So there’s a bit of a story behind this product review. 

I visited Seoul last year, back in the days when we could travel freely, armed with a big long list of things I wanted to buy. I tend to get a lot of my recommendations from the AsianBeauty forum on Reddit, which is packed full of people who basically live Asian Beauty, and have done for years. One of the product recommendations that kept coming up was A’pieu’s pastel blushers. I’d never heard of the brand at the time, so I just assumed they were a makeup brand. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon one of their stores on the Korean underground, started looking for the pastel blushers and saw shelves stacked with skincare. I was mind-blown, and a little overwhelmed too! 

Sales assistants in Seoul tend to be incredibly helpful and attentive, and this one must have noticed the visible distress I was in, there was so much choice and I was totally unprepared! Anyway, she mentioned the Madecassoside line and talked about what each product does, so I picked up a few of them, including the lip sleeping mask, as well as a few other products from different lines. 

I have scoured the internet and have been unable to find any reviews of the Madecassoside Lip Sleeping Mask, which is pretty surprising given that the Madecassoside line is incredibly popular amongst Koreans, but this is something I’ve learned about K-Beauty over the past year or so - brands like Cosrx, Innisfree, Belif and to a lesser extent Laneige, are all becoming more and more popular in the west, but in contrast, are not necessarily the be all and end all in South Korea we imagine them to be.

These brands have launched in the likes of Sephora, and have targeted the west with their marketing, whereas A’pieu haven’t - all their socials are clearly targeted at the likes of Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand, and as a result, they are highly underrated in the west. Onto the review of A’pieu’s Madecassoside Lip Sleeping Mask! 

Packaging 

The product comes in a small turquoise-mint tub with a white lid, which has a kind of medical aesthetic to it. A lot of the lip sleeping masks I’ve tried in the past are presented in a little box, containing the product and a spatula, but this doesn’t come with a spatula at all. Obviously the spatulas are normally used to take out the product, but in this case you’ll have to make do with your fingers. 

Texture 

When you open up the lid, the product itself is a translucent white, with a similar appearance to vaseline. In fact, the similarity to vaseline continues upon application, as it feels just like it, although it doesn’t have quite the same thickness or stickiness that you might associate with vaseline. The texture melts down on the lips into a gorgeous shiny, glossy finish, which feels a bit like a lipgloss/lip balm hybrid. 

Why is it so special? 

Well the area I live in has been in lockdown of differing severity for the past 8 months now, and for most of that I’ve had to wear a facemask everywhere I go. To begin with, this wasn’t much of a problem, it started out in spring and went thorough a nice warm summer, but now we’re transitioning into autumn, or fall, it’s getting colder, wetter and bit more humid outside. Combined with having to wear a mask, this is causing me to get a runny nose, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. This means that my nose is red raw, I have flaky skin around it and even my lips have started to dry out, becoming very irritated and cracked in some places. 

I was using my previous HG (holy grail) - Mamonde’s Aqua Peel Lip Sleeping Mask - to help soothe my suffering lips, but this just wasn’t doing the job, so I figured I’d give something else a try. I cracked open A’pieu’s Madecassoside Lip Sleeping Mask instead, and have not been able to put it down since. It really calmed the irritation, and after repeated use, the redness had completely gone and the cracking was beginning to heal. Incidentally, for my nose, I actually used A’pieu’s Madecassoside Cica balm, and this has helped cut down the irritation there too, and reduced the flakiness. 

But back to the lip sleeping mask, and I have to say that it’s really calming and soothing on the lips, I can feel it going in to the cracks and crevices, working its magic to the point where I am now basically addicted, and will take it everywhere with me, because of that instant relief it gives. It is genuinely an incredible product, that has solved a really big problem for me, and saved my lips! 

Ingredients 

But why did it save my lips though? Well, it’s got a lot to do with the ingredients of course - four different types of Centella Asiatica: Madecassoside, Asiaticoside, Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract and Centella Asiatica Leaf Water. 

Centella Asiatica (or Cica) itself is repairing and an anti-oxidant, but it's most popular for being quite calming and very soothing. Products containing any form of Centella Asiatica tend be really popular in Korea, as it’s aimed at those with sensitive skin, or those with a compromised skin barrier. It also goes by the name ‘Tiger Grass’, as legend has it, that tigers roll around in the actual plants to soothe their wounds - not sure how true that is, but if that doesn't intrigue you, then nothing will.

Also, the product has Vitamin E, which is repairing, and an anti-oxidant. There’s glycerine in there too, which moisturises and is a humectant, locking that moisture in. And on top of all that, it has ceramides too! We already have ceramides in our skin, and they help to maintain a healthy skin barrier and keep the skin hydrated. So as you can see, the ingredient list is pretty impressive, and makes it a bit of an all-rounder, suitable for pretty much anyone. 

It does also contain petroleum, which explains why the texture is so similar to vaseline, albeit far superior. What it doesn’t contain though is essential oils, or anything else knowingly irritating.

Anything else? 

You get a very generous 20 grams worth of product. The cruelty-free and vegan status of the product is not entirely clear. On the vegan front, A’pieu released a dedicated vegan line last year, which suggest that this might not be, but I can’t confirm that anywhere. As for cruelty-free, according to kbeauty.co.uk, A’pieu are the ‘socially conscious’ sister brand of Missha, and do not test on animals. 

There is one slight downside that I found to the product, and I do experience this with most lip sleeping masks, but when I actually use it as a lip sleeping mask, applying it at night just before bed, I always wake up to see that it’s disappeared, which is of course ironic.  

Where can I buy it from? 

A’pieu’s Madecassoside Lip Sleeping Mask is not quite so widely available in the UK, I’ve only been able to find it on Stylevana and eBay. The links below are affiliate links, and I will receive a small commission should you purchase through them - of course, if you do find somewhere else selling it in the UK, do let me know! 

You can get it at Stylevana* for £8.59 (delivery is £3.99, or free if you spend £39 or more) 

This eBay* listing is at £9.07 plus £3.50 postage, shipped directly from Korea. 

And yes, I will absolutely be buying this again!