Hey Dears,
so this is a first for us. You must be wondering about the title “Guest Post”.. and well, we’ve got our very first Guest Blog Post! We were approached by Michelle, from New York (LIKE WOW HOW DID SHE FIND US!? SUCH AN HONOR!), and she talked about how she wanted to spread her knowledge and reach out to fellow bloggers and talk about the importance of guarding our skin from the sun.
Most Asians/Singaporeans are very anti-heat, and many are actually strongly against being tanned. Many girls I know, myself included, hate the dreaded sun for so many reasons: there’s sweaty armpits, unnecessary/unintended tan lines and melting makeup to name a few, but also because of the dreaded P word.. PIGMENTATION. Basically, the sun can be a bit of a skin killer, and we need to know how to protect ourselves against it.
Protect!? How to protect, you ask!? Well, think no further, here’s her take on it!
Summer Skincare; Let’s Get Glowing!
Although summer’s all about relaxing, don’t give your skincare routine the summer off. Extreme summer heat can lead to excess oil or excess dryness, depending on your skin type. Because of the extreme elements of summer, you should have a daily cleansing and moisturizing routine on lock-down. Find out what cleanser works best for you, and moisturize every night. This will keep your skin from drying out or from producing excess oil.
In addition to cleansing and moisturizing, there are a couple more maneuvers to keep your skin radiant and radical this summer. Exfoliating at least twice a week will knock dirt from pores and shed old, dry skin from your face to reveal smooth skin underneath. Once you’ve exfoliated, a simple DIY mask is a strong weapon that’ll result in gorgeous, glowing skin. The experts at Skana spa of the New York resort Turning Stone have shared this recipe for a DIY mask that will have you glowing all summer long.
Ingredients for Mask
1) 1/4 cup fresh-squeezed tomato juice with pulp
2) 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lime juice
3) 1 cup ripe (check if it’s very soft on the outside), mashed avocado
Though these were the instructions given, Ash and I had a bit of difficulty locating tomato juice with pulp.. so as you can see above, we opted for 2 tomatoes instead! Fresher, no? Haha
P/S: This entire mask only cost us less than SGD $5! Plus, there was so much leftover, we passed my Dad some Avacado to make a salad, and shared the mask between us and my Mum!
Things You Will Need
1) A Fruit Knife
2) A Cutting Board
3) 1 Table Spoon
4) 2-3 Bowls depending
5) A Blender
6) A Masher (we didn’t have this.. and used a fork.. bad idea)
How To Make
(Ash and I have dubbed this the Guacamole mask, because that’s just how it looks like, lol! We’ve also taken the liberty to take some pictures to attach with the instructions of what we did so everything’s much clearer for you guys!)
1) Pour the lime juice out into the table spoon, and into the bowl.
2) Cut the tomatoes into halves.
3) Dig out the pulp into the bowl with the lime juice inside the bowl.
4) Cut the remaining tomatoes (skin and such) into tiny pieces and place in blender.
5) Blend until you feel that the mixture is pasty and mushy enough.
6) Place the mixture into the bowl with the pulp and lime juice.
7) Cut the avacado into halves for easy digging out with a spoon.
8) Mash the avacadoes in a bigger bowl (if you’d like) with the previous mixture.
9) If unsatisfactory, put the whole lot into the blender for a smoother mix.
10) Tada! You’re done! You can also keep it in a container to store for an extra day!
If you still feel that your mixture is too runny, you can add some honey or corn starch. We felt ours was alright, so we didn’t; but we kind of regretted it after because it WAS too runny. So we suggest perhaps either adding the honey, or lessening the amount of tomato juice?
Using the Mask
1) Prep your face by rinsing with warm water.
2) Pat dry and apply a generous layer of the mask to your face.
3) Chill out and let your mask set for about 35-40 minutes.
4) When your mask is dry, rinse away the mask with warm water.
5) When you’re finished, rinse again with cold water to close your pores back up.
Overall Thoughts
It doesn’t take a genius for anyone to see that our mask turned out all goopy and not at all mashed up and smooth. Hence, that was what attributed to what I felt was extreme discomfort. So, on that note, I would suggest that if you try out this mask, mash your avacado up real well and probably opt for tomato juice instead.
Also, the lime juice and tomato juice was kind of acidic, so I suppose that made for some kind of “peel” effect.. apparently some people use pineapple for that? Anyway it was kind of itchy, like the feeling you get when your scab or wound is healing. It drove me and Ash insane for a good 10 minutes because all we wanted to do was scratch our face lol. We half expected our faces to be burnt and red when the mask was washed off.
But! Due to the avacado, which I believe was extremely moisturizing, our skin was soooooooo moist and hydrated, and not at all dry or flaky! Also, the acidity of the juices just aided in good exfoliation and allowed our skin to look all glowy and full of natural blush! We couldn’t stop touching our faces afterward. If you guys are looking for a cheap and natural mask, we say give this a go! 🙂
(Sorry there’s no before/after pics.. we took them but the lighting was so different that it was hard to be fair!)
Credits
Michelle Pino has contributed this recipe based on the knowledge she has learned while working at Skana, one of New York’s finest spas. When Michelle isn’t working you will find her baking, crafting, reading a magazine or catching up on her favorite TV shows. If you have any comments or questions feel free to contact Michelle via email at michellepino@turningstone.com.
Thank you so much for the
wonderful tip Michelle! 🙂
(♥)
Sam
