What types of masks are there? What to look for when choosing them?

HOMEMADE MASKS FOR QUARANTINE.

To brighten up your days at home, you can transform your bathroom into a spa. Look through the contents of your cupboards and fridge! You may be surprised how you can conjure up simple and nourishing face masks from basic food products! Usually, their preparation does not require any special skills.

YEAST MASK.

Yeast is useful not only for making pizza dough. A homemade acne mask consists of this ingredient. Importantly, the yeast must be fresh , not instant. Do you have a cube of yeast in your fridge? Perfect! Here are the instructions:

1. Cut off about ¼ of a cube of yeast and mix it with milk into a thick paste.
2. Apply a thick layer to the entire face, and if necessary, also to acne-affected areas.
3. You can also feel free to apply the yeast mask to your neckline and back.
4. Apply the mask for 15 minutes, then rinse thoroughly with warm water.

A cube of yeast costs around 1 złoty, so it is one of the cheapest and most effective options when it comes to homemade masks.

If you have dry skin, you can add a few drops of olive oil to the paste, and if you are struggling with acne discoloration, add some lemon juice . Although a mask made of fresh yeast does not smell the most beautiful under the sun, it can be a real beauty ally, especially for combination, oily and acne-prone skin. The secret to its effectiveness lies in the high content of B vitamins, as well as chromium and selenium. What effects can you expect? Mattifying the skin, narrowing pores, evening out the color, calming the complexion and smoothing the skin.

HONEY MASK.

Fans of eco cosmetics and natural medicine have long advised not to put anything on your skin that you can't eat . Homemade masks fit into this rule. So use products rich in nutrients by the handful. One of them is honey .

A honey mask is a great idea for any skin type , but honey is also great for washing your face! This method is recommended by facial yoga trainer and Ayurveda enthusiast Marta Kucińska from jogapiękna.pl . Of course, the idea is to wash your face with honey after waking up , because when it comes to make-up removal, we definitely advise against honey - it is too delicate. We recommend GLOV gloves for make-up removal. In the meantime, grab a jar of honey from the cupboard and think about washing your skin with it in the morning. During quarantine, there is more time for a lazy run-up and this is the chance for the honey mask to lie on your face for up to 10 minutes before you wash it off. You can use any type of honey , just remember that it will liquefy under the influence of skin heat and may drip off your face. We like to mix it with clays, rice flour or chickpea flour - then you can do a gentle peeling right away. There is also another proven and simple way to make a honey mask. When you use up a lemon, squeezing its juice into tea or a dish, leave the squeezed half and put a teaspoon of any honey inside it. Grab the peel and massage the inside of the lemon into the cleansed skin of your face, then rinse thoroughly with lukewarm water. What does a homemade honey mask do? It moisturizes the skin of your face fantastically, nourishes it, absorbs excess sebum, soothes irritations and redness, and also promotes the healing of wounds and helps the skin regenerate.

AVOCADO MASK.

A homemade avocado mask will appeal to fans of the less waste idea! Contrary to internet advice, you don't have to use half of an avocado to crush it and apply it to your face. Are you interested in a cheap way to improve the condition of your skin? After you have scooped out the pulp from the peel, turn it inside out and massage your face with it. Spread the remaining avocado on your skin in this way. Leave it for a few or a dozen minutes and wash it off with water. Avocado restores radiance to the skin, improves its color, has anti-wrinkle properties and makes it more elastic. This is due to unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins from group B, A, vitamins PP, K and H. If you prefer, you can also combine the pulp of the avocado with honey or lemon and apply it to your face in this form.

HOMEMADE OATMEAL CLEANSING MASK .

This is another hit of home care. Lightly exfoliating dead skin, gentle, moisturizing and calming the skin - an oatmeal mask! It can be mixed with other ingredients or simply applied to the face. We hasten to explain what and for whom. If you have a problem with dry skin , mix oatmeal with a spoonful of honey and a little milk or warm water. Mix into a paste and apply to the face, avoiding the eye area. Oily and combination skin will benefit if you exfoliate it with a mixture of oatmeal, lemon juice and natural yogurt. This is a very gentle exfoliation, does no harm, and leaves the skin moisturized and refreshed. A cleansing face mask using oatmeal requires the use of egg white. Beat it like an omelet, add the flakes, mix with a spoon until the ingredients are gently combined and apply to the skin. Wash off only when the white has dried. All of the above combinations are worth recommending. Oat flakes, when exposed to water, produce mucus, which additionally softens the skin and makes it silky to the touch.

CREAM MASK.

A cream mask is an express way to beautify your face. Just one spoon applied for a few minutes cools the skin, soothes it and leaves it soft and moisturized. Of course, I am talking about sour cream , the kind that often reigns supreme on Polish tables. You can apply it alone or mix it with rice flour, chickpea flour or selected clay to thicken it. To create a vitamin bomb, just add a ripe, mashed banana and a few drops of lemon juice or honey to the cream. Cream will work great as a mask with avocado or a bit of olive oil. See for yourself which cream mask is your favorite. You can expect elastic and soothed skin. Don't have cream on hand? Swap it for natural yogurt!

HOMEMADE ASPIRIN MASK.

If you have already looked through your pantry, you can still reach for aspirin or polopiryna from the medicine cabinet. However, this mask is for special use and unlike a homemade mask made of honey, avocado, oatmeal or other food products, it has a much greater striking power . Due to the content of acetylsalicylic acid, it acts like acids made in a beauty salon, so it is not suitable for sensitive or vascular skin and requires the use of creams with a high UV filter. An aspirin mask , like acids, works well for acne-prone skin, contaminated skin with imperfections and blackheads. Of course, you can also apply an aspirin or polopiryna mask locally or only to the T-zone, to avoid irritation of dry or sensitive cheeks. To make an aspirin mask, you will need about four tablets, and if you want to use polopiryna, up to seven . Pour a little hydrolate over them and let them soften, then add some thick natural yogurt (Greek yogurt works great) or sour cream. Mix and apply to your face for a few minutes. Rinse the mask thoroughly with water and remember to use sunscreen to avoid discoloration.

PURCHASED MASKS.

In addition to homemade options, you can also choose from drugstore masks. There are so many of them that you could practically apply them on any other day of the year (but don't do that if you've read our articles on skin care diet, you know very well that you can overfeed your skin too). Let's take a look at the most popular and less popular masks available in stores.

SHEET MASKS.

Adored by fans of Korean skincare, however, skininfluencers accuse them of being packed with large amounts of preservatives . On the other hand, fans appreciate that they are quick to apply and easy to remove from the face . You can put such a mask on your face on a train, plane, or on a pool lounger, and a small sachet with this cosmetic will fit in any cosmetics case. It's hard to talk about properties here, because the sheet is just a carrier for ingredients and active substances. A sheet mask can be moisturizing, nourishing, brightening, etc. Those that draw heavily on Asian roots may contain green tea extracts, added pearls or snail slime . In addition to the ingredients, also pay attention to what the mask is made of (viscose or maybe polyester?). Apply the sheet mask after carefully removing make-up and exfoliating (we recommend this GLOV Oily Skin glove for this). This will allow the mask ingredients to absorb better.

PEEL OFF MASKS.

Gel peel-off masks are best for those with oily, impure or combination skin. They can be too irritating for sensitive or dry skin. What are the characteristics of such a mask? The thick gel is applied to cleansed facial skin, allowed to set and dry. It takes only a few minutes, and the mask does not run or stain clothes (although it is worth avoiding sidelocks, baby hair on the forehead and eyebrows). After drying, it is removed in sheets, peeling off the skin. A cleansed, refreshed face awaits underneath! These masks are usually sold in sachets and can be found in any drugstore. They are cheap and do not require special skill to use. There are also other peel-off formulas, e.g. powder with plant ingredients (mallow, cornflower and nettle petals) mixed with algae, vitamin C and diatomaceous earth. Thanks to this, after mixing with water or hydrolate, it sets on the face, a bit like a combination of a clay and algae mask. Later, it is traditionally peeled off from the skin of the face in strips. Powdered masks have the advantage over ready-made ones that the active ingredients are more durable, and the mask does not have to contain such strong preservatives, because it is mixed with water just before use. This option is definitely better for sensitive or dry skin.

CLAY.

Clay face masks are a real treat for fans of natural care. Clay can be mixed with hydrolate, yogurt or oil. It can be used to make a cleansing paste or a face mask. Clays seem durable, but it is worth checking the expiration date, because although they do not go rancid, they can become a breeding ground for fungi and mold. The most popular clay masks are powdered, which we mix at home with water or a selected hydrolate or turn into cleansing pastes.

• Green clay is mainly intended for the care of oily, impure and acne-prone skin. It cleanses, regulates sebum secretion, soothes inflammation and gently mattifies the skin.
• Pink clay is recommended for vascular and sensitive skin. It firms the skin and seals blood vessels.
• The mildest of all is white clay ! Sensitive people will love it.

The clay mask is easy to apply, but don't let it dry on your skin! After application, you should spray yourself with hydrolate or thermal water every now and then, otherwise you will get an unpleasant feeling of tightness, and washing the mask off will be troublesome. If you are a fan of masks that are hard to wipe off your face, and you don't want to scrub and stretch your skin, we recommend our GLOV Mask Remover mask glove. It will cope great even with clay masks, and your complexion will remain intact.

FANCY MASKS.

Apart from their nourishing properties, masks are a bit like fashionable accessories these days. Instagrammable sheet masks that will turn you into a cute tiger, glamorous masks with glitter, masks with gold, charcoal, snail slime, or bubble masks that foam under the influence of air are sometimes more for fun than for actual care. It is important to choose masks that do not irritate us and that we will use regularly several times a week. We are curious about your favorite masks - those from grandma's recipes and those from drugstore shelves :) Remember to always choose a mask that meets the needs of your skin!