Aloe Vera. An obscure plant. A plant my parents had in their garden when I was little. Kind of known what it was but in my 9 year old head, it was just this prickly, hard looking ugly plant. Cut it open and it gets worse. Slimy, sticky and a little stinky. Like cracking open an alien head, if I ever cracked one. According to www.skinhelpers.com, Aloe Vera is one of the wealthiest plants in terms of vitamins. People often used the plant as an facial cleanser.
Fast forward two decades later, I stumbled upon a simply DIY eye gel recipe. Whisk cucumber and aloe vera gel together. Chill for one hour. Result: Eye gel. Lazy as usual, I used a blender instead. A high powered blender, that is. Smart right? Not really. I wasn’t sure when I should stop or how the texture was suppose to be. It said ‘thoroughly combine’ and so I set the blender to high and blended to do just that. When it eventually came to a stop about 15 seconds later, it had bubbled like there was no tomorrow.
One look at it, and I knew this was no eye gel. Regardless, I chilled it and hoped for the best.
One hour later, it still looked the same. I scooped the bubbles aside hoping for a miracle. Nope.
Two hours later, still no difference. This can’t be happening. Just my dumb luck with making things ‘set’ like my chocolate chia pudding. I decided to brave the bubbles and dig in. I scooped the bubbles aside again. A HUGE sigh of relief. There it was, what was left of this bubbly concoction.
Ok. So obviously, this was NOT supposed to happen. Gel turned liquid. Still, it looked too tempting not to try.
You see, my face is dry and rough. Rough as in if you drive a four-wheeler on it, it would’ve been the bumpiest ride you would’ve ever taken. So, I read up on the properties of cucumber and aloe vera and its benefits on the skin. I was sold.
After I washed my face with a cleanser and dried it, I put a generous layer of the cucumber aloe mask all over my face. In the original recipe, it said to leave it on overnight. But that was for the eye and besides, after 20 minutes, it tightened quite a bit (like a mask which explains the title of this post). So, afraid that if left overnight, my face might harden and tighten into an inexplicable piece of art, I rinsed it off instead. After a quick face moisturizer application ritual, Mr. V, my tester touched my face and said ‘Neh’ and shrugged. It made very little difference. Cool to the touch, slightly soft but not silky, velvety smooth.
I kept my hopes high. Every other day for that week, I used the mask. Then came test time. I got what you call a ‘pull up a pair of socks and you can slide all over my face’ kind of smooth. Like on newly polished hardwood floors. I was impressed. My face has never been this smooth since I hit puberty.
The original recipe said it can keep for 3 months in the fridge. I continued using it for a month. It didn’t smell funky or grew any mold. But I didn’t want it kept too long so once in a while, I’d put some on Mr. V’s acne prone shoulders and back. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.
I dub this project… success from failure. Yippee!
Quick Recipe
what you need:
2 tbs cucumber juice (extract from juicing or blending)
4 oz or 110 g of aloe vera (extract from fresh plant or store bought 100% aloe gel)
directions:
- Put cucumber juice and aloe vera in a blender and blend on high.
- Pour into a small glass bottle, cover and refrigerate for 2-4 hours.
- Scoop bubbles out and transfer to a face cream bottle (optional)
Important Notes
- Remember to keep the cucumber aloe mask refrigerated.
- The texture will be in liquid form, but the thickness depends on the ratio of aloe to cucumber juice. If you’re want it thicker, add more aloe.
- Keep exposure to air to minimum as cucumber juice or the mask oxidizes fast and makes it brownish in color. If that happens, it’s still VERY useful, just really gross looking.. unless you love brown.
What homemade mask have you made that has worked beautifully?
