I decided – at 0530 this morning, – to have a BEAUTY WEEK on The Spike for no other reason than as it happens I have got a lot of beauty things to talk about and I thought we might as well turn our minds to it all together.
Today: clay masks and clay-based products. I know, I know! As exciting as a home visit from the Fleabag hot priest!
BUT if you have skin that has a tendency to be congested or oily, a clay mask should absolutely be something you do every now and again. These are not magic tricks, like most skin treatments you will see an improvement over time with regular use of a clay mask treatment, that’s just one of the boring truths about life.
Until my children were all at school it was something I did NEVER because it got to bed time and I thought “There is no fucking way I am going to wait 10 minutes for this to dry and then go back to the bathroom and wash it off.”
But now my children are less tiring and enervating and I feel I am more inclined to use a clay mask and so I do, once or twice a week, depending on how screechy and demanding my skin is being.
There are a million different clay masks you can use and they are all more or less the same, but the ones I have been using recently, which I can personally vouch for, are this one from Origins
and also this rather controversial one from Sand + Sky. Following a super-successful Instagram campaign, you would think that Sand + Sky not only did a good bit of clear-out work on your pores, but turned you into actual Jennifer Lawrence. Non. But it is rather wonderful and I just really love the little brush that comes with it, that means you aren’t picking bits of clay out from under your nails and cuticles when you could be falling asleep.
This one, from Omorovicza, is hideously expensive but genuinely makes your skin feel fresh and bright. In the morning you see a difference – if you normally wake up looking a bit puffy, naming no names ME. I’m not recommending that you go out and buy it, but if someone gets it for you as a gift, be very excited.
This clay-based cleanser from Ren, is a good place to start if your skin is just behaving utterly abominably and absolutely nothing in your cabinet is working.
Stop using absolutely everything you are using and just cleanse with this twice a day. It feels a little funny because it’s just a cream and doesn’t foam. You add it with wet hands to a dry face and give your whole visage a good massage with it, then take off with a warm flannel.
You could also, for good measure, switch to this moisturiser from NeoStrata.
This was recommended to me by Pam from Mortar and Milk and since using it I have seen a dramatic reduction in that serious congestion along my jawline that I am always moaning on about – you only need a tiny blob of it and you smoosh it into your hands and then pat onto your face. Will not irritate even the most highly-strung of complexions.
So excited about Beauty Week!
Love, love, love Fleabag and the hot priest! Binge watched all six episodes this past Saturday. Also love the origins clear improvement (maybe not quite as much as Fleabag).
listen Kelly if YOU are not going to rank these things in order who the hell is?
I have recently come back to clay masks and my skin is showing the difference. I’m currently loving Beauty Pie’s black clay and eucalyptus (?). Skin genuinely better, calmer, less red- and rosacea-y.
Has anyone tried the Flavanone mud mask from Niod? As with most Victoria Health products, the way they eulogise it makes it sound like an utter game-changer but I wonder how it really does compare to other clay masks….
I’ve used the Flavanone stuff. It’s a bit full on as it’s very red and tough to get off. Not in a baked-on-like-a-brick way, but it’s just so heavily pigmented, I find I have to rinse my face with a muslin cloth about a billion times before it comes away clear. Not sure how good this for dry, sensitive skin, but I use it every month or so just to give it all a satisfying deep clean. It definitely freshens your face up and it’s a good price.
The mud I really used to love was the Princess Marcella Borghese ‘Fango’ mask, or whatever the hell it was called (what is it about clay masks and bonkers names?!), that they used to flog in Selfridges back in the day. It came in a Kilmer jar of all things, as if the Princess was knocking it out in her castle’s kitchen. That stuff made your skin like silk.
I remember that Borghese mask. Coveted it like mad.
Coincidentally I got sent a tester of the Omorovicza one in a goody bag from Space NK yesterday. Tried it last night and it is genuinely amazing. I will 100% be buying it, even if I have to not eat for a month.
Omorovicza is so good in general for unpuffy glowing skin, and is absolutely tragic for realizing that sometimes very expensive skincare products really are just that good. And Amazon doesn’t help at all, there are absolutely knockoff Omorovicza products all over there and they will not work and will make you break out. The Omorovicza moisturizer that works best for a friend of mine has ruby dust in it. Ruby dust. What are we supposed to do with the knowledge that we’d look better if we put ruby dust on our faces.