I personally LOVE DIY’ing. All my face masks are basically a mixture of various diy ingredients and yes they work well! But there are certain ingredients that you need to STOP using. These could be for various reasons.. Let me explain it to you all.
Your skin has many layers; and there are a few protective layers. In detail, your skin has an acid mantle where it maintains a Ph level of 4-5 (slightly acidic) so that the monstrous unwanted bacteria are kept away. Disrupting the acid level of your skin can cause acne and other nasty infections. There is also a lipid layer, which secrets oil to protect your skin from environmental damage. This layer is responsible for your ‘glow’ since it stores all the wonderful natural oils and doesn’t let your skin dry. Certain DIY ingredients disrupt these layers and hence your skin is prone to environmental attacks!
Let me list down a few of these diy ingredients that you need to avoid!
LEMON!
Shocked! Yes, I have also used lemon in most of my DIY’s buy ONLY a drop or two. Well, again if you mix it with honey then it gets diluted but lemon when used alone only disrupts your acid mantle and lipid layers creating havoc on your skin cells! Lemon has a very low Ph level - 2; this Ph level disrupts your acid mantle thereby exposing your skin to environmental damages and making it weak to fight bacteria.
If you wish to use lemons or get the benefits then always mix it with a higher Ph ingredient like honey this will balance the acidic level. Also, do not use more than 3 drops of lemon in any of your recipes.
Toothpaste:
A very well known advice given by SO SO many! Applying toothpaste over your acne or your skin is disastrous. What worries me is that people are so happy seeing results that they forget what it is doing to your skin!? Toothpaste straight away ruins your lipid barrier and the Ph? well it kind of destroys your acid mantle. Plus, have you ever thought of fluoride (the ingredient that causes lather) and other flavoring substances? ALL IRRITANTS.
If you want to fight that angry zit, dab DILUTED tea tree oil or use a clay mask; it will heal your acne just right 🙂
Baking Soda
I have to accept that I have used baking soda SO many times on my face and loved the effects! But now that I understand my skin; I feel SO sorry for my skin and can’t apologize enough. (What was I thinking?) I hope by now you have understood the importance of maintaining your acid mantle a.k.a Ph level of your skin. So how much I told you our skin’s Ph was ? 4-5; and how much is baking soda’s? 9! Yes, baking soda is one of the MOST alkaline substance and is NOT supposed to be used on your face.
So basically, baking soda will end up making your skin FEEL soft, but also, tearing off the upper layer and making you prone to acne and pimples!
ICE:
Have you fallen prey to the Hollywood secret for tight skin as well? Dip your face in ice cold water! Well yes you can do that and end up with broken skin cells. Your skin is very sensitive to anything extreme. A straight dip in ice cold water will give your skin a shock and you might end up with broken capillaries .. eikes!
DIY’ing is not as easy as it sounds. You need to ensure that you are mixing the right diy ingredients and not disrupting your protective barriers. The key to healthy skin is to go minimal and ensure that your Ph is not moved a lot!
I hope I am being able to be of help for your natural skin care journey. What is your horrific experience while DIY’ing?
Wow wat a wonderful post… where internet is flooded… with salt n baking soda DIY… u gave such a perfect explaination… y it is sooo harmful… thats d reason ur blog is sooo unique…. 🙂 all d best
Thanks a ton Yogita 🙂 It’s only people like you who give me inspiration! Much love xoxoxo <3
Thank you for this information..and honestly I do use toothpaste and salt for my blackheads and it seems to work..any other suggestion to get rid of blackheads and clogged pores on nose?
Hi Kriti,
You can try oil cleansing to get rid of clogged pores-Works best for me. It takes time but I have actually had a very tough blackhead just come out in my hand after 3 days! So regular oil cleansing will help.. Meanwhile, you can also try a mud mask that removes all the gunk from your skin..