1/19/10

Farmgirl Beauty Secret #61: Customize your masks with herbal/vegetable supplements.

For those who have read my blog from the very beginning, you may be familiar with Farmgirl Beauty Secret #12: plain yogurt as a daily face pack. This is the mask that broke the perpetual breakout cycle that my hypersensitive skin was in since high school. It also launched my passion for skincare and ingredients, which lead me to creating this blog. Who knew plain o’ yogurt could be so inspirational? My skin gives no indication of its acne-prone past and I’m grateful for that. I still indulge my skin with yogurt mask occasionally. To make it an especially nutritious treat for my skin, I customize the yogurt mask with various supplements. These are tried-and-true supplements that can be added into the yogurt mask or your choice mask for an added skincare boost.

With this type of usage, you want to look for capsules or gel caps, which I've conveniently linked for you below with the best prices I was able to find. Tablet supplements won't mix properly and are ineffective for this purpose. With any type of Do-It-Yourself skincare, adding additional ingredients to another group of ingredients (preserved or not) means it’s no longer preserved properly. As always, mix a single-use batch and use it immediately.
Grape Seed Extract: Not to be confused with grapefruit seed extract, Grape Seed Extract is essentially the seeds of grapes, concentrated in gritty powder form for internal usage. This gives a great antioxidant boost to your skin, which makes it great for all skintypes. Leaves my skin feeling ultra-smooth and somehow stronger against the environment.

Green Tea Extract: Another great antioxidant supplement. This may also have a skin toning and firming effect due to the natural-occuring caffeine in green tea. Smells amazing when mixed with the yogurt mask (like green tea ice cream!) If you are sensitive to caffeine, this would be more suitable during morning masks. Great for oily skintypes.
Olive Leaf Extract: I take Olive Leaf Extract internally and also use it topically so it totally made sense for me to break open one of my olive leaf extract capsules and apply it to my skin. Another great antioxidant and this will be great for acne-prone skin types. Olive Leaf Extract+Yogurt = best mask for completely broken-out skin that has ruptured pimples and has been abused by acne products.
Activated Charcoal: Yes indeed, food-grade charcoal comes in capsule forms to be taken internally! Activated Charcoal is a great toxin absorber and would work well mixed in a clay mask or yogurt mask for extremely oily and acne-prone skin. Keep in mind it’s extremely concentrated. Use just a little bit to avoid black residue (it cleanses off easily with a cleanser in case you are left with black residue). This is also extremely potent.
Flax Seed Oil: As the name implies, it’s an oil. I take Flax Seed Oil daily and it comes in a seamless liquid capsule. This would be wonderful for drier skintypes and may help shield skin from UV rays. Some people do this with vitamin E oil but I prefer flax seed.

Once you make you selection from the supplements above, you’re ready to customize your mask!

To use:
Place a dollop of your mask in the palm of your hand. Open the capsule by pulling the 2 ends of capsule apart. Pour the entire or half of the content on top of the mask dollop, mix with your finger and apply to face. For liquid/softgel capsules (like flax seed oil), pierce one end of the capsule with a clean needle several times and pour content on top of the mask dollop. Proceed accordingly. As always, do a patch test on your cheek or neck to test your skin’s sensitivity and never use any ingredients on your face if you suspect that you may be allergic to those ingredients.


Happy mixing!
Here’s my disclaimer: I write extremely researched reviews after extensive, self-conducted testing. I do not review products I dislike; it's a waste of time and typing skills. This review contains products I purchased. I was not paid to write this review. My first priority is to my readers; company gratis does not guarantee placement. Affiliate and non-affiliate links are provided to inform readers of where to purchase products. All in all, you can be sure that items seen on my website are the very few products that qualify for recommendation after rigorous testing.

1/12/10

Farmgirl Beauty Secret #78: Moisturizer+Cotton ball=Radiant, flake-free skin.

Hi y’all! Before I begin, I want to thank you all for your continued support and encouragement. I honestly have the most thoughtful and creative readers around. Beyond reading the posts, you apply it and provide AMAZING feedbacks via comments/emails that are so inspiring to me. Thank you for being so awesome! As a token of my appreciation, here’s the tip of the week:

Banish flaky skin woes this winter by combining the power of exfoliation and moisturization- no Clarisonic brushes necessary! After cleansing, add a 1-2 pump(s) of your favorite moisturizer to a cotton ball. Gently blot the cotton ball to your forehead, cheeks and areas prone to dry, flaky skin. Proceed to sweep the cotton ball in GENTLE circular motion on your entire face BEFORE the moisturizer dries, concentrating on dry, flaky areas. You can do this weekly as a skin-reviving treatment or daily as a new way to apply your moisturizer (you will figure this out by your skin’s reaction; thin, delicate skin may only need this treatment 1-2 times weekly). The combination of emollients in your moisturizer and the exfoliating action of the cotton ball helps to loosen dead skin cells and polish them away while moisturizing the newly revealed skin.
Bonus: For an even more luxurious exfoliating treatment, try using the Shiseido Facial Cotton. $10 for cotton pads, you say? This is quite the departure from my normal recommendations but the texture of this cotton pad is so different. It is completely smooth and ultra soft. It leaves skin completely lint-free and doesn’t “eat” up toners and moisturizers like conventional cotton balls/pads, which really allows you to maximize the exfoliating treatment above. Go to your nearest Shiseido counter and they’ll gladly provide a sample. If you decide you can’t part without purchasing it, cut each cotton sheet in half before use- tada, you just doubled the number of uses!

Here’s my disclaimer: I write extremely researched reviews after extensive, self-conducted testing. I do not review products I dislike; it's a waste of time and typing skills. This review contains products I purchased. I was not paid to write this review. My first priority is to my readers; company gratis does not guarantee placement. Affiliate and non-affiliate links are provided to inform readers of where to purchase products. All in all, you can be sure that items seen on my website are the very few products that qualify for recommendation after rigorous testing.