Facial Masks

To apply nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, exfoliants, pimple therapy and other active ingredients to your skin, you probably use many different vehicles. Vehicles include lotions, serums, creams, ointments, solutions, and so on. But today I want to speak about a specific type of vehicle I haven’t yet covered on DermTV… Facial masks.

Think of a facial mask as another type of vehicle to apply ingredients to your skin. And depending on the ingredients in the mask, it can accomplish specific goals like exfoliation, cleansing , calming your skin AND reducing inflammation, moisturization, tightening, lightening brown discoloration, shrinking the appearance of the size of your pores, acne treatment or even restoring oil and water balance.

Just like you’re your other skincare products, masks have to be appropriate for your oil and water skin type. Masks can be used once a week, once a month, or, depending on the ingredients and your amount of free time, even every day. Some masks are left on over night, others for only 5, 15 or maybe 30 minutes.

The reason masks are so versatile is because there’s almost no limit to the different chemicals that can be added to custom tailor the mask to do exactly what you want it to. While commercial preparations of masks are available for almost every purpose, home made masks are exceedingly popular because they’re easy to make from readily available and inexpensive ingredients which are especially easy to get online.

Masks for deep cleansing, reducing pore size and tightening skin are often made from mineral rich muds or absorbent clays like kaolin, bentonite or china clay and are sometimes called “mud packs.” They may also contain silicates, seaweed and essential oils and work in part by absorbing extra oils and tightening the skin.

Exfoliating masks can contain AHA’s, enzymes, plant gums and even scrubbing particles.

A hydrating mask makes your skin moist, keeps it from getting dry and keeps your skin soft. They can contain many different emollients, glycerin, essential oils, calendula, chamomile, aloe vera, ginseng, evening primrose oil and many other ingredients.

The list goes on and on. If you’ve never tried a mask, they not only work, but they’re relaxing and fun.