Raise your hand if you have searched the internet for quick and easy natural face masks with ingredients from your kitchen and then decided against trying anything you found because it took too much time. Similar to cooking or baking, most of the “recipes” I found included measuring out teaspoons and tablespoons of various ingredients which for me was just too much. I’m busy, I have things to do, and I have to save my energy for making recipes to cook food I can eat so that I don’t starve.
Here is a life-hack on how to eat healthy and quickly and easily get the benefit of temporarily rubbing natural food with antioxidants on your skin as well:
Eat a piece of fruit
Spread the peel or the remaining part of the fruit on your face
Wash off soon after
I started doing this with a papaya (see #1) because some of my favorite skin care brands boasted about the papaya enzymes in their products. I thought to myself, “I’m eating a papaya, can’t I just smear this on my face and get some of the benefits of the papaya on my skin?” So after I finished eating I took the inside of the papaya by the skin and rubbed it all over my face and washed it off after about 30 seconds. I felt that the results were significant, although seemingly temporary.
My skin looked tighter and clearer immediately after washing off the face mask! To be fair this only lasted until my face got oilier as the day wore on but isn’t a big part of healthy-looking skin maintenance? I’m hoping to prevent aging as best I can by frequently doing a little to add moisture and nutrients. I tell myself it is worth the dedication.
For example, if I was dedicated at the age of 14 to maintaining my facial skin health I would be in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, I didn’t start really working on skin maintenance until about 10 years later. I’m not commenting on how successful I have been in preventing my skin from aging but I strive to keep my skin looking like it is today and hopefully prevent aging tomorrow.
1. Papaya Face Mask
Cut open the papaya length-wise and scoop out the seeds. Scoop out and eat the papaya meat. Rub the remaining papaya attached to the skin of the fruit on your face. Leave on up to a minute and wash off.
2. Strawberry Face Mask
Bite off the juicy part of the strawberry from the stem. There should be a little bit of the strawberry remaining on the stem, rub this part of the inside of the strawberry all over your face. Leave on up to a minute and wash off.
Quick note: I try to eat a fruit first thing in the morning so this mask is great as an easy morning pre-breakfast snack and face mask. Rubbing the strawberry helps to wake up and rejuvenate my skin and my skin looks tighter and clearer after washing the mask off.
3. Banana Peel Face mask
After you peel and eat a banana, rub the inside of the banana peel all over your face. Leave on up to a minute and wash off.
Quick note: This banana peel face mask is great for calming your skin and helping it feel better from irritants.
4. & 5. Avocado and Lemon (feel free to try each separately)
Don’t have the money to spend upwards of +$80 on 15% concentration vitamin C serum? Well here is an awesome natural beauty hack, lemons are loaded with vitamin C!
My personal favorite snack and face mask is an avocado (4) and lemon (5) together. I also frequently put these face masks on separately if a recipe calls for an avocado or a lemon and not the other.
Cut open the avocado length-wise and use a knife to chop the avocado inside the skin. Then cut a lemon in half and squeeze fresh lemon juice on the avocado meat and eat the avocado with the lemon dressing (yummy!).
Take the skin of the avocado with the remaining avocado and rub on your face. Then take the lemon half you squeezed on the avocado and rub on your face (warning: you may skip rubbing the lemon on your face if you have sensitive skin). Leave on up to a minute and wash off.
Quick note: I have read about the benefits of skincare products with vitamin c on your face (1) and heard that eating vitamin c regularly helps with strengthening connective tissue (see episode 7 - protect your cells with vitamin c). With that in mind I started rubbing lemon on my face to obtain the nutritious benefits of a lemon’s high potency of vitamin c. I feel that this is comparable to buying skincare products with vitamin c in them.
References
1) Velasco, P. (2020, July 01). If You're Still Suffering from Acne Scarring, Vitamin C Serum Might Help. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/beauty/anti-aging/g26840895/best-vitamin-c-serums/.
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