Cucumber Face Mask

I don’t know about you, but summers are hard on my skin.  The heat and extreme sweating releasing of toxins really leaves my skin looking rather dull, rough, and prone to breakouts, not to mention its unwillingness to befriend any type of makeup.  I try to stay away from scrubs and exfoliants as my skin’s really sensitive.  During summer, there’s nothing that my skin loves more than homemade cucumber masks!  Cucumbers are definitely a summer staple at our house.  I love to pickle, marinate, sautee, or just eat them raw as well as to put them on my face.  I wish to share this easy formula with you, and I thought how appropriate it would be to incorporate this into the wonderful summer link-up party courtesy of Jenn!

Before I get into sharing my cucumber mask (prepared 2 ways), here’s a look at what I ate yesterday.

Trust me.  My plates did NOT look all pretty like you see in the pictures.  Yesterday was leftover day and these pics are from when I first made them.   I had some yogurt with granola in the morning.  Lunch was a quinoa salad with beets, avocado, and kale.  And for dinner, I had some marinated tofu with rice and a side of spinach salad.  As usual, I had a good number of snacks throughout the day.  I tried The Simply Bar for the first time, and just like Brittany promised, they were awesome!  I’ll be doing a review on them soon.  Yup, they were THAT GOOD! 😉  I also had a veggie patty, banana, scoopful handful of almonds, and a bowl of cookies ‘n cream ice cream.

OK!  Now it’s time to turn our focus back to our skin.  DIY face masks are VERY popular in Korea.  And yes, the rumors are true, I’m afraid – Korea is a very beauty-obssessed culture.  Whenever I go to visit during the summer, I feel very self-conscious and can’t help but feel like an ugly duckling.  Contrary to America where the tanned look is preferred, Koreans worship pale, white skin.  The paler the better.  In the summertime, the cosmetic market overflows with all sorts of “whitening” products.  So you can only imagine, this Texas girl has no chance there as comments like “wow, you’re so dark” are thrown at me from left and right :(.

However, I do appreciate all the different DIY face masks that these Korean women with flawless porcelain skin come up with.  They’re cheap and fun to do with your girlfriends or in my case, the hubby ;).   To start off, here are two different ways to use cucumbers to beautify your skin!  Did I grab your attention?  🙂  Cucumbers help smooth and soothe your skin, and they’re popular in Korea for their whitening effect.  They truly leave your skin feeling instantly refreshed and revitalized.  If nothing else, I just love how cool and tingly it feels when applied to my skin.  

The simplest way is to slice the cucumber super thin so that it’ll cling to your face!  I used a Japanese mandoline.  Leave the slices on your face for about 10-12 min.  Remove and pat the moisture into your skin.

The second way takes a lil’ more work.  Grate about 1/3 cucumber, add enough flour so that it will thicken (should not be runny!  I used about 2 Tbs.), and add 1/2 Tbs honey.

Apply to face using a brush or just hands.  It’s better if you have someone else do it for you.  If not, just use a hand mirror while lying down in order to apply to your face.  I like to have a towel over the neck and behind the ear to catch any liquid that may run down the face.  Leave on for 10-12 min.  Be sure to rinse it off in the kitchen sink as you don’t want cucumber chunks and flour to clog up your bathroom drain!

I didn’t trust the hubby to do a good job of putting the mixture onto my face, so I kindly volunteered him ;).  He was a good sport about it!  Kona..”Daddy, can I eat your face?”  As for me, I would normally be lying down, but I wanted to show you that the cucumber slices MUST be thin enough to the point that they’ll stay on your face even when sitting up.

Tim really appreciated the pampering.  Our skin’s happy, and we feel refreshed.  Kona got a treat also!  A wonderful activity for the whole family ;)!

Yup, that one came straight from my face!  Nice and salty ;).  Do you see the look of determination in his eyes?

Question:

Have you tried homemade face masks?  If so, do share!