Feed Your Face with This DIY Skin Feast Mask

S.W. Basics founder Adina Grigore’s first book, Skin Cleanse: The Simple, All-Natural Program for Clear, Calm, Happy Skin (HarperWave, 2015), is chock-full of insights, tips and recipes for healthier skin. Grigore speaks from experience, with a tone that’s funny, straightforward and approachable. Her book is packed with fun factoids—your skin sheds 30,000 to 40,000 cells per minute! The only part of your body that isn’t waterproof is the inside of your mouth!—but the down-to-earth prose about diet and the emphasis on DIY recipes for cleansers, toners, masks and exfoliants really sets Skin Cleanse apart from the crowd. This nourishing mask, featured on page 184 of Grigore’s book, is one of her personal favorites.

Skin Feast Mask

Brown rice flour is a great (gluten-free!) mask ingredient. It is full of nutrients, and it soaks up excess oil. Avocado helps to balance your oil production by “feeding” your skin a healthy fat. Apple juice also combats oily skin. This mask is incredibly gentle and rich; there will be no sting, only soothe.

1 tablespoon brown rice flour
½ an avocado
1 tablespoon apple juice (fresh pressed, if possible)

In a small bowl, mash avocado with a fork and sprinkle in rice flour, stirring until you’ve created a paste. Add apple juice and stir well. Apply mask and allow to dry for best results. Rinse with warm water. This recipe will make two or three applications but will spoil, so store in fridge and use it quickly.

[Excerpted from Skin Cleanse, © 2015 by Adina Grigore]