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Nourishing Pumpkin and Honey Face Mask
Holding Back The Years ~
Who can resist the promise of soft and glowing skin?
This quick and easy face mask is guaranteed to bring that flush of youth to the face with skinalicious goodness in pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, honey, cinnamon and cream or sour cream depending on your skin type.
This recipe actually utilizes those stringy bits in the center of a pumpkin we often end up chucking out anyway so how useful is that!
From now don't buy the commercial face masks with pumpkin extract listed, make this rewarding fresh mask instead and your skin will thank you back. Super soft, toned, healthy and glowing skin is only a whiz of the blender away! Don't forget to keep those nutritious seeds too.
They are wonderful dried, roasted and eaten or use them zapped in the blender for numerous skin care recipes.
Nutritious Pumpkin
Turnip to Pumpkin ~
Being Irish it is ingrained in my very being to have a sense of humor and the gift of the gab.
Since pumpkins are associated worldwide with Halloween, it got me thinking of the great Irish legend Stingy Jack and how Jack O Lantern and pumpkin carving came to be.
This face mask is my nod to the man who roamed between good and evil with a simple carved turnip (later to be the pumpkin when my ancestors hit American shores). Oh how I think he would have a glint in his queer eye at the thought of smearing this mask on his face as a treat not a trick!
Carving Jack Would be Proud of
Jack's Face?
Lantern Carving
The Legend of Jack ~
Stingy Jack was and old Irish drunken reprobate known to be a prankster of the highest order. One dark Halloween night in the local pub he came face to face with devil himself.
Tricking him into taking his soul for one last drink, the devil agreed and turned himself into a sixpence to pay the barman for the liquor.
Jack quickly grabbed the sixpence and placed it next to a cross in his pocket thus preventing the devil from turning back. Jack told the devil he would release him if he promised not to take his soul for 10 years. The devil reluctantly agreed.
10 years later on Halloween night, the devil came a calling to collect. Jack was out walking down a country lane and upon meeting the horned one he said
“Okay but would you pick me one of those apples off the tree first?”
The devil reluctantly agreed and went to pick the apple. Jack immediately started placing crosses all around the base of the tree, trapping the devil once again. Jack asked the devil not to take his soul when he died and seeing no way out the devil had to reluctantly agree.
When Sting Jack eventually passed away some years later, he arrived at the gates of heaven but was denied access because of his life of drinking, being so tight-fisted and for being a deceitful character.
So off Jack trundled to his old adversary the devil himself and see if he would take him into the depths of hell. The devil decided to keep the promise he made jack all those years before and would not allow him in.
“But where will I go?” asked Jack. “Back to where you came from” the devil replied.
So Jack started off down the dark and windy path. He pleaded with the devil to give him some light so as a final gesture the devil tossed Jack a bright ember from the fires of hell itself.
He placed it inside the hollowed out turnip he always carried with him as it was his favorite food. From that day to this, Stingy Jack has been doomed to roam the earth with no resting place with only his carved out turnip guiding him through the darkness.
Pumpkin Portrait
Have you ever used pumpkin or the seeds on the face or hair before?
Stingy Jack’s Face Mask ~
½ cup pumpkin innards (stringy bits) with 10 seeds
1 tbsp cream (dry skin) or
1tbsp sour cream (oily skin)
1 tsp honey
½ tsp cinnamon
blender or food processor
facecloth
Method:
- Pop all the ingredients into your blender and mix to a paste consistency.
- Don’t worry if it is a little chunky it still works a treat.
To Apply:
- Start with a cleansed skin, free of makeup.
- Apply to the neck and face (best to be wearing a towel to leave the neck area totally free.
- Leave your facecloth soaking in warm water.
- Chill, relax and lie down for 15 minutes and let the magic happen.
- Pop a few hydrating slices of cucumber on the eyes while you wait. They will do wonders for dry, tired eyes and any dark circles or puffiness under the eyes.
- Remove using your facecloth gently in upward strokes from the base of the neck.
- Apply your regular toner or astringent followed by your serum and/or moisturizer.
Food for Thought . . . .
Pumpkin offers far more than pumpkin pie or pumpkin soup. I first fell in love with this fruit (often eaten as a vegetable) in New Zealand as a young 21 year old. It was totally new to me to eat pumpkin having only seen it at Halloween as Lanterns in Ireland. I was offered it prepared by the Maori people and their way of cooking it deep in the earth was out of this world. I was instantly addicted and there was not a week would go by when pumpkin was cooked in my home.
Today, I wish I had taken advantage of the popularity of pumpkin there and used it on my skin but now I do and it is truly superb. Such a cost effective way of using both stringy bits and seeds without the use of chemicals and synthetic ingredients, give it try to you will see what I mean!
"Creating health awareness through homemade beauty solutions"
All Shapes and Sizes
Treats From my Friends Rebecca, Kathryn and Peggy
More Pumpkin DIY ~
- Pumpkin Spice Lip Gloss or Lip Balm Recipe
Pumpkin Spice is a wonderful blend of aromatic spices that make great homemade Lip Gloss or Lip Balm recipes. Often reserved for Thanksgiving, here I show you lip recipes incorporating Pumpkin Spice. - Pumpkin and Coconut Oil Hair Mask Recipe
If you never considered using pumpkin as a beauty treat then time to change! Pumpkin is a super healthy food and combined with coconut oil they make a powerful and beneficial duo for soft shiny hair. - Papaya & Pumpkin Exfoliating Mask Recipe
A papaya & pumpkin facial exfoliating mask is full of nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants and skin beneficial enzymes which make this homemade facial mask recipe extremely beneficial for all skin types.
Author Info ~
Information on the author, her bio and full body of works available @ Suzie HQ
Credit to homesteadbound ~
All dividers used in this hub are used with permission granted on hub, Creating Dividers to Use on Your Hubs
© 2013 Suzanne Ridgeway