If the dark January mornings mean you want more time in bed and less time hopping around the house in a towel, muttering about the heating not being on, or if your New Year's resolution was to streamline your beauty routine to a few wonder products, dual-use formulas are what our bathroom shelves are calling out for right now.
As more and more brands begin responding to their busy customers' desire for efficient, time-friendly and hardworking beauty products, we've spotted some cleanser-mask hybrids that take the time – and faff – out of your morning regime.
From pore-refining mud to brightening bubbles, these are the masks we're applying in the shower – because less time slathering on products means more time hibernating in bed. Click through to find our favourite multitasking face masks ahead.
Decléor's offering of aromatherapy and essential oils are perfect relaxing bath before bed, but this little mask is exactly the opposite. When you're hungover, tired, stressed or looking a bit worse-for-wear, 5 minutes with this formula on your face, and all manner of sins will be hidden.
While AHA fruit acids - grape, passion fruit, and pineapple - buff away dead, grey skin, elemi and saro essential oils hydrate and refine the surface. Get it on, glow up, and start the day right.
Decléor Life Radiance Flash Radiance Mask, £17.50, available at All Beauty
Launched in 1997, with a focus on reducing inflammation and anti-ageing, dermatologist-led brand, Perricone MD, is where brains meets beauty. This lightweight gel mask is activated by the shower's heat and steam to soften and smooth skin, while simultaneously protecting skin from the damaging effects of hot water.
Apply an even layer to clean skin in the shower, and rinse off as your last step for a refreshed, hydrated complexion.
Perricone MD Refreshing Shower Mask, £32, available at Perricone MD
This multipurpose paste switched up our morning routine as soon as it made an appearance in our bathroom. “It’s a paste because vitamin C is both sensitive to and active with water,” Lixir founder Colette Haydon explains. Massage onto dry skin, add a splash of water to activate, and leave while washing your hair and body.
“A lot of vitamin C products are leave-on, which I don’t think is good. It’s ascorbic acid, and no acid is good to leave on your skin.” This quick-but-powerful number is an antioxidant that evens out tone but also neutralises the grey in your skin. Ever wondered why your visage sometimes looks greyish? The sebum and dry protein on your skin oxidises, becoming dull. This morning miracle blasts away those cobwebs.
Lixir Skin Vitamin C Paste, £32, available at Lixir
Everyone knows someone who swears by Liz Earle's multi-award-winning Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. The brand's bestselling hero product is one of the most lauded in the UK, with good reason. It's suitable for all skin types, deeply cleanses accumulated daily grime, but has the ability to transport you to a spa with its accompanying cotton cloth and chamomile scent.
This one's super easy to transform into a daily mask thanks to its consistency – thick and rich, but not too heavy. Just slather over skin and remove once you've showered with the cloth soaked in hot water.
Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser, £16, available at Liz Earle
This is a truly innovative product, based on the South Korean bathhouse tradition of skin splashing, where botanical water is splashed onto the skin post-cleanser. There are several ways to use Blithe's offering. The first: Pour a capful of the mask over your face and use the shower's water to rinse, repeated several times. The second: Pour a capful into a bowl of warm water, stir, and splash a few times onto your face. You can even soak a cotton pad in the mask, and wipe around the skin before washing off.
Formulated with salicylic acid, tea tree leaf oil, and green tea extract, it's the glow-inducing boost your skin needs in the darkest months. You'll see results almost immediately, and it delivers both hydration and exfoliation in one.
Blithe Patting Splash Mask – Soothing & Healing Green Tea, £43, available at Cult Beauty
We're big fans of Gallinée, the brainchild of French pharmacist Marie Drago, and recently reported on the skincare benefits of the bacteria on which the range is based. From moderating inflammatory responses to age-prevention, the probiotics (from the lactic acid bacteria family) in Drago's skincare range are a must for sensitive skin.
This two-in-one product is a brilliant gentle scrub for winter, as the formula inherently protects sensitive skin (which we all have at this time of year). Use it twice a week, leaving the kaolin white clay and sea minerals to work their magic, then rub into the skin to feel the full benefits of the scrub.
Gallinée Face Mask & Scrub, £14.30, available at Gallinée
For those already loyal to Origins' fantastic masks, you'll know how they work wonders almost instantly. For those unfamiliar, firstly check out the brand's Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask and Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask, which are both bestsellers.
This one is perfect for the time-poor among us, as the formula is specifically designed to give maximum impact in just 10 minutes. Based on the fact that external factors – winter, for example – can cause fluid to run low in the skin, creating flakiness and sore tightening, this mask is like a big drink of water. Algae extracts aid skin in becoming more receptive to hydration, while apricot kernel oil brings the softness thanks to its emollient properties. Use once a week, or more if your skin is truly parched.
Origins 10-Minute Mask To Quench Skin's Thirst, £25, available at Origins
Our love for Aesop is down to the fact its beautiful packaging doesn't mean a compromise on fantastic formulas. The brand strikes a happy balance of natural ingredients and lab-backed technology, resulting in products that smell divine and really work.
This one is perfect for bi-weekly use (or even showers before nights out) thanks to its balancing effect on oily skin, and its glow-giving impact on dull visages. The purified clay tackles impurities and gives it a luxurious mask feel, the rosehip and parsley seed extracts feed your skin antioxidants, and the aloe vera makes sure it's not left dry. Result.
Aesop Parsley Seed Facial Cleansing Masque, £30, available at Cult Beauty
If you're unsure where to begin with South Korean beauty, this brand is a great introduction. Caolion focuses on pore products, from minimising to refining, and was one of the first brands in South Korea to banish colour, fragrance and alcohol from its range.
We love a bubble mask as much as the next beauty fanatic, but they can often feel gimmicky and useless. Not this one. Absorbing the impurities and dirt that get trapped in pores every day, the active charcoal and oxygen in this mask sweep away nasties to restore balance in your skin. Plus, there's no need to worry about the shower water washing away product – once it's on your face, the water activates the formula and you're encouraged to rub it in again.
Caolion Blackhead O2 Bubble Pore Pack, £24, available at Cult Beauty
Omorovicza has been an industry favourite since its launch in 2006. The Hungarian skincare brand began when Stephen de Heinrich de Omorovicza brought his wife to the Rácz spa, which his ancestors had built in the 1800s. After recognising the skincare benefits of the mineral-rich water, the couple enlisted a Nobel Prize-winning dermatology lab to collaborate on a line of products.
The brand's Moor Cream Cleanser is a rich, creamy and soothing antimicrobial and antiseptic formula, designed to combat the nasties of city life. The mineral-rich moor mud from Lake Héviz, Europe's largest thermal lake, cleanses skin while peppermint and eucalyptus oils brighten for a morning pep-start. Simply rub into damp skin, leave for five minutes, and wash off.
Omorovicza Moor Cream Cleanser, £49, available at Cult Beauty
"A pep rush for the skin," Clinique's bubble mask is another you can rely on to deliver the goods. Beginning as a gel, once applied to the face, it oxidises and transforms into a (tickly!) layer of bubbles. Collecting the surface-level oil, dirt, dead skin and general debris, the foam also improves skin's texture.
Use twice-weekly in the shower on dull or oily skin, and massage in the bubbles after about two minutes. Skin is super soft, much brighter and smoother, too. We like using this one before going out at the weekend due to its instant effects.
Clinique Pep-Start Double Bubble Purifying Mask, £24, available at Selfridges
We've been mighty impressed with Dior's skincare products of late, and this one-minute mask is no exception. With salicylic acid (BHA), citric acid (AHA), plus flower acids working to brighten and rejuvenate the skin's texture, this is perfect for a morning radiance-inducing pick-me-up.
Massage the product into the skin until it turns into a white cream, leave for one minute, and wash off. Remember to use it according to your skin – the more sensitive among us should limit acids to once a week or fortnight.
Dior Capture Totale DreamSkin 1-Minute Mask, £51.50, available at Selfridges
Want more like this?
Is It Time To Rethink The Acids In Our Skincare?
Refresh Your Skin For 2018 With One Of These Restorative Facials
Get To Know The Star Ingredient In All Your Favourite Products
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
This Skin-Brightening Exfoliator Is Just As Magical As It Looks