I love beauty products. I'm not afraid to say that I'm a little vain. I have an extensive beauty regime because I don't quite trust my Asian heritage to win out over my Anglo heritage when it comes to remaining well-preserved into my old age.
As a bare minimum, I use a foaming face wash every day, with a scrub thrown in every 2-3 days. I then follow it with at least a heavy-duty moisturiser, but usually I'll throw a moisturising foundation over the top, and if I'm feeling really dry, I'll also use a serum before I moisturise, just to make sure it's all soaking in nice and deep.
I'm a big believer in making sure my skin remains elastic, and that generally means keeping it moisturised and supple, as well as the usual hydrating-from-the-inside philosophy.
The only problem with a moisture-rich regime is that is does lend itself to blemish outbreaks if you're not careful about exfoliating, which is why I scrub at least every three days.
And of course, such regular exfoliation isn't without its risks either. You've got to maintain that fine line between removing the excess skin and gunk and prematurely abrading the new skin beneath.
Enter my new favourite face scrub: rice flour.
I originally bought it because I read on The Beauty Department that it's great as a dry shampoo alternative. Well, either they found much finer rice flour than I did, or it's just not as fabulous as they'd have you believe. Either way, it was not super-effective for me and ended up making me look like I had greasy hair and dandruff! So I was left with a container of rice flour that I'd poured out and stuck my brush into - clearly inappropriate for cooking with.
Running my hands through my gritty, oily, rice-flour-filled hair, it hit me. The texture would be perfect for a face scrub.
Face Scrub Recipe
So here's what you'll need:
- A single portion of your favourite face wash, preferably something gel-like that will foam up.
- 1/2 teaspoon rice flour
Yep, that's it. Mix them together and then wash your face as normal, making sure to really work the rice flour into the trouble spots (for me, it's the t-zone, but especially around the sides of my nostrils).
Do you have any ridiculously simple DIY beauty tricks? Or a better alternative for dry shampoo? I'd love to hear them in the comments below :)