightly judged and also took me back to that 'Mmm, Danone' yoghurt vibe.
It's brilliant, this. Once pink, you leave for 3-5 minutes, which I thought quite quick until I saw the results. But my skin felt genuinely tightened and 'back of a spoon'y and I couldn't wait to use it again, which I have done many times since.
Effective, luxurious and good fun? If only more products could say the same.