Masks are all the rage in beauty lately, from sheet masks to charcoal to clay, they’ve all but replaced chemical peels and more harsh treatments for a lot of women, and brought the spa treatment back into the home for a less expensive, and more convenient spa experience (and I mean… you won’t get weird looks watching Netflix while your mask dries at home… or at least if you do, its people you can stick your tongue out at).
I’ve been on a mud mask kick lately to conquer my breakouts (and it’s worked, SO well), and I’ve picked up a few tips online and just through personal experience that have made me feel like I’m maximizing my mud mask experience.
Tip #1. Don’t rub it in! Try applying your mud mask with a paddle brush to damp skin, (bonus points if you get the brush damp too). By using a brush, you can apply more evenly and without introducing the oils and bacteria on your fingers into your face which can definitely cause blackheads and breakouts to spring up out of your pores like May flowers.
Tip #2. Spread the love. It doesn’t have to just be your face. Think about how often your decolletage is on display? You don’t leave a foundation line on your jaw, so why are you ending skincare there? Apply a mud mask down your neck and chest to reduce the appearance of sun damage, redness, or just to slough off dead or damaged skin. You can even give a little boost to the tightness of your neck and chin!
Tip #3. Spot the problem. Not feeling like a full face mask? Apply it just to problem areas, or combine it with another mask and use each where you need it. Nobody said you had to use the same mask all over. This works great for combination skin.
Tip #4. Heal yourself! Apply it to a bruise (gently) and let it dry down – the massaging of application and removal, the tightening of the clay, and the properties of the clays in the mask – will help enhance blood circulation and speed up the healing process.
Tip #5. Have the hot towel treatment. By laying a warm (but not hot) – semi-wet cloth over your face before removing the mask, you will re-hydrate it and loosen it from your skin. Gentle removal is less harsh on your skin and prevents tugging and stretching that can lead to fine lines and wrinkles.
Tip #6. Bathe your skin. If you’ve been soaking in a steamy bath, the skin around your pores is softened enough to give the side effect illusion of opening up your pores. Applying the mask at this time can help it suck up the deeper sebum and oil pockets and work even better. Just don’t let the water get too hot or you can dry out your skin!
Tip #7. DON’T dry out. Especially if you have dry skin, letting a mask dry completely until it cracks can actually make it worse. Oily skin can usually handle it a bit better, but leaving the mask on until it dries fully actually lets it start reabsorbing moisture from your skin. Up until that point, it’s just been your skin absorbs some of the moisture and all the benefits from the mask. If you’re worried about dehydrating your skin, the right time to take it off is when it’s tacky to the touch, but doesn’t shift around.
#8. Start going in circles. Remove clay masks in small circular movements. Once the clay has sucked out the grossness from the dark, evil depths of your pores (and helped to balance your oil production) a clay mask can finish off its work as an exfoliator if you use the silica in the clay to its best advantage and Very gently scrub your skin with the mask in small circles. This works especially well with masks using Kaolin clay due to the extra high silica content.
#9. Double your efforts with a serum. We all know we can’t apply a drying mask to the sensitive skin around our eyes (think of dark circle zone up to the top of your eyebrows as the no-apply zone), so why not put on that thick eye cream or serum at this time and let it absorb while you lay back and relax? You’re already pampering your skin, let your eyes benefit too while giving yourself a touchable barrier to know where NOT to apply the clay.
#10. Lock in the benefits by applying a light moisturizer immediately after removing the mask to keep the moisture in your skin. The first ~2 minutes are vital.
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