So last night I decided I wanted to entertain myself. I watched a movie which reminded me of the fact that women do cosmetic masks using the usual ingredients you would find in one’s pantry / fridge. So I looked up online the ingredients and directions to two concoctions and my experience was surprising to say the least.

Mask #1 (for blackheads):

1. 1 egg white
2. 1 tbsp of sugar, dissolved in the egg white

What you do:

You start off by applying the first layer onto the skin where you have blackheads using a cotton pad (most often the area is your T zone but you may apply it as you see fit). Then you wait for the first layer to dry complete and apply the second layer on top of it. Then you’re supposed to start “tapping” the area you have applied this egg mixture on using your finger tips and as you do that, the mixture is slowly drying up. As it gets sticky, it performs the same kind of trick that those expensive “skin stickers” do – it starts to gently pull out the blackheads in the skin. I know, so sexy and appealing.

But the results actually surprised me! The area did look as if I had just treated it with something. Ok, maybe it’s not as thorough with removing every little bit out of the skin but it’s much more gentle on your skin too, so you don’t have to feel like you’re getting a waxing all in one go either.

Mask #2 (for dry skin):

*Not for the faint of heart*

1. 1 tbsp of olive oil
2. 1 tsp of mustard powder
3. some water to dilute it

What you do or supposed to do:

You’re supposed to mix the mustard powder in with the oil and then dilute it with water. I mixed it with water first and it didn’t mix so well with the oil afterwards. My first mistake. My second mistake was overestimating the validity of the writer who came up with the damn thing! It actually says to “apply the mask and wait for 5 minutes before washing it off”. Ok, as soon as a tiny bit of it touches your face, your eyes get super wide in alarm of the upcoming emergency. You turn on the water as cold as you can to put out the self-inflicted fire that had now spread across your too-sensitive face. Yes, silly me thought that the oil would somehow neutralize or at the very least lessen the burning potency of mustard. Thankfully – not much damage done and I have lived to tell the tale :)

Will definitely try doing more masks in the future to experiment :)

I might be the only one on this but I’m almost positive I’m not – in thinking that it’s difficult (if even possible) to believe the sell-out bloggers give raves all the time for products they were given for free. There’s a Russian saying about how you don’t look at teeth of a gifted horse (and for those who don’t know, how good the horse’s teeth are reflect how good the health of the horse is). If you didn’t have to pay for it and more importantly if someone is waiting for you to say something good about this product, chances are that you’ll cave under the pressure if you’d like to keep getting these free products. With that being said, I wanted to post a review out of my own free will, meaning that nobody told me to or paid me to say what I’m about to say here. You can take my word for it or not, up to you.

With the fast approaching wedding date comes the appropriate planning for spa trips, hair / make-up appointments and general cosmetic self-maintenance. And the cosmetic industry shacked up together with the wedding industry and started pushing at you everything that you might remotely need the day of: teeth whitening, laser eye surgery, and so on. One of the more common issues encountered in that category is perspiration. Honestly, I should say I’m truly blessed that I don’t have a huge problem in that department. My aunt was not so lucky and I remember as soon as Soviet fell apart and we could have imported goods in Russia, she started trying any kind of deodorant/antiperspirant she could get her hands on. And some people have it so bad that their hands sweat all the time, to the point that you have to keep wiping them every 10 minutes or they literally glisten with moisture. But I’m also a normal human being with normal sweat glands that from time to time get activated and I know how you almost want to jump out of your clothes as soon as you feel yourself starting to sweat. And since the wedding dress is something you get to wear for approximately 12 hours of the day, change of clothes wouldn’t be an option, so I started looking into medical alternatives.

Way back in high school, a friend had recommended Drysol to another friend of mine who had severe perspiration issues, so I had my family doctor issue me a sample of Drysol. Generally Drysol has mixed reviews but what should be noted is that the active ingredient here is Aluminum Chloride and frankly it may not serve as much good to your health as you may have hoped it to. But the doctor had also recommended this new deodorant (not to be confused with antiperspirant like Drysol) called the Crystal, made up of minerals / salts that basically kill bacteria on the skin, which cause odor once the sweat reaches the skin with bacteria on it. Technically, if you used antibacterial gel on your armpits all the time, you wouldn’t have odor, but who wants to do that? I have eczyma as it is so something as strong as antibacterial gel would be suicide for me. The Crystal looks exactly like a polished quartz crystal too!

Mine looks a little cracked now since I dropped it on the bathroom floor but it didn’t crumble, thankfully. But because this was a deodorant that killed odor and not stopped perspiration, I was a bit skeptical if this was the option for me. So I decided to take it out for a test drive today. Mind you, I didn’t go to drastic measures and go to the sauna in my winter clothes to see how much sweating I could induce. Knowing myself, however, I wore a sweater to work and applied Crystal just before leaving out the door. There was no residue you usually get from antiperspirants like Dove and Secret, which stain your clothes and you have to spend hours trying to get out. You have to wet the stone under a bit of running water and quickly rub it on your skin. And it dries very quickly, which also was a pleasant surprise.

So the big tah-dah was when I came home from work and took off my sweater and.. you won’t believe it but I couldn’t smell ANYthing. Not on my skin, not on my sweater (which never happened before). The skin was silky smooth and as pleasant to smell as it is right after a bath.

Conclusion:

The fact that it’s all natural and made of salts / minerals you find in air and water definitely beats the possible chemical hazard of Aluminum Chloride. It sells for just about $7 (the full version and not the portable version pictured above for $2.30) and lasts up to a year [www.thecrystal.com]. Honestly, I’ve never encountered an antiperspirant that actually did its job but now there’s the deodorant that actually does what you paid for it to do. So yes, it’s a rave but only because I wanted to share the good news and not sell it to you :) It’s winter now anyways!