Turn your home into spa with these recipes for DIY face masks to moisturise and pamper your skin. Put the self in self-care by knowing where each ingredient came from — your pantry, selected by the person who knows your skin best, YOU.
Taking the time to make your own skincare treatments is a way of pausing the frantic tempo of modern life. It is an act of creation that spares an experience far more personal and sensual than just unscrewing the lid of a prefab potion. Creativity has no judgment, and it can transform into anything. The state of flow takes over as you become the alchemist of your own beauty — connecting with the ingredients through sight, touch, smell, and taste. Personal inquiries and experiments with scents and textures, adding new facets that speak to what you need — more often than not — a cathartic silence and stillness.
Use the recipes below as a way to sensually indulge your skin, using ingredients that you often have on hand. There is no right or wrong way to use these recipes. Beauty is a pathless land. Your journey is the only arrival. Doing so is a personal encounter, and at the heart of these beauty rituals is philosophy of allow. Allow our intuition the space to breath, evolve and lead us to our true north. Create some time for you; maybe get messy and definitely enjoy.
IMPORTANT. Generally, the recipes are very safe, for only edible ingredients are used, but use caution if you have allergies or easily upset skin. If there’s anything that you think you might be allergic to, it’s a good idea to test it on the inside of your arm. You can apply the essential oil or ingredient to the skin (wash it off after 5-10 minutes) and wait twenty-four hours to see if any irritation occurs.
Freshly prepared ingredients exposed to air will become a breeding place for bacteria which could irritate the skin. To be on the safe side use your creation promptly; refrigerate in airtight container if needed, but apply on the same day you made it.
Add-ons
Clays, these multitasking mineral-rich mud masks have adorned skin since ancient eras. While each type of clay has unique properties, they all magnetic magic that detoxifies micro particles from every pore. Add half a teaspoon with a little bit of water to any of the recipes to capitalise on impurity-absorbing properties of the clay.
Essential oils, these molecular metabolites, extracted from cells within the plant's epidermis, are exceptional for stimulating skincare as they work symbiotically with our cells and body's ecology. Highly concentrated in their nature, they make perfectly potent and targeted treatment for your skin. Use with care and no more than a drop per mask.
Try Vetiver as a superb moisturiser that helps skin maintain youthful plumpness while soothing tied tissues and balancing sebum production.
Geranium as it gives skin a gorgeous natural glow by stimulating blood circulation and assisting the release of toxins, drives moisture into dehydrated skin, and brings balance to the sebum production of the acne-prone type.
Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis) also known as Roman chamomile, is a calming caress to sooth unruly skin conditions like inflammation, acne and blemishes. Its sweet, honey-hay-floral scent offers powerful sedation to help soften and pacify mind as you inhale the aroma.
Sea salt is ideal alkaline supporter for our skin, as our bodies contain the same concentration of minerals as sea water. Sea salt is abundant in minerals that are essential to intracellular communication, transmission that takes place within the cell. A little goes a long way, add a pinch to your mask creation.
1. Hydrate & Nourish - face mask to balance dry skin
¼ ripe avocado
¼ ripe banana
1 teaspoon raw honey
1 teaspoon natural plain yogurt
Skin type: dry and mature skin types
This face mask is creamy and sensuous honeymoon trip for your skin, full of beneficial fats and moisture which is the best way to balance dry skin.
How to: Using the back of the spoon mash the avocado and banana. Add the honey and yogurt. Mix all of the ingredients together into a smooth paste. Wash your face and pat it dry, then apply the mask onto your face and neck and leave on for 15-20 min before rinsing off with warm water.
2. Sooth & Calm – face mask for easily upset and sensitive skin
1 teaspoon grind oats, or oat flour
1 teaspoon raw honey
1 teaspoon natural plain yogurt
Skin type: sensitive skin type
Oats are indispensable when it comes to calming and soothing skin. Boosted with yogurt's zinc as an anti-inflammatory agent and lactic acid as a mild exfoliant, this face mask helps lift away lacklustre surface cells to revile much younger ones and brighten without irritation. And thanks to moisture magnet and tissue regenerator, honey, skin feels and looks plum and pillowy.
How to: Grind the oats in a coffee grinder and transfer it to a bowl. Add the honey and yogurt and stir until combined to form a paste. Wash your face and pat it dry, then brush the mask onto your face and neck. Leave on for 15-20 minutes, then rinse off with lukewarm water.
CAN'T BE ASKED?
Try our Chamomile Tea Soothing Face Masque
A lightweight, soothing blend of nourishing botanicals and mild ivory clay that delivers replenishing nutriments while balancing and calming easily upset skin. Activate by adding water or 1 tsp of natural plain yogurt.
3. Fight Acne & blemishes – face mask for oily skin
2-3 whole nutmeg pods, or 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon fresh finely grated, or dry powdered turmeric
1 teaspoon raw manuka honey
1 egg white
Skin type: oily and acne-prone skin types
Honey as an excellent humectant, helps skin retain moisture without feeling oily. Herculean wound healer as it is, paired with medicinal qualities of nutmeg, honey is a remarkable antiseptic and antiviral agent to help heal acne and reduce scarring. All while turmeric targets acne-related redness and egg white's astringent properties tighten the skin, and helps enlarged pores look less obvious.
How to: Grind the nutmeg in a coffee grinder and transfer it to a bowl. Add the turmeric, honey and egg white and stir until combined to form a paste. Wash your face and pat it dry, then apply the mask all over or just to problem areas like T-zone. You may get some tingling but that means the mask is being activated. Leave on for 15-20 minutes, then rinse off with cool water.
IMPORTANT. You may want to use gloves for grating turmeric as it will temporarily colour your hands bright yellow. Usual hand washing and showering will resolve that in a day. For the same reason avoid using turmeric directly onto the skin — buffer from other ingredients in the mask will work as a barrier to prevent skin's coloration.
4. Glow – face mask to improve uneven skin texture and tone
¼ ripe banana
1 teaspoon fresh finely grated, or dry powdered turmeric
1 teaspoon raw honey
1 teaspoon natural plain yogurt
Skin type: all skin types
Like one huge glow in a bowl. This delicious (oh, mama, and the smell!) mask will deliver your skin a shot of antioxidants with the honey and turmeric. Mix it up and paint it on with a face brush for the ultimate at-home spa treatment.
How to: Using the back of the spoon mash the banana. Add the turmeric, honey and yogurt. Mix all of the ingredients together into a smooth paste. Wash your face and pat it dry, then apply the mask onto your face and neck and leave on for 20 min before rinsing off with warm water.
CAN'T BE ASKED?
Try our Vanilla Orris Matcha Brightening Masque
As one of the most potently rich superfoods in the world, matcha provides antioxidants 17 times that of blueberries and 60 times that of spinach. Paired with highly hydrating rose petals and orris root, this masque will leave your skin supple and deeply nourished. Activate by adding water or 1 tsp of natural plain yogurt.
5. Face Mask To Target Hyper Pigmentation
¼ ripe papaya
1 teaspoon fresh finely grated or dry powdered turmeric
1 teaspoon raw honey
a little squeeze of lemon juice
a little water if needed
Skin type: all skin types, though use caution if your skin is sensitive. Natural acids and enzymes of papaya are safer than chemically synthesised ones, but they can still cause irritation.
Turmeric as an ingredient has been clinically proven to address hyper pigmentation and reduce skin irritation over the course of at least 4 weeks. Perfect if sun-worshipping is your gig. Plus papaya’s acids act as gentle exfoliants that help clear away dead skin.
How to: Using the back of the spoon mash the papaya. Add the turmeric, honey and lemon juice, pouring extra water a little bit at a time if needed, and stir until combined to form a paste. Wash your face and pat it dry, then apply the mask onto your face leaving for 15 minutes before rinsing off with warm water. Repeat twice weekly for at least five weeks to see results.
IMPORTANT. You may want to use gloves for gratin g turmeric as it will temporarily colour your hands bright yellow. Usual hand washing and showering will resolve that in a day. For the same reason avoid using turmeric directly onto the skin — buffer from other ingredients in the mask will work as a barrier to prevent skin's coloration.
“Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work
lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.”
Plutarch