DIY Facemask

As part of my facial mask series I give you a home made, 100% vegan and gluten free recipe for making your own facemask at home.  I spent some time researching ingredients to create this mask with the intent to find something to be a jack-of-all-trades kind of mask.  I wanted to include brightening, exfloating, anti-oxidant containing, and renewing ingredients.  Here’s what I came up with:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup avocado

1 tbsp hibiscus petals crushed

1 tbsp green tea leaves (save your tea bag from the tea that you drink and just cut it open)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp lemon balm leaves crushed

Avocado – a great base for carrying all of these other ingredients.  But don’t count it out!  It also offers lots of vitamin A, balanced moisture, antiseptic properties, and glutamine to protect from environmental damage.

Hibiscus – full of antioxidants equal to that of cranberry, bilberry and red wine.  Also high in vitamin C which is great for skin turnover and general appearance.  Known as ‘the botox plant’, it also has high levels of alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA) which are well known to help with cell turnover, exfoliation, control acne, and increase flexibility and elasticity of the skin.  It works just like the chemical AHAs that you could get in a chemical peel at a doctor’s office, but because the concentration is considerably less you won’t have to worry about the damaging effects.  It could potentially make you more sensitive to the sun, but that won’t be a problem because you always wear sunscreen, right? 🙂

Green Tea – Tons and tons of anti-oxidants, lots of protective qualities to save your skin from getting dull due to pollution, reduces redness and rosacia, fights wrinkles, need I say more?

Sugar – a great natural exfoliant because it doesn’t tear at the skin the way a salt scrub does.  

Lemon Balm – has lots of calming properties, antiseptic properties and are used commonly in aromatherapy to promote relaxation and decrease anxiety.

I put all of the ingredients except the sugar together in a small blender (I use a magic bullet) and blend it until it’s smooth.  Then I stir in the sugar and take a small amount and rub it on to my face in small circles. I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then wash it off.  I store the rest of it in the fridge and have been using it twice a week. I like when the home made recipes turn out to be a favourite!