4 Homemade Natural Facial Masks

There are many factors besides self esteem to want to brighten your skin. As we get into middle age, sometimes even as soon as our early 30s, the skin on our face begins to lose the stimulating, sleek look it had when we were younger.

Ready to Get Rid of Sun Spots?

Obviously a few facial lines and fine lines around the eyes are normal as we age but in some individuals sun spots can show up too soon. They might show up as a darkish pimple or two on the higher check or a as a series of little spots in the mustache area. It seems like once this begins to happen more appear every time you look.

Sections of Discolored Skin Is Melasma

When patches of skin become lighter or darker than the area around it, it’s called melasma.

You may have heard of this condition by the name “pregnancy mask” because it’s prompted by having a baby and goes away soon after. But sometimes it’s not related to having a baby. And it can be troubling to walk around with such an obvious skin condition or to have to cover it up with makeup every day before going out.

The Problems Are Time and Sunlight

Over time our tissues go a little haywire and our cells start malfunctioning little by little as we age. And if we’ve spent a lot of time outdoors those years of sunlight on the skin start to show up as uneven areas of pigmentation. These factors of sunlight over time is what causes these brown blemishes to show up on skin that had previously been normal.

Acne Scars Become Noticeable Again

The bumps and ridges of acne scars that had long faded can also be highlighted and more noticeable again when these pigment problems start to occur around middle age.

The Importance of Appearance

How we look, especially on the face, has a huge impact on our social life and our self esteem. It’s especially hard if we’ve always had nice skin but are now faced with walking around with noticeable blemishes and patches on our face and cheeks.

This is probably why makeup designed to fix your skin is called “correction” – because it brings up back to feeling like our normal selves. So let’s take a look next at some of the things we can do to get back to our normal selves.

Use Natural Ingredients To Correct the Natural Effects of Time

There are many opportunities and good reasons to get “back to nature” when it comes to using natural skin treatments. For one, it’s nice to use things that are natural compounds to lighten skin instead of unnatural chemical ingredients. And using natural ingredients also means not adding more plastic makeup containers to a landfill.

It turns out that there are many naturally occurring skin lighteners in everyday foods

Natural Skin Whitening Ingredients

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a natural ingredient that is a key component in many major brand cosmetics. If we look at where vitamin C is found naturally we only have to look for tomatoes and citrus fruits like lemons, oranges and grapefruit.

And there are many other natural ingredients that can be used in typical skin routines such as exfoliation and skin peels.

Dairy foods like cream, milk, cream cheese and yogurt all have lactic acid. The mild acidic effect of this ingredient can penetrate and remove old dead skin cells from the surface of the face.

Oatmeal is a mild and absorbent material that works great at scrubbing off and removing dirt and oils from the skin.

Honey has naturally occurring antibacterial properties and it blocks sunlight to help prevent skin pigment from taking on any more dark color.

And as mentioned above citrus fruits like limes, oranges, lemons and even tomato (fruit or vegetable, it works!) have vitamin C in which stimulates new skin cell growth.

Four Natural Skin Mask Recipes

These four natural facial masks recipes contain natural ingredients and can be used at home to refresh and lighten blemished skin.

For each of these masks, unless otherwise noted, simply mix the ingredients, apply to the face for about 15 minutes and let it dry, and then wash it off with warm water.

These all-natural peels can be used three or four times a month for increased effect.

Oatmeal, Lemon and Cream Cheese Mask

• 4 tablespoons cream cheese
• 1 tablespoons oatmeal
• 1 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice

The lactic acid from the dairy acts as a mild peel to remove old cells and shrink pores. The oatmeal cleans and exfoliates to remove dirt and the old cells.

Orange Juice and Yogurt Mask

• 4 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons orange* juice

Apply to the face in a thin layer. Leave on for 15 minutes then wash off with warm water.

*Lemon or grapefruit juice can be used in place of orange juice.

The Grapefruit Peel and Yogurt Mask

• Use the grated rind (skin) of one grapefruit
• Mix with ¾ of a cup of plain yogurt

Apply to face, leave on for 10 minutes, wash off with warm water.

Papaya with Honey Mask

• ½ cup mashed papaya
• 2 tablespoons honey

Mix into paste and apply to skin for up to 20 minutes. Rinse off with warm water at end.

After Care and Anticipated Results

The mild acidic effects of the dairy ingredients combined with the skin cell growth stimulation of the vitamin C and the exfoliate aspects of the oatmeal can lead to brighter, tighter skin over a period of weeks or months.

These natural facial masks can be applied about once a week and be used for several months, as long as there is no excessive rawness of skin irritation. You’ll want to monitor your skin’s reaction since everyone’s skin is different.

Be sure to apply a moisturizing sunscreen daily, whether or not a mask was used that day. The moisturizer will keep the new cells looking fresh and promoted healing and the sunscreen will help prevent future pigmentation problems.

For Stronger Sun Spot Removal Needs

For some cases the natural process may be too slow or not powerful enough to address heavily pigmented areas of the face.

To get rid of facial blemishes using more potent coumpounds there are treatments such as the Obagi C Rx system which uses concentrated formulations of vitamin C to generate new skin growth and there are whitening creams with hydroquinone such as Obagi Clear which is part of the Obagi Nu Derm System for treating melasma and sun spots.

The Author:

Barry – clearskinblemishes

Source: Articlesbase.com