Glow Recipe Toner Pads are potent, smaller and thinner and more of a pleasure to use than a full face sheet mask.
When I was a dewy forty-something, I read that Martha Stewart began each day with a hydrating sheet mask, so I filed that away for the distant future when my wrinkly self would need that kind of morning assist.
Well, the day came more quickly than expected, and with it the complicating factor that I hate sheet masks. They’re clammy, they’re cold and they feel claustrophobic. And I’m always snipping off the bit that goes over the nose, because who needs a moisturized nose?
Enter Glow Recipe’s take on K Beauty ‘toner pads’ ($42Can, Sephora): cookie-sized fabric circles submerged in potent yet gentle serum that you spot apply only where needed and leave on for five quick minutes. The Glow Recipe ones come with tweezers cleverly nestled in the lid to help fish the pads out of their very generous serum bath, so you’re not digging around fruitlessly with a fingernail.
There’s brightening pads with five different types of vitamin C and antioxidants, multi-acid exfoliating pads and my favourite, the Repair and Soothe pad with PDRN to calm skin and repair a cranky skin barrier.
PDRN, best known is the key ingredient in the of-the-moment (ick) ‘salmon sperm’ facial, aims to boost collagen production and reduce inflammation. Glow Recipe’s vegan PDRN, derived from rice and prickly pear claims superior brightening to the salmon version and has added centella for de-reddening. A bonus for us, because the dry skin that comes with menopause can be weirdly sensitive and easily reddened.
You can get creative: pop an exfoliating pad on your nose, vitamin C pads onto each upper cheek to tackle sun damage and the PDRN on any dry and red bits. Then choke down the requisite menopause-recommended 30 required grams of protein and 30 grams of fibre breakfast and start your day.