Cannabis has never been more on-trend. You’ve seen the $300 Alexander Wang faux crocodile-skin lighter cases (accented with pavé roach clips, because haute couture), and you’ve heard about the underground cannabis dinners with hundreds-per-plate price tags. You even know that cannabis is shaking up the beauty world. But did you know that one makeup company is offering high-end rolling papers that are also billed as face-blotting sheets?
Available from Milk Makeup, these Roll + Blot sheets come in a portable pack of 100 unbleached hemp papers, priced at $10 total. While the papes fall below the price point of more ostentatious luxury papers, such as the 24-karat gold ones made by Shine, they’re still about three to ten times as expensive as a good or a cheap pack of standard papers, respectively. Some standard packs do contain fewer than 100 sheets, but then again, you’ll also frequently receive those packs for free, whether included with another product or thrown in by a budtender with a purchase.
All things considered, the average cannabis consumer generally doesn’t end up paying much attention to rolling papers—they’re often a couple-dollar afterthought at the cash register. Milk Makeup’s papers, on the other hand, are backed by sexy, colorful marketing to match the price tag: Images of multicolored millennials lend panache to their equally lively product line of bright highlighters, bold lip tints, a psychedelic cannabis-leaf mirror, and these rolling papers.
Product Test: Roll + Blot
We rounded up several experienced joint rollers to test the efficacy of the Roll + Blot papers. Many of them initially recoiled at the idea of smoking an oily paper (Milk’s website doesn’t make particularly clear that the papers are meant to be used either for rolling or for blotting, and not necessarily for both at once), but once we explained the confusion away, people were intrigued and eager to try the product.
After sending our testers home to roll a few up, we were surprised by the wide range of feedback we received in return. Some people loved them, some hated them, and some were completely indifferent. Here’s what we heard.
The Good
“You could tell immediately that the papers were of a higher than ordinary quality. They burned smooth and even with a slight added flavor profile reminiscent of pure hemp papers. When used as a facial tissue, it certainly made my face cleaner than before I used it. However, products designed to just clean your face are likely to do a better job.” —Mikey
“From a face-blotting point of view, they work just fine for soaking up excess facial oil. Also, I smoked a joint rolled with these papers and was unaware that it was anything fancy, so props for that.” —Lisa, associate editor
The Bad
“They’re so absorbent that I’d be scared to roll with particularly sweaty hands without ripping.” —Ben, editor
“I hhhaaaaated them. Lol. I spent literally 20 minutes trying to roll a J with those—gave up—got ‘normal’ rolling papers and rolled a J in 3 minutes. [The Milk papers] aren’t sturdy enough.” —Kelly, mobile application developer
The Indifferent
“I found them absolutely serviceable. They felt a little fragile, like they might be more likely to rip when rolling, but smoked fine, didn’t run or anything. They smoked better than a typical cigarette paper … a bit more ash left over after burning than a thin hemp paper (like Raw), but not as bad as plenty of papers I’ve used.” —Ben, editor
“They smoke well. Not a bad paper, but also nothing that stood out to make it an exceptional paper from the smoking perspective. Didn’t add anything to my experience and I definitely wouldn’t pay more money for them.” —Will, subject matter expert
“I used a joint roller, and I hardly remember the difference. They worked. I dunno.” —Gage, staff writer
“As face blotter the papers worked fine. The sheets sopped up the greasy sheen that forms atop my bald, glistening dome with ease, giving my complexion a youthful matte finish. These blotting papers functioned no better, but also no worse than standard thin rolling papers. The paper didn’t have too strong of a flavor, but it was mildly noticeable by comparison to quality hemp papers. I didn’t manage to dab my face with a joint thought. May next time.” —Jeremiah, subject matter expert
After hearing feedback about how cleanly the papers burned, we confirmed the reports by burning three plain papers side by side: a high-quality hemp paper, a Milk paper, and a low-quality paper. The low-quality paper produced the most ash and residue by far, while the high-quality hemp paper burned with virtually no ashy residue, and the Milk paper burned nearly as cleanly as the high-quality paper.
During the research process, we also heard one creative soul say he’s used standard rolling papers as face-blotting sheets many times in the past, and they worked just fine. To find a baseline as far as papers’ blotting properties in general, we also tried some standard hemp papers to blot our faces. Sure enough—they may not be perfect, but they get the job done.
Our Takeaways
Should you spend $10 on Milk Makeup’s Roll + Blot papers? Most of our testers voted no, but the answer also depends on what you value in a paper. By general consensus, Milk’s papers did work fine for rolling. They felt flimsy but didn’t rip, and they burned smoothly with minimal ashy residue.
The reviews on Milk’s Roll + Blot product page average out to a similar conclusion. With several five-star raves, a similar number of one-star rants, and multiple middle-of-the-road ratings, the papers hover at an overall three stars.
If you have a drawer full of rolling papers already, there’s probably no reason to add these to your repertoire—instead, try the hack of using your existing papers to blot your face. That said, if you’re going to buy dedicated blotting papers and rolling papers anyway (market prices for plain blotting papers generally fall anywhere from $1 to $20), these aren’t exorbitant. And given that the pack contains 100 papers, their price point really isn’t that much worse than popular hemp-based brands of papers sold at $3 for a pack of 30-some. Our overall conclusion? Milk’s paper’s certainly aren’t necessary, but if price point is a non-issue or if you like trying new things, this combo product is at least worth a shot.
