Turmeric Chickpea Mask

A Turmeric Mask is another mask that's good for your face.

Turmeric is a spice used in cooking, Ayurvedic medicine and beauty treatments which is where I learned about it.

It's good to keep skin clean, clear of acne, blemishes and breakout and good to use when hormones are in flux.  It helps with skin elasticity and helps with maturing skin.

There are SEVERAL options for a tumeric mask you can do...

Turmeric and chickpea masks are also good to use on a regular basis if you want to keep those tiny baby hairs off your face.  This only works IF it's used on a regular basis.  This only works on those tiny baby hairs on your face, not your eyebrows or upper lip hairs.  So don't worry, your eyebrows won't fall off.  ;)

Turmeric and Honey mask is good for a soothing mask if you just want a relaxing mask on a regular basis but don't want to deal with the clumpy mess of the chickpea flour.  It's a little less of a mess and has the same effect pretty much but one less ingredient to deal with.

Turmeric and yogurt mask is another option instead of mixing with milk.

Turmeric and coconut water is a different option instead of milk or yogurt.

As you can see, there are different options and routes you can go and also depending upon what you have in your kitchen.  I urge you to do your own research as well and see what works for you.

I personally have spent about a year now looking into ayurvedic medicine and beauty practices and still am learning a lot about it.

I like to alternate using my turmeric/chickpea mask with my bentonite clay mask weekly and I like to use it before doing my threading on my eyebrows before using my serum.  Because good luck pulling eyebrow hair out when you moisturize first, I learned that the hard way.

What's threading?  That's another topic I can't explain in a blog, but youtube taught me how to do it and it can teach you too!  Go learn how to do it if you so desire.  It took me months to perfect it.  I almost never screw it up now, almost.. ^_6

What do we Need?!

Because you love my ingredient pictures, you know you do.

Turmeric:  You can find it in the spice aisle!  But honestly I recommend finding a good Indian store nearby and getting it from there, they have the best quality.  Support your local small businesses.  The spice kind, like the kind I use here, is not a good quality.

Honey: Optional, and great for your skin.  I use raw and organic but you can use what you like.

Chickpea Powder:  Also known as Garbanzo Bean Powder, I get Bob's Red Mill Garbanzo Bean Flour, it works pretty well.

Milk:  You're going to want to dilute your mixture.  You can use milk, coconut water, or yogurt.  I'm lactose intolerant so I normally use soymilk which also works great!

Let's Get Started!! ^_^

I eyeball the ratios, y'all know this by now, so I'll guesstimate this..

I put about 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of chickpea powder and 1/2 tablespoon of turmeric powder.  Too much turmeric powder and it might be too harsh on your skin.

Add your liquid in small amounts.  If you add too much and it gets soupy just add more chickpea powder to get a peanut butter consistency.  You want a creamy consistency.  One that makes good peaks.  You don't want this dripping off your face, it stains everything!  Wear clothes you don't care about.  Or wear a trash bag, whichever.

Look at that gorgeous pea yellow color, yum yum :p

An observation before applying to your face!!

Don't try this for the first time before going on a date!  Or going to work!  Or appearing in public!!  you get the idea....

Turmeric is staining!!  And until you know how your complexion will take to this I suggest you wait and see...

I am of a paler complexion.  Not because I am emo child and avoid the sun but I've always have a hard time getting burnt before I tan and finding an ivory white enough to match for foundation before I gave up on makeup.  It's gotten better with age but I'm still pale.  And for some reason my skin stains badly.

Until I figured out this recipe and added the milk to dilute it I used to do a straight mix of turmeric to honey and I did the mask and my face was so yellow for 3 days, I was mortified.  No joke.  I looked like a sunshine yellow crayon.  It was awful.  Thank batman it was a 3 day weekend and I was anti social.  I exfoliated like there was no tomorrow with baking soda and lemon juice until I scrubbed it off.

You know you appreciate my personal tales of warning and backstory.  See I had a point.

DO NOT apply turmeric directly to your face without diluting it with something like yogurt or milk.  You've been warned...

Now for application!!

If you did it right should be a weird yellow baby food yellow color and about the same consistency.  Yum right?!  Lol, sounds great.  You're gonna put it on your face.  It can be pretty soothing, and cooling, especially if you have irritated skin.  If I have a sunburn I'll skip it but it helps when i'm having a hormone flux, because we all love those don't we.

Face mask picture!  You're welcome!  You only get a partial pic, because it was just too gross..

Depending on the effect you want with this mask determines how long you leave it on and how you take the mask off.  

For cleansing..

If you just want to cleanse your face and get a soothing, anti-aging and/or anti-breakout effect then apply the mask while avoiding your eyes and leave it on for 10-15 minutes.  Wash off with warm water and then apply cool water and you can tone your face (optional) and apply your moisturizer.

If you're having a bad breakout I think applying aloe vera may be helpful to you.  Pure aloe vera though.  Don't use aloe vera that's been mixed with other things like chemicals or additives.  A lot of places sell aloe vera plants and you can find good resources that tell you how to harvest the plant properly to get the gel inside the plant.

A good resource I've found for aloe vera is Mountain Rose Herbs

For cleansing and hair removal..

This is a bit more complicated but once you've done it it's easy to remember.  For clarification again this removes those tiny baby hairs on your face, not the eyebrow or upper lip hairs.  Those tougher hairs are going to require tougher methods like waxing, epilation, threading, etc...

If you're aiming for the cleansing, anti breakout, anti aging on top of face hair removal effect then you're going to apply the mask by rubbing it on your face in a circular manner as you apply it on your face while avoiding your eyes.  No worries if you get it near your eyebrows, it won't remove that kind of hair.  You're going to allow the turmeric mask to dry completely, it'll get pretty hard.

You're going to remove the mask in the areas with baby hairs, like near your cheeks, jawlines, by using a dry hand cloth and rubbing in a circular manner and it's honestly not the most pleasant thing the first couple of times.  Once you do the trouble areas, or are just tired of hurting yourself whichever comes first, remove the rest of the mask by wetting your washcloth with warm water and remove the mask.

You can set on the warm towel on your face to loosen up the mask a little, it helps.  Apply cool water to soothe, then tone and moisturize as normal.  Using this method only works, truly works if done on a regular basis, like weekly, biweekly for people with seriously stubborn hair.


All done!!

There you go.  So simple..  Doesn't it seem so?  It seems complicated, but it's not.  Everything seems complicated at first but once you get the hang of it it's so easy and once you apply it and try it and see how nice your skin is and see the benefits it's so worth it.

If this is something you enjoy I really encourage you to look into more Ayurvedic beauty remedies.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you try a Turmeric Mask and enjoy the benefits.

Namaste!! ^_^