Aloe Vera Face Mask

I tried aloe vera face mask yesterday. I got the aloe vera from my neighbour's garden. That neighbour migrated to Australia and left the house and car for my family to take care. 

I cut the aloe vera nearest to the root, because that was what I saw in youtube. You can store the aloe vera in a container and don't close and don't refrigerate it. 

I found a very easy way to apply this mask. Take the aloe vera and remove the outside (the green part) and take the gel and place it on your palms and mash it with your fist or with a fork. Then you will the very gooey gel. Rub the gel between your palms and apply it on your face and neck like as if you are washing your face.

Leave the mask on for around 1 hour or overnight. After washing off the face mask, your face will look like it has less scarring and your face will glow (on other words, shiny).

Egg White Face Mask

Egg white mask if good for cleaning your pores. You can use it on your entire face and neck or on selected areas. all you need is egg white, baby powder and facial tissues. You don't need to use the whole egg white for this.

To make this mask, just simple take the egg white and beat it until it's abit foamy and add a little baby powder. The baby powder will help the face mask to stick on your face better.

Next, take the tissue and separate the layers of tissue. You only need 1 ply. Cut the tissues into smaller pieces to it's easier to stick them on your face. You can also take the whole tissue and put it on your face and then cut holes  for your eyes, nose and mouth.

Take the egg and powder mixture and apply it on your face with a brush or your fingers or anything else. Then apply the tissue on your face. If the mask doesn't stick well, you may apply more egg white n powder mixture on top of the tissue.

Once you're done with putting tissue on your face, leave it to dry. This takes quite long so I recommend using hair dryer with cold air or a fan. Once the face mask is really, really dry, hard and stiff, you are ready to remove them.

For me, I did not see must pimples on the mask but my face feels smoother after that. Good luck trying!!!!!

PS: You can try the honey mask on your lips as a lip mask. You can try other edible stuff but I won't be responsible for them.

Homemade Face Mask

It's been a super long time since I've blogged. So here's my new post about homemade face masks. I will share with you the homemade face masks I've tried. I started using this because I wanted to try them and these ingredients are always forever in my home.

If you google all these homemade masks, the recipe is like 1 teaspoon of each ingredient. It's such a waste because your face is not that big. In total 1 teaspoon of face mask is all you need. You wouldn't want to keep your face mask in the fridge and then use it again.

By the way, it's not that hard to make face mask. It's somehow like making Milo, tea or coffee. Homemade face mask is also super cheap. You need like a quarter of a teaspoon of each ingredient for 1 application. You can just calculate yourself how cheap is it to make homemade face masks.

My mum always say to put face mask overnight. All my friends said it's really bad because the dirt that come out from your face will stick to the mask and if you leave it on for too long, the dirt will go back in. It's true. There's no such thing the longer the better. So I recommend to put face mask for 15-30 minutes.

My mum also teach me and my sis to never neglect the neck because if you age, you neck will not look nice. So put all your facial products on your neck as well.

For all these masks, you can try to use a plain sheet mask if you like but i personally don't like sheet mask, especially the packet mask because it's so messy.

Honey + Yogurt
I find this mask ok because I put more yogurt than honey. This mask makes my skin more moist and soft. It's really good if you want your face to be moist but it doesn't make your skin less bumpy.

Honey + Milk
For this mask,, use more of honey and just a tiny splash of milk. It's ok if the honey is cold and not runny because you are going to add milk and it will mix easily and can stay on your face. If you put too much milk, it will be too runny and it will start dripping from your face. If it drips, you can try using plain sheet mask for this, or just wipe off the dripping parts.

This is so far my favourite mask because your face will glow and become abit shinier. This mask does not leave your skin mat like clay mask. Now I like face masks that makes my skin shinier because I feel it makes my skin glow. Hehe.


Honey + Milk + Ground Rice
To make the ground rice, take the rice (I suggest use only a little to experiment) and put it in the blender grinder. The grinder actually works on small amount of rice because once it starts, the rice will fly everywhere in the grinder. I tried pounding it but the rice flew everywhere. You can use food processor or anything else for this. Grind the rice until it's like fine sand. I don't have the patience to grind it until like powder.

The grinder is the one on the left.

This is a scrub mask. Use more of honey and only a tiny bit of milk. Add as much ground rice as you want. Leave it on your skin for around 15-30 minutes and before washing them off, wet your fingers and gently massage your face. The ground rice works as a scrub or in a fancier term, exfoliator.

This scrub mask will leave your skin feeling smooth and shiny at the same time. Masks with honey cleanses your face and it also mositurizes your face.

Bedak Beras  + Water/ Milk
I used this mask and it is actually like a clay mask. This mask cleanses the skin and makes it mat (no shine), reduces bumps and tightens the skin. My friend told me once that rice starch tightens pores (not permenantly of course). Unfortunately, this contains fragrance and it is itchy and makes it red for a short while but the effect is good.

I will make this mask in a super thick paste so it will look like a clay mask. I also found out that this will only dissolve in water, not milk. So if you want to mix with milk, be sure to dissolve the mask in hot water (it's faster to dissolve in hot water and it's sterile) and add a tiny bit of milk. The milk actually has no effect so just use water.

My dad told me every woman will use and make bedak beras in the olden days. My mum said every household will have this. To make this, the ladies will soak the rice in water for months and change the water every few days. They cannot pour the water out, but scoop them out. I'll just do the shortcut and buy a bottle of it. It only cost RM4.80 for a bottle and it's a glass bottle. I bought this from Herbs and Food. I think it's available in those chinese medical shop or those really old fashioned shop.

Potato Mask
This is the most simple mask anyone can do. It's so easy. You don't need a whole potato for this. Take a potato and remove the skin for like half of it and wash it. Take a slice of potato (you can use the peeler for this) and rub all over your face. If the potato ran out of juice, just take another slice.

My sis saw this in Cleo Magazine last time and they suggester to cut half a potato and rub it on your face. It's really wasteful because you don't need half a potato for your face and you wouldn't want to eat the potato that has been rubbed on your face. My mum suggested to slice the potato and stick it on your face. Not very convenient because the potato will drop. Hahahah.

This is a real good face mask for clearing the skin and reducing bumps. Your face will feel soooooooo smooth after this. You can leave this mask for as long as you want because it's not visible. But don't leave it for 1 whole day and sweat all over your face. It's just dirty.

Rice Water Toner
My friend told me that her mum and aunt used to use rice water as toner. To get the rice water, put the rice in water and the water is then rice water. Tada!!!! If you eat rice everyday, take the water that is used to wash the rice.

Take the rice water and apply on a cotton pad and rub it all over your face and neck. The rice water feels soooooo smooth and it also makes your face sooooo smooth. It's really good!!!!!

 The disadvantage is that the rice water will stick after like one night. I once soaked the rice and kept the water as well, it stinked so badly on the second night. I bet it will stink without the rice. So. if you eat rice everyday, be sure to save some of the rice water. I stopped this after the rice stinked because the smell was badddddddddddddddddd so I used back my Clean n Clear toner.

Applying Toner and Moisturizer
There's actually a technique to apply toner and moisturizer. My aunt taught me. She taught me to apply toner on my face in an upward motion and from the middle of your face to our ears. And for moisturizer, apply in circular motion and massage the face as well. I never massage my face while applying moisturizer but it's important to because the moisturizer will work better.

I also watched Michelle Phan's video where she tap her face and gently slap her face so the products will work. It really does make the product work better and it's really good. One of my previous roomates also gently slap her face after applying toner so that the skin will absorb it faster. So, remember to tap and gently slap your face after applying toner, moisturizer and other facial products.



Last but not least, you have to sweat everyday so that the dirt from your face can be removed. During my internship, I spent most of my time in the air-cond room and never sweat much and it was really bad for my face. My face became bumpy and rough and dry. I also changed my products thats why.

Homemade Face masks

Now I'm so into homemade face masks. I just tried yogurt, honey and few drops of lemon juice face mask. I suggest 1 yogurt spoon of yogurt is enough for your whole face and like 2 drops of honey and no lemon. I used like 2 yogurt spoons of yogurt, 5 cents coin amount of honey and few drops of lemon. It's way tooooooo much, can use it for another like 5 times. The lemon dried up my skin but it lightens my skin. It didn't dry up that much. I also put it on my lips. My lips are quite soft after that.

Using homemade masks are much cheaper than those packet masks. I bought soooo many packet sheet mask and gel mask and haven't use them because I'm so into homemade masks now.

I know egg white mask with a little pearl powder of baby powder (powder to make the mask stick more to your face) is good in removing blackheads and white heads and in the same time, waxing your face, it dries up my skin alot. I think it's more suitable for teenagers.

Since natural face masks spoil easily and I always make too much because I don't know how to estimate, I keep it in the freezer but I haven't use those in the freezer yet. One tip I can give is that you don't need much ingredients to make natural face masks, a total of 1 teaspoon (1 tablespoon if your face is bigger) of face mask is enough for the face.

Home Face Masks

I was just googling about homemade face masks using natural ingredients. There was one that writes use parsley. Cut parsley into small pieces and add boiling water for 20-30 mins. Then use this 'tea' on your face. When Dori saw that, she said "hmm, parsley" then I said "we should try kangkung" and there goes my clay face mask. All cracked. I actually never use homemade face mask often. I only tried honey alone, not effective. Potato and honey is very good and potato alone is good.

My dad also said once that any vege and fruits we eat, we can put on face. I said no, we cannot put chilli. OMG, imagine that. I will so die of chilli burns. Do people put onion and garlic on their faces? Putting garlic face mask is really good in scaring off vampires and people. I think if you put garlic mask, your face will smell like garlic. 0_0 To eliminate smell, the best is to rub on stainless steel, like rub your hand on the sink or anything stainless steel to eliminate the smell. Imagine rubbing your face with a spoon? Haha

I also tried egg white mask few months ago and I am not seriously doing it again. My face got so damn dry. It must be because I'm old now. Teenager's skin are very strong, their skin can stand strong alcohol, strong cleanser, scrub..... I remember my skin when I was a teenager. Never before it became dry, flaky, irritated (my skin was never irritated before actually)

I also need a new toner. This Bio-Essence toner is so useless so I use it very often and alot to finish it up. The best is clearasil. It actually helps to reduce scars and cleanses the skin well. Dori said her aunts use rice water (water you get from washing rice) as toner. She said it makes their skin smooth. I read that in 1 website too.

Potato Honey Mask

I just tried a new face mask today which is potato and honey face mask. I used potato because last time I used it before. My sis saw it in the magazine and I used sliced potato on my face and it's so smooth after that (you can rub the potato on your skin 1st)

So what I did today was my usual facial routine.

1. Scrub or wash face (wash face if already scrub the previous day)

2. Steam face

3. Press out pimples

4. Scrub with sugar (not a good idea because must wait so long for swelling on face to reduce and it hurts. should scrub before pressing out pimple)

5. Put potato and honey mask for 30 mins and rinse off (pound 1 whole potato and use only the juice and mix it with honey and apply on plain sheet mask then onto face or directly on face, any how you like)

6. Tone and moisturize

The result,my skin is so smooth, clear and not dry after this. I feel it's much smoother than any other mask I've used. I used to like Amway deep cleansing mask (clay mask). The effect is almost the same as this potato honey mask but my skin is dryer and not so clean with the Amway mask. 

Facial

Ok, I always do facial, like once a week but nearing to exam, there's no time for that. This week I did facial twice. For my daily cleanser, I use Bio-Essence Deep Cleanser with Pine Pollen. I used to use the almost the same one but without Pine Pollen. I think my previous cleanser is no more selling. My current cleanser is very good because it feels clean and it does not tighten your skin at all.

Above: Price is less than RM 20 each. Price is different depending on sale or where you buy.

I used to use Clearasil Cleanser with Moisturizer. At first when I used it, it was good and clean. After a few bottles, it doesn't feel so clean anymore so I switch to Bio-Essence. My mum recommend my sis the Bio-Essence Face Essence like that. It's an anti-aging youth serum with Pine Pollen (around RM70). It's real good and it's like oil-base but it doesn't feel oily after that. My sister's skin improved alot after using it so she bought the whole set which is cleanser, toner and the youth serum. So I obviously tried her cleanser and it's really good. So now me and my sis are using the same cleanser.

I also notice for teens or pre-teens who are developing pimples and always have breakouts, they should use tea tree oil. It really is effective for people who just start having pimples. I am so lucky to start having pimples at 11 and by 14, I don't have much pimples anymore. But obviously I often have breakouts because the school is so hot and dirty.

When I was 16, I used Loreal Pure Zone cleanser and toner (less than RM20 each). The cleanser is the one with micro-beads. The toner is really, really strong. Alot of alcohol and it really cleans. Sadly, it's no more selling because it is so strong, it cannot be used in the long run. I think I used this cleanser for like 4 years. In the end, my face became dry. Teenagers skin can stand strong cleanser more (I feel). As we age, our skin gets dryer. I'm not saying that I'm that old but my skin gets dry from certain cleansers now.

For the toner, I'm currently using Clearasil. Toner takes forever to finish. This toner I don't think it's really good. It does not have effect on my skin but I still have to finish it up. I use this cleanser because my 2 previous cleanser is Clarasil. After this, I'm going to use Bio-Essence. I actually don't see much effect of the toner but after switching to Clearasil toner, my face don't feel so nice.

Above: Toner (less than RM20) and trusty moisturizer (less than RM15 i think)

For moisturizer, the best so far is Clean and Clear Moisturizer. This takes longer than toner to finish. It's so good. I only use this at night, after toning. When you wake up the next day, your skin feels so smooth. Even 1 of my friend start using this moisturizer after trying mine. Most people will think it's such a not good range of face care but only the moisturizer is good. The cleanser and toner is not good. I've been using this for 10 years.

Ok, here is my typical facial routine:

1. Wash face with St Ives Apricot Scrub, Invigorating (Around RM20+). It's cheap and good and can be used on the body as well.

2. Steam face. I use the steam iron that you see in boutiques to steam my face. I will also use a towel to cover my head and the iron so that the steam will be directed to your face. If you don't have that, you can always boil water and put your face on top of the boiling water and use a towel to cover your face and the water to trap the steam. Steam your face until it feels wet. I will take less than 5 minutes.

3. I will press out all my pimples and clear all my pores by using the 'pimple stick' and by using my fingers. Remember to wrap your fingers with tissue or else your face will be so red and colourful.

Important parts to clear:

a)the sides of your nose (use pimple stick),

b)between your eyebrows (use pimple stick),

c)your whole nose (use fingers),

d)your cheeks (scrape the pimple stick along your cheeks. Yes it sounds weird but your cheeks are real smooth after that. My mum did for me before)

4. Rinse your face to remove all impurities and to soothe your skin after it's bruised from pressing and towel dry.

5. Use face mask. I usually put for 30 minutes. My mum say you can put it overnight but your pillow will have all the face mask flakes if you use clay mask. My friends all told me that it's no good to leave on the mask too long because the dirt will go back into your skin. For face mask, I use Amway deep pore cleansing mask. I also like to buy packet mask. There's where all my money goes to. My favourite packet mask the Pink Kiss Mud Mask. Pink Kiss have alot of range and all of them are good. You can find it from Sasa or Gueardian or Watsons. I'm currently using mushy mask. It's clay mask and it contains rice starch which my friend told me that it can tighten your pores (not permanantly of course). You can experiment any face mask you want in the market to find which suits you best. I haven't tried all the face mask I wanted but I've tried alot.

Powder mask. Just add water and mix and apply on face. Contains kaolin, rice starch, talc, sodium alginate, glycyrrhiza. Can be used for like 5 times or more but it's very dry, cannot use more than once a week. RM6.90 from Sasa

Types of face mask:

a) Clay mask : when it's wet, it's creamy and not transparent. It cleanses the most especially Amway deep pore cleansing mask (no1 best mask I've used). Not good for dry skin because it dries up skin

Face mask from Amway. RM60+

b) Peel-off mask: cleanses skin as well but not as harsh as clay mask. Skin will be left not dry. Just like usual. It also can pull out some impuritiesRm 4.90 from Sasa, Guardian or Watsons

c) Sheet mask: does not cleanse for me. This mask has a totally different effect from clay and peel off mask. Your face feels so moist and hydrated. Your skin feels sooooooo nice but not so clean. It feels so supple and bouncy when you tap your cheeks.

6. Tone and moisturize.

So that is my usual facial routine. Sounds like so much things to do but it's actually not much. I just wrote alot. Most importantly, use all facial products on your neck as well. My daily routine is just cleanse 3 times a day and tone and moisturize at night. Hope you have a nice skin day!!!!