Aspirin Mask

I first came to know about Aspirin Mask on GT and from then on I started researching about its effectiveness before I put it to the test. It has a lot of positive feedbacks on MUA, Acne.Org and also different blogs, and the reviews are enough to convince me to try it myself. Now, the key thing in doing this mask is moderation. Once or twice a week for oily and blemished skin. For dry and sensitive skin, twice a month. Never over do it or it would lose its effects. It may also dry out the skin and cause flaking. Plus, it's bad to take too much aspirin cause even if this is applied on your face and not taken internally, still it gets absorbed and processed by the body.

There are alot of versions of this mask but I try to keep it plain and simple to see the real effects of aspirin.

How I do it:
I dissolve 3 pieces of uncoated aspirin into a half a tsp. of distilled water.
This should form a grainy mixture.
I apply it on my clean and dry face using my fingers in a circular motion.
I let the grains exfoliate my skin at the same time.
I avoid the eye area and I make sure nothing gets in my nose or I'll sneeze a lot.
Wait for 20-30 minutes and then I rinse with plain water.
Use Toner and Moisturizer.

Sometimes I add a dollop of honey into the mixture.
The honey serves as my binding agent and moisturizer.
Plus it smells really sweet and yummy! hehe


Why it should Work:
Aspirin is made out of Salicylic Acid or BetraHydroxy Acid (BHA) which is also a component of many skincare products. BHA is known to help tremendously with cleaning pores from deep inside and therefore contribute to keeping our skin blemish-free. BHAs are efficient on existing blemishes as well, by helping them heal faster and keeping pores clean afterwards.

Why I Love: It is effective yet very very very cheap! Whenever I do this I feel like a thin film coats my face which makes it soft and supple. I can also see that my face looks cleaner as it exfoliates dead skin cells and removes white heads. It is not a blackhead extractor but it lessens the blackheads in my nose a bit. The pores on my cheek also appear smaller and it help tame down the redness of my zits. On the average like 1 out of 3 tiny zits.

Ingredients: Distilled water, 80mg Bayer uncoated aspirin, honey (optional)
Availability: Drugstores. I think Mercury sells it cheaper than Watson's
Price: P1.60 - P2 for 80mg

I keep on doing this once a week to exfoliate my skin and also to control my pimples. I love this mask so so much! :)

(pictures to follow)

Update as of 06/26/2009: I was not able to do this for 2 weeks but recently I felt the need to do this mask again cause I am having a major breakout huhu like 10 very red pimples popped out. Because of my face's worsened condition I increased the number of aspirins i used to 5 pieces and fortunately it helped soothed some of them like they are not as red as before. It also brightened up my face and it looks cleaner despite the pimples I have. I am still too lazy to take pictures haha

The benefit of aspirin is lifted from http://ezinearticles.com/?DIY-Skin-Savers:-The-Aspirin-Mask&id=171592