Okay- you readers have been following me and my skin care journey for a while now, and it’s been a bit of a bumpy road. For a few years now, I’ve been seeing influencer post after influencer post about this supposed “miracle” Aztec mud mask that seemed to do anything and everything for skin except cure leprosy. (Statement not examined or approved by the FDA.) So, I finally caved and bought the 1lb portion of the divine dirt and proceeded to forget about it for almost four months. Then, one girl’s night, my friend and I decided to give it a chance and see if it was up to snuff with the reviews. The recipe requires clay, apple cider vinegar, and water, all in the same amount, until it makes a paste. It took the two of us a little bit of experimentation to get a ratio that was paste like, and it did make a bit of a mess in the kitchen. However, it was then time to put it on and see what happens.
The first thing we noticed was the smell. While we’re not exactly interested in huffing the average face mask, but the overwhelming smell of vinegar was really hard to avoid. It wasn’t eye-watering bad, but it was enough to cause some funny nose-wrinkling faces. The second thing we noticed was the tingling. The mask not only tightened like most mud masks do while drying, but it also tingled on our skin. I’m not a scientist, but it was likely due to a reaction between the calcium bentonite in the mud mask and the vinegar. It did feel like having a very small and concentrated 3rd grade science fair on our faces. The last thing we noticed was the redness. When we cleaned the mask off our faces were red in places. Not like “REMOVE SKIN NOW” red but flushed. Personally, I would recommend following the directions and washing it off gently, as compared to frantic scrubbing in the shower- my redness lasted longer because of that. Outside of all that, it did make my skin soft- baby foot soft.
Overall, I would recommend it. It lives up to the hype and is significantly cheaper than a spa treatment. You also get to relive the baking soda volcano experience you never knew you missed!