11 Homemade Face Masks

by Posy Hammond

11 homemade face mask recipes to unleash the DIY goddess within and create natural and cheap beauty recipes - all in the comfort of your own little kitchen.

Using a face mask once a week is a great skin care habit to get into, and it's something you don't have to pay for - you can make it with ingredients you've probably already got at home. A homemade face masks can hydrate the skin and cleanse or tighten the pores just as well as a shop-bought one, followed by a facial steam if desired.

These homemade face masks are great for all skin types (except for those which are particularly good for oily or sensitive skin - see below). You'll see the same ingredients again and again in these face masks. As a rule, fruits and juices are good for oily skin, green tea is good for calming down sensitive skin, oils and glycerin and honey are good for dry skin, and oats / yoghurt / gram flour are good for all skin types. You can't go wrong with oats and yoghurt!

Leave these face masks on for about 15 minutes - if they feel genuinely uncomfortable, wash the mixture off, but the ingredients are established in DIY skin treatments and should feel nice and gentle on your skin. Rinse off your face mask in warm water (to let the goodness soak into the pores) followed by cold water (to help your pores close up), then apply some moisturiser (or, if you prefer, some coconut oil, bio oil, almond oil or finest olive oil).

1. Homemade fruit face mask

This face mask is a Mookychick favourite. This is a natural acid skin peel that will leave the face feeling peachy instantly.

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• A fresh pineapple
• 2 Tablespoons of fine oatmeal or gram flour
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

Cut the rough peel from the pineapple, leaving some of the flesh on, and put the cut bits in a blender along with the rest of the ingredients. Et voila! Your natural skin peel is ready! Use it to gently scrub your face, avoiding the delicate skin around your eyes. You can, of course, make yourself a virgin cocktail with the remaining mixture if you haven't used it all.

Leave it on for 15 minutes, then rinse with cold water and slap on some moisturiser. Your skin should look pleasantly fresh. You're done!

2. Homemade eggs 'n yoghurt face mask

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• 2 Egg whites
• A couple of tablespoons of plain yoghurt (Greek yoghurt has friendly live bacteria in it and tastes as creamy as it feels)

First, separate the egg whites. All crones, witches and grandmothers know how to do this, along with sucking eggs: Just crack the eggs open gently and let the egg whites pour into a clean bowl. Egg whites remove excess oil from your face and make it wonderfully smooth. You can use the leftover egg yolks to make custard or ice cream. Next, mix the egg whites and yoghurt and pat the mixture onto your face. Leave it on for fifteen minutes, then gently wash it off and pat your face dry. This face mask is lovely and conditioning!

3. Homemade clay face mask

This one's a bit more fancy - clay masks are famously great at minimising pores and being kind to your skin, but you'll need to order the clay in - so strictly speaking it's not ingredients you'd easily find in your kitchen. Unless you nibble clay on a regular basis.

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• A tablespoon of kaolin clay
• Two tablespoons of green clay (or three tablespoons of whichever clay you prefer if you only manage to get one kind)
• Half a tablespoon of aloe vera gel
• Two tablespoons of water

Mix the clays in a bowl along with the water and aloe vera gel, if you managed to get it. They usually sell aloe vera gel in health food shops and some supermarkets. If you want to be fancy, you can steep lavender, lemons slices or rose petals in the water to give it a fresh fragrance, or just splash out on some rose water. Let the mask go dry on your face, leaving it on for about 15 minutes. This one will definitely need a little bit of moisturiser afterwards, as clay - among its other fantastic properties - has quite a drying effect.

4. Homemade face mask with yoghurt and oatmeal

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• A tablespoon of fine oatmeal
• A tablespoon of live Greek yoghurt
• A small drizzle of honey
• For oily / combination skins: Add some finely grated cucumber and a pinch of turmeric

First, you need to make sure the oatmeal is really fine. No chunky oat flakes! Use a mortar and pestle to grind it down if you have one, or buy it finely ground in the first place. If you've got porridge oats in your kitchen, pop a small handful in a plastic bag and scrunch them and mash them (with a hand, spoon or heavy filled jar) until they're ground. Mix the fine oatmeal in a bowl with some yoghurt, along with a drizzle of honey. Ensure everything is smoothly mixed. Pat the finished face mask onto your face and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes, then gently rinse it off. This DIY face mask works really well for sensitive skin - if your skin is sunburned, easily irritated or chapped, this face mask shouldn't increase the sensitivity.

5. Best for oily skin prone to spots - Homemade banana face mask / scrub

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• A very ripe banana
• A tablespoon of honey
• A tablespoon of squeezed lemon juice

Lemon juice is an astrigent and will help to balance and dry out oily skin. Mash the banana in a bowl along with the honey and squeezed lemon. Pop it on your face for 15 minutes, then gently wash it off. If you add a tablespoon of granulated sugar to this face mask it becomes a scrub! Rub the scrub into your face in a gentle circles to exfoliate your skin, leave it on for 15 minutes then wash off.

6. Homemade rose petal face mask

This face mask is lovely for all skin types - especially dry faces with an oily T-zone - because it'll help balance out the dry and oily parts of your skin.

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• A tablespoon of live greek yoghurt
• A tablespoon of honey
• 2 tablespoons of rose water

Mix all the ingredients together, mashing the rose petals into the mixture. The petals aren't required - they're just lovely to look at, and will make you feel like you've just made something you could have bought at Lush.

7. For dry skins - Homemade Lemon and Rose face mask

This face mask is lovely for all skin types - especially dry faces with an oily T-zone - because it'll help balance out the dry and oily parts of your skin.

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• A tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
• A tablespoon of glycerine
• A tablespoon of rose water

Even with the astringent lemon juice to balance it out, this is a fabulous face mask for dry skin. Mix it all up, pat it on your skin and leave it on for 5-15 minutes before washing it off. Try making this face mask without lemon juice in winter, and adding it in summer.

8. Homemade Coffee face mask

This face mask is lovely for all skin types - especially dry faces with an oily T-zone - because it'll help balance out the dry and oily parts of your skin.

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• A tablespoon of ground coffee
• A tablespoon of honey

This one is absolutely marvellous for all skin types. The texture of the grounds exfoliates the skin. Coffee has natural antioxidants - again, good for the skin - and the honey moisturises. Mix up more than you need, then pop it in a small jar or tupperware and leave it in the fridge for your weekly mask scrub. It'll last for ages.

9. Homemade Green Tea face mask

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• Green tea
• A tablespoon of granulated sugar
• Half a tablespoon of lemon juice

Green tea is famously good for problem skin. It can help with your acne, but it's also great at soothing sensitive skin of all kinds. Make a cup of green tea (with lots of tea. Twice as much loose tea as you'd normally use to drink, or two teabags if you use tea bags). Leave the tea bags in for an hour, and if the tea is still warm (unlikely) chill it in the fridge until it's cool. Take it out, mix in the sugar and lemon juice, pat it onto your face and either use it as a facewash or (better) leave it on for 15 minutes. Wash off and moisturise.

10. Homemade Italian salad face mask

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• Ripe tomato
• Olive oil (for dry skins)

No, we're not joking. Pulp a ripe tomato (with olive oil, if you have dry skin) and smear it onto your face for ten minutes. The natural acid of the tomato will do wonders for you skin. Don't leave it on too long, though, and be sure to moisturise afterwards.

11. Homemade chocolate face mask

Ingredients for this homemade beauty recipe:

• 2/3 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 Tablespoons live greek yoghurt (or, if preferred, a little water - or coconut milk)
• 3 Tablespoons fine oatmeal / gram flour

Chocolate breaks down pesky free radicals, its antioxidants have cleansing properties, and it's full of magnesiumm (which stimulates progesterone, which is what we lack during the menstrual period). Mix all the (cold, not heated) ingredients up in a blender and apply to your face for ten minutes before washing off. What's not to love?

Once you've tried a few homemade face masks you'll soon realise you can dabble with the amounts of things used, you can add an ingredient here, remove one there... you can make a DIY beauty face mask as unique as your skin. It's fun, it's natural and it's cheap. Enjoy!

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