I Tried One of the Scariest Facial Masks Ever, and This Is What Happened

Some beauty products grab the attention of the world because of their innovation. They combine functions in a new way, like BB creams, or they fill a gap we didn’t know we needed, like the Beautyblender. Other products and tools grab our attention for another reason — because they are quite simply nightmares.

Such is the case with the Rejuvenique Electric Facial Mask, which found infomercial notoriety when it debuted in 1999. Aside from the ridiculous concept that the shocks delivered by the Rejuvenique somehow “exercise” your face and reduce wrinkles, the mask itself looks like something straight out of Friday the 13th. The combination of the two (and the visceral creepiness of watching blinking eyes peer out from the plastic mask) sent the infomercial viral.

Since the Halloween season is rapidly approaching and the time of walking with nightmares is upon us, I decided to face my fears and actually try the Rejuvenique. That’s right, it’s still totally available on Amazon, where everyone seems just as creeped out by it today.

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Some of the reviews, include:

“By the time I got halfway through my treatment (the machine passes twice down one side of [the] face, then the other), my cat was seriously spooked by the mask and was howling and trying to get me to take it off, so I did.”

“When grandma came over to visit, our kids were having a facial revitalizing toning session. Grandma was rushed to emergency for heart arrhythmia after she walked in the door. I am afraid this product is just too scary for use outside the privacy of your panic room or basement.”

“I tried this mask before. As I was using it, I started to feel drowsy. I started to feel “controlled,” as if some demon was possessing me. After 2 minutes, I don’t know what happened, I woke up in a corn field in my underpants and covered in blood. I do not recommend this product.”

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Beyond the obviously tongue-in-cheek reviews, not many people seemed to think this product worked well, and more than a few people said it was painful to use (”feels like ants biting your face”). And apparently Rejuvenique’s inventor, George E. Springer, never bothered to get the thing FDA-approved. But I had made a commitment that I was going to try this potentially harmful, terrifying facial mask.

I figured if Linda Evans can survive it, so can I.

Since I had to suffer, I decided to put the mask on and lie in bed next to my fiancé until he opened his eyes. He surprisingly didn’t seem too scared, but he did say the mask was “unnerving.”

Behold: the Rejuvenique Electric Facial Mask. (Photo: Emily McCombs)

Maybe even creepier than wearing the mask was the way it looked in the package — it was like having a detached face just hanging out on my coffee table. The mask came with a control unit and an “enriched toning gel,” which was intended to work as a conductor between the skin and the metal “facial contact points” inside the mask. Also included was an instruction booklet featuring a vacant-looking Evans holding up the flesh-colored mask and a VHS tape, which I sadly could not play.

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Before working up the courage to actually try the mask, I took it outside for a quick photo session and nearly gave my mailman a heart attack when he came around the corner to deliver mail for my building.

True story: This is the scariest facial mask ever. (Photos: Emily McCombs)

Once I got upstairs, I followed the instruction booklet and spread a pea-size amount of gel onto each of the “gold-plated facial cushions” and then read like three pages of instructions to explain how to position the mask on my face and turn on the pulsation. It was taking so long that I started to feel sort of claustrophobic, like I was trapped in the mask. Finally, I was ready to turn the pulsation control to the “on” position. Then I took a deep breath, braced myself, and hit the Start button.

And nothing happened. The battery didn’t work. I had to go downstairs, buy a new battery, and try the whole thing all over again. (This beauty tool takes a 9-volt, by the way.)

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This time, the battery works. I feel nothing at first, then a light, warm tingling sensation as the mask goes through and pulses on different areas of the face. The mask runs through the cycle four times, which takes about 15 minutes.

At one point, I turned up the pulsation a little just to make sure the mask was actually working, and it felt like it sort of grabbed my face and started tapping it.

When I took the mask off, I had some circular red marks on my forehead, which the instruction booklet calls “dimpling.” As promised, they faded away in a few minutes. Other than that, my skin looked the same.

The booklet recommends I start using the Rejuvenique four times a week, but even if it were FDA-approved, wearing the heavy mask on my face legitimately made me feel kind of anxious, so it seems like a recipe for a panic attack.

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The Rejuvenique is supposed to be like “exercise for your face,” but I think I’m going to pass. I am, however, totally saving this thing to scare kids in my building this Halloween.

Have a beauty story you’d like to share with us? Email YStyleBeauty@yahoo.com.