Home made beauty - turmeric face mask

I love noodling about on the internet and recently I noodled upon the lovely Vintagious channel which has lots of basic vintage hair and make up tutorials.  Well worth a look.

One of her posts though, really grabbed my attention.  The turmeric face mask, which seemed to really work to lighten and brighten her skin.  Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not after whiter skin, well not really, I'm pale enough - and I'm completely aware that the vintage = pale thing is nonsense.  Look at Coco Chanel and her deep tan, the ruddy faces of landgirls...etc etc.  A tan is much more vintage accurate.

But...but...I have dull skin and patchy areas of freckles post Summer and could definitely do with tidying the whole lot up a bit.

Turmeric masks are an Indian bridal ritual used for thousands of years, using just the contents of your larder.  I couldn't resist.

There are lots of recipes out there but I went for simple: turmeric plus a splash of milk plus a drop of honey.  Slather it on the face and rub in, get in the bath. Wash off a good few times then tone with lemon juice.

It worked a treat and I didn't look like an oompa loompa afterwards.

So here goes nothing, do not run in fear from my make up free visage:

1) The before -

2. The during

3. The after

It is hard to see the results but my skin looked so much smoother and brighter that my good chap, when he popped round soon after, commented on how rested and alive I looked.  I'm taking that as a positive.

The only negative side:  a yellow bath:

I can only conclude it works in a few ways:  the lactic acid in the milk, the acid in the lemon and the exfoliating action of rubbing in the powder all buff the skin while the turmeric and lemon whiten.  Lemon has long been used to whiten dark nails and skin.  Lemon wedges on the elbows anyone?

So, I'm going to do this a couple of times a week for the next month and see if it fades my unevenly freckled boat race.

I shall be sure to report back at the end of the month - wish me luck!