Now, I enjoy trying out new beauty products as it is, like most of us trying to find those wonder products that could have been designed with us and only us in mind and enjoying treating myself trying to track them down in the process. However, as I've already alluded to in my "5 Reasons I Think I'm Strange" write-up, I don't necessarily do feminism any favours and am even keener to try to look and feel my best when there's a romantic interest in my life - and, by some amazingly unexpected twist of fate, some poor, unsuspecting male has recently wandered into my life and, be it through bad luck or bad judgement, decided he thinks I'm rather nice. I'm sure he'll soon come to his senses but in the meantime it gives me even more incentive to pamper myself and indulge in even more cosmetic products to try to extend the shelf-life of his current deluded state, as I really quite like him.

So it was that I found myself deviating from a simple grocery shop to the beauty section of the local supermarket and perusing the selection of the popular Montagne Jeunesse face masks. I have used these and other face masks before on an irregular basis if I really fancied a treat, but have never managed to factor them into my skin care regime regularly. But, I was feeling indulgent and wanted something that would give my skin a fully moisturising, healthy treatment.

***THE PRODUCT***
Any female who regularly uses face masks will probably know of this range; they have bold, playful and eyecatching packaging featuring happy, smiley women using their products (and indeed men for their male range). The text is in English as well as translated form on both the front and back.

As I said, I was after moisture in my skin treat but I got even luckier than that when I saw Very Berry - this one is "ultra moisturising and cleansing", so we are told. Brilliant!

The package features another smiling female, this time with a pinky-lilac coloured treatment on her face and blueberries and leaves superimposed over her eyes. These, should you desire to walk into things and stick foliage on your face, would have to be bought separately!

The mixture is blueberry and cranberry, two of my favourites to eat although, as the packaging playfully reminds us on the reverse, you really are NOT meant to eat this, however nice it smells and looks!

To use, you cleanse, apply, kick back for 10-15 minutes and then rinse.

***THE PRODUCER***
You can find more about Montagne Jenuesse at their website here: www.montagnejeunesse.com. They have started to offer online shopping so indulging in your favourite treats is even easier. Their most common way of producing face masks is in individual treatment packages which retail at roughly £1 each with some degree of variation depending on where you shop - I've frequently seen these on offer in discount stores although sometimes with a reduced range. A sachet of this treatment is £1.09 on their website.

I'm going to take this point to give the company a thorough slap on the back for their ethical stance: on the sachet we are told the following:

"We are vegetarian and animals are our friends - that's why we don't bash bunnies or add bits of animals!"

In short, their products are backed by BUAV and Peta as well as being vegetarian standard. So you can indulge in these knowing that you are not in any way ethically compromised and they even suit the more hardcore vegetarians out there!

If you have time then take a look at the "About Us" section of their website for more information on their environmental and ethical efforts.

***MY EXPERIENCE***
Right, let's crack on. So, with a day off and the house to myself, I decided to finally indulge in this little treat. I washed my face, towel dried and applied.

On peeling back the perforated rip-open (which split down the packet but as I was already in the back any spillage wouldn't have ruined my day!) I was greated by a vibrant, fruity scent and a bright pink sachet of what can only be described as goo - which is what I was expecting, so, good! The consistency was such that when the package split it did not run out, and when squeezed out of the opening in the sachet it was pliable and easy to smooth on to my skin.

I often find with the mud masks that there is too much in a sachet but as this is not a drying formula I found that I could slap on the whole lot before chilling with a book. Upon application I felt a bit of a tingle but that soon stopped and my skin felt comfortable and warmed slightly by having a layer of this smothered on it, although it is not advertised as a warming mask as such. Common sense dictates that, if you are going to slap a layer of gloop on your skin, it might get a bit warm after ten minutes, surely?!

Anyway, I enjoyed my fifteen minutes of chilling out and this product had not started to dry in the process so my skin didn't feel in any way tight. This formula was a bit "plasticy" to wash off, in the sense that it doesn't dissolve when you apply water so you have to make sure you do the job properly and I'm afraid that yes, it does also mean you'll have to clean the bath! But is it worth that effort?

In short, yes. I can still lightly smell the berry scent as I type this and that is about two hours after using the mask. I applied my usual moisturizer and foundation after use and I have to say that my skin feels plump, smooth and happy. For £1.09 this is not going to be a miracle cure that removes all your fine lines and turns you into an air brushed hypermodel in ten minutes but for me it does what it had to and what it claimed to - it cleansed, it moisturized and it was an indulgent treat that makes me look a bit better and therefore feel indulged and happy. It's fruity, fun, affordable and there was no bunny bashing involved whatsoever.

Now they just need to invent one that will ensure certain Nice Young Men never come to their senses and realize they could probably do better!

Thanks for reading. This review may also appear on Ciao under the same name.