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Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:23 pm  |
Earlier today (or was it yesterday?) I was asked on the Skin Care Forum to shed some light on my frequent (3 to 5 times a week) DIY facials and what that involved.
Nothing difficult or expensive about it, but you HAVE to like plain full fat yoghurt (certainly the smell of it), which I use as the base for all my facials. I first heard about this on the Skin Actives Board.
Why yoghurt? Yoghurt is rich in milk protein, several B vitamins, essential minerals such as calcium (remember Jane Fonda plugging a Pro-Calcium cream?), lactobacillus cultures and lactic acid (an AHA) - stuff that skincare companies stick in their creams and sell to consumers for whatever price the market will bear. It contains as much fat as the milk it is made from. Oh, and all the better if your yoghurt is NON-pasteurised and the lactobacillus culture is still alive and "wriggling" - you get the added bonus of enzymatic actions on your skin.
On its own, it is naturally pH-balanced (my creamy yoghurt has a pH reading of about 4 - human skin pH varies between 4 to about 5.5). Yoghurt is also the perfect consistency for a face mask.
In short, it will feed your skin with more nutrients than you will find in the "average" face cream, give you a light peel, and appears to have a temporary lightening effect in some people (myself included). AND IT IS CHEAP!
I cycle through the following yoghurt mask variations in a week:
1) Everybody's favourite yoghurt aspirin mask - this is equivalent to a moisturing nutritional AHA/BHA mask - 4 X 300mg crushed water dispersible aspirins dissolved in one teaspoon yoghurt. Leave on for at least 30 minutes. You will love how your skin feels after you wash it off.
2) Yoghurt Vitamin C (L-Ascorbic Acid) mask - mix 1/4 tsp L-Ascorbic Acid powder with 1 teaspoon yoghurt - this is more acidic than Option 1 above and is likely to sting most people - dial back on the Vitamin C powder if it feels too acidic for you.
3) Yoghurt Anti-Oxidant mask - there are many many variations of this - you are only limited by the number of water-soluble active ingredients that you have and are able to successfully dissolve in one teaspoon of yoghurt and your imagination. I tend to use beta glucan, grapeseed proanthocynadins, jiaogulan extract, DMAE, amla extract, acai. You may choose to pre-dissolve the active powders in a little glycerin before mixing it with the yoghurt for a smoother non-lumpy mask. As to proportions, really, with one teaspoon yoghurt, it's no more than a pinch of this and that.
4) Other possible add-ins: pearl powder, fruit enzymes, sea kelp, etc. etc. etc.
5) I am also aware that many many variations of DIY yoghurt masks exist on EDS currently, so please do a search on that as well.
And just before you kick back and lie down for 30 minutes to an hour (in the bath or in bed or on the couch), remember to pour yourself a glass of wine and lock up your cat/dog/DH so they won't be tempted to eat your mask off your face.
P.S. if you are like some people who like their masks to set like cement on their faces so it has a psuedo-tightening effect, just add corn starch to the mix. You may have to take it off with a chisel later (no, just jump in the shower). |
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