Coffee and egg white exfoliating face mask

How far would I go for a skincare regime? The answer is just to my kitchen. There is a new skin care line becoming popular, skin care so pure, natural and free of unnecessary chemicals that you can eat it. Speaking herbs is one such example. But, isn’t that what we have always been doing – turmeric, tomatoes, curd, honey, papaya they all have been part of the food and of my skin care ever since the hormones kicked in, Pip and Estella facing the consequences of their choices, and acne became a part of daily life.

In the adolescent years, fresh harvest from the kitchen garden used to be my natural skincare routine every alternate day, but, now age metamorphizing me into a sloth, the frequency of the DIY face packs has come to twice a month. My recent favorite being coffee and egg white face mask. 

Coffee – is high in antioxidants and works as an excellent natural exfoliant to scrub, smooth, and soften the skin. It works effectively to remove the layer of dead skin. 

Eggs – are rich in protein and albumin that have skin tightening and pore shrinking properties. 

For the DIY facemask, crack open an egg and separate the white from the yolk. Whip the egg white in a bowl and add a tablespoon of coffee and mix it together.

To the facemask, you can also add a small tablespoon of honey and apply the facial mixture to your face. Allow the face mask to dry for 10 – 15 minutes and wash off the facial mask once it’s dry using lukewarm water.

The mask works very well in tightening the pores, proteins present in the egg whites can help improve skin tone and elasticity. Coffee helps scrubs away the dead skin cells, caffeine has been reported to reduce inflammation and increase blood flow. The collagen in the egg helps improve elasticity but the collagen is too big a molecule and cannot penetrate into the skin, so the skin tightening effect is temporary. The only proteins claimed to be able to go deeper into the skin are the new peptide creams that are a rage in the skincare industry. The tetra, penta, and hexapeptides are claimed to stimulate collagen and fibronectin production. Perhaps I will write a more detailed post on the peptide creams. For now, the kitchen shelf is the holy grail. 

I have been using the pack for the past few months and the molecules are too big to penetrate the skin to give a permanent tightening solution but the temporary smoothening effect is a win-win.