October 30, 2006The Great Pumpkin Peel
Jennifer Tanner
The lucious applesauce blend masque left the face feeling cool and smooth. This next masque is nourishing, creamy and will leave your skin feeling soft and supple. Just in time to use that leftover pumpkin before you end up doing something crazy with it like baking a pie! Enjoy!!
But before we begin, a few words about the term peel. I think this is a misleading term for what is essentially an exfoliating facial masque. A lot of people think of peels as those fun novelty (but essentially drying) peel-off facial masks. These are generally made with a lot of alcohol which enables the product to dry into a film that you pull of your skin like dried glue (yuck). Don’t get me wrong though, back when I was trying to figure out what to do for sagging skin, I came across a plethora of great products (as well as reviews). What is now commonly called a peel however is a masque made with some form of AHA's (alpha hydroxy acids) in the case of this masque, it is the bromelain from the pineapple. What this does is gently dissolve dead skin cells rather than scrub them off manually with some form of grain. That said, let's get started!
1 mini pumpkin or canned pumpkin
4 or so chunks of pineapple
Approx. 1 tablespoon Each finely ground oats and almonds
1 teaspoon - Milk
1 squirt honey
10 drops carrot essential oil
2 drops rose essential oil
2 drops lavender essential oil
2 drops geranium essential oilCut and core pumpkin into 6-8 pieces. If using canned pumpkin, skip this step. Process flesh and seeds in a food processor until smooth. Add pineapple, oats, almonds, honey, carrot oil. Mix till smooth. Add essential oils. Should be rich, grainy from the almonds but otherwise fairly smooth. Apply to clean skin, rinse with tepid water after 15 minutes. Tone and moisturize. If you are going outside at all apply a sunscreen. Makes about 3 applications.