I’ve photographed this clay face mask “warts ‘n all” – it’s a black, messy little number in the most pristine, glamorous-looking pot. Packaging-wise, it’s the equivalent of letting your labrador run through a swamp before settling down on your white leather Ligne Roset couch. Though the Glamglow pot can easily be wiped clean, I suppose, whereas the couch would require some serious steam-cleaning. Or whatever you do with a couch. I do not own a labrador or a white couch – but I do have a handmade white leather bedstead that the cat enjoys using as a scratch-post, so I can sympathise.

How did I manage to digress quite so far? Back to beauty. The messy little Super-Mud Clearing Treatment: it’s fab. If you like the original then I’d hazard a guess that you’ll like this even better. It’s really very thorough at clearing out the pores and leaving the skin feeling clearer, brighter and more toned. It feels more refined than the original GlamGlow, but also more powerful. The original contains the following: Volcanic Rock, Volcanic Mineral Ash, French Sea Clay, Purified Clay, Real Pieces of Green Tea Leaf, Green Tea Seed Oil, Grape Seed, Chamomile Flower, Marigold Flower, Cucumber, Ivy, Herb Leaf and Lavender Oil, whereas the new, Super-Mud treatment contains a cocktail of different acids to exfoliate and refine the skin’s texture. Glycolic Acid, Lactic Acid, Salicylic, Mandelic, Azelaic and Pyruvic. Whoo!

So, which one to go for? I’d say that without a doubt I prefer the Super-Mud mask (in the white pot) because I feel as though I get a double hit: cleansing from the mud and exfoliating from the acids. It’s a real vacuuming for the pores and I’ve been using it once every two or three weeks. I tend to use it on a night when I’m not using a bedtime glycolic treatment, just because I’m wary of overdoing things and stressing my skin out. If you’re happy with your current exfoliation routine then this could be a nice mask to slip in as an occasional treat for when you want to supersize things a little – but don’t take too long to use it up as I have found that it can dry up after a few months! (That was the original version, so maybe this one fares better.)

I’d say that this would be best suited to combination/oily skin because of its supreme pore-tackling abilities, but I have had reports from drier-skinned acquaintances who have found it to be brilliant for simply brightening and tightening the skin. Avoid, perhaps, if you have delicate or sensitive skin  – and please tread carefully if you are already using lots of exfoliants! This mask has been targeted at acne-prone, blemished skin, but I would say that this is correct as part of a full anti-blemish routine – a non-stripping, effective cleanser, a light moisturiser and some kind of chemical exfoliant  to keep the pores clean and the skin calm and unstressed. You couldn’t just apply a mask once in a while and expect it to answer your prayers!

Both Glamglow and Super-Mud cost £39.99 from LookFantastic – you can also see the full ingredients lists for both products on their respective pages.