Holy Sheet: Neogence N3 Vitamin Brightening Mask Review

(Holy Sheet is a section dedicated to fun-sized reviews of sheet masks I've tried. I am not affiliated with or sponsored by these brands.)

Neogence is a popular Taiwanese skincare brand, though I don't see many English reviews for their sheet masks online. In general, I feel like there aren't too many English-language reviews for Taiwanese sheet masks that aren't My Beauty Diary, My Scheming Diary, or the more popular brands. That's a shame, because there are lots of awesome Taiwanese sheet masks on the market.

The brand was started by two Taiwanese biochemical engineering PhD students, (now) Dr. Hsieh Chien-Yang and Dr. Tsai Sung-Pei, who came up with their first product, the Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Essence in 2002. The essence became a hit at National Taiwan University, and this led to the formal incorporation of the brand in 2005. It prides itself on being the "Top 2 Derma Skincare Brand" in Taiwan (I wonder what #1 is?), apart from the fact that their products combine the expertise of specialists in different fields, namely, dermatology, biotechnology, and pharmaceutics.

Neogence's marketing, branding (their tagline is "Lab-Dermatological Skincare"), and packaging reminds me a lot of the Kbeauty brand Leaders Insolution, probably because of their more scientific/medical approach to skincare. The brand's products are guaranteed to be paraben-free, dye-free, and cruelty free, among other things.

The brand launched in 2012 in the Philippines (according to the company timeline), but I don't recall ever seeing this in Watsons or department stores.

Ingredients: Aqua, Glycerine, Butylene Glycol, Propanediol, Sodium Levulinate, Sodium PCA, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol, Xanthan Gum, p-Anisic Acid, Allantoin, Disodium EDTA, Lactic Acid, Hydroxypropyl Guar, Niacinamide, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Sodium Hyaluronate, Fragrance, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate

The ingredients list is quite short, and has a lot of good moisturizing ingredients (sodium PCA, glycerine, sodium hyaluronate) and soothing ingredients (allantoin). The actual vitamin C content, however--magnesium ascorbyl phosphate--is the very last ingredient! So you're unfortunately not getting very much Vitamin C here. Niacinamide, which is responsible for brightening, is on the third line of the ingredients list as well. That's not to say that this is a bad product--far from it! It's just good to be aware of how much of these ingredients you're getting in your skincare products, which will help you evaluate your purchasing decisions.

What's funny to me is that the Neogence website claims that their products are fragrance-free, and yet this particular product does contain fragrance. If your skin is overly sensitive to fragrance in skincare products, you might want to skip this. Scent-wise, it has a mild, herbal smell that isn't cloying, and it kind of disappears once you put it on.

Essence: The mask was completely soaked and dripping with essence. There was ~1 teaspoon of essence left over, enough for my neck. The mask fit perfectly on my face, which is more than I can say for some sheet masks (LuLuLun, I'm looking at you). It clung well, and did not droop or fall when I looked down.

If you're looking for a--I wouldn't say everyday--regular sheet mask, something you can use 2-3x a week, you really can't go wrong with this. It does a little brightening, some medium-strength moisturizing, and a box of 8 frequently goes on sale at Watsons Taiwan, Tomods, and Sasa. I'm not sure if this particular variant is available at Watsons and Sasa branches elsewhere in SEA, as it's not listed on their respective websites.

Neogence makes a lot of these novel 'occasion' masks as well. The idea is to pick a mask based on the effect you want to achieve (glass skin, brightening) or the event/occasion (e.g., first date mask, recovering from jet lag).

My personal favorite is the "Ex Will Regret" mask! I mean, how could you not auto-buy that?

Unfortunately, I don't have any trips to Taiwan scheduled soon, so I won't be able to get these for quite some time. If you do find and buy them though, drop me a comment and let me know how they are!

HM sis?: These go on sale all the time in Taiwan; either one box (this particular variant comes in a box of 8, and costs NT$299, roughly P510) will be discounted, or there will be a BOGOF promo. The Neogence site currently has a BOGOF promo for NT$299--that's 16 masks in total, which comes out to P32/mask. Ridiculous.