So tonight, my daughter, Morgan, and I focused on our weekly routine of natural facial skin care. Each Sunday night we are going to do a natural facial scrub and mask.
Now, if you remember, Morgan and I both have pretty good skin and we tend to be normal to dry skin types. If you have a very dry, oily or acneic skin type, your skin care will be a bit different. For us, our weekly facial skin care routine consists of:
- Cleansing the face without toner
- A face scrub
- A Mask and
- Moisturizer
Why a scrub and a mask? The scrub helps to exfoliate the skin, getting rid of dead skin cells and preparing your skin for the mask which and the mask helps to draw out impurities and deeply nourishes the skin.
Now to the fun part.
Tonight we used recipes for the Lemon Sugar Face Scrub and the Strawberry Yogurt Face Mask which I found on Natural Beauty Community. That site has a TON of recipes and tips for natural skin care. I highly recommend you check it out.
Our experience! Let me tell you our experience and give you a few tips and then leave you with the recipes at the bottom to try. The Lemon Sugar Face Scrub suggested that it be applied to a damp face, so we made sure we had the recipe ready before we cleansed our faces. When you make the recipe, make sure that you make it thick enough, by adding more sugar, or the scrub will fall off your face and into your mouth which, trust me, the tastes bitter. Within a few seconds, you can begin to feel the sensation of the lemon juice, that is normal. We smoothed it on and Morgan said that we looked like we fell head first into a gravel pit. (No I will not share those pictures with you, haha). After two minutes, we scrubbed gently in a circular motion and then rinsed with warm water. Boy was our skin really feeling fresh. Now we were ready for the Strawberry Yogurt Mask which was an experience in itself. After smoothing the mixture completely on our faces we looked like "we were in the middle of a food fight at a kindergartener's birthday party," according to Morgan. Then, she of course did not want anything to go to waste, so she ate the leftover mask. Now, a warning must be inserted here. You need to leave the mask on for 20 minutes. For me, the mask began to really get uncomfortable and sting a little, bur for Morgan, she was fine. Also, as the mask begins to harden and you look into the mirror, don't be alarmed. The red/pink color that you see on your face will not be permanent. We were VERY worried as our was almost hardened, but once we rinsed it off we were ok.
The Results! I was amazed. When we were finished, my face felt so smooth and soft and actually felt very tight. And this was before putting on any moisturizer. Morgan said that her skin great and that she would do it again, that is after she was convinced that she was not going to have to class and work looking a little pink. These were two recipes that we will definitely try again and I hope that you will give them a try. You probably already have all the ingredients on hand. Thanks for sharing in our first every natural facial scrub and mask experience and hope you join us again as we continue on the quest to find more natural skin care products.
The Recipes!
Lemon Sugar Face Scrub is as follows
Ingredients:
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon (about 1.5 Tbl.)
2 Tbs sea salt
add sugar until thick but not dry (we used our Raw Sugar)
Instructions: Apply to damp face and let sit 2-3 minutes. Scrub gently using circular motions. Rinse well with warm water. (Leaves skin smooth and soft, and the lemon helps to "brighten" complexion.)
Strawberry Yogurt Face Mask is as follows
Ingredients:
1/2 c strawberries
1 tbs of yogurt or sour cream (we used yogurt)
Instructions: Mash strawberries and add yogurt. I pureed our strawberries in our blender until it was pretty mushy. Mix the two until smooth. Smooth the mixture over the skin and let sit for 20 minutes. Rinse off with cool water. Leaves skin smooth and tight. Great for acne.
