Aspirin Acid Action!

You will need:

• 6-8 Soluble Aspirin / Aspro clear
• Squeeze of lemon juice

I was so excited when I came across this peel and it hasn’t disappointed.

Salicylic acid is a common active ingredient for treating acne and blemishes and, arguably, the most effective. And like most effective beauty treatments the products they’re in can get very expensive.

The active ingredient in aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid which is an acetyl derivative of salicylic acid.

The salicylic science: Salicylic acid is in a class of medications called keratolytic agents. Use of salicylic acid as a topical treatment is often called Keratolytic Therapy and treats acne (and other skin issues such as psoriasis) by reducing swelling and redness and unblocking pores to allow spots to shrink. It also softens and loosens dry, scaly, or thickened skin so that it falls off or can be removed easily. BHA or beta hydroxy acid is also a form of a salicylic acid and is used primarily in reversing the effects of ageing.

Who doesn’t want a little age reversal, exfoliation and reduction in inflammation!

And then there’s the humble lemon with it’s incredible lightening properties. We used to put it in our hair at school and sit in the sun at lunch seeing how bottle blonde we could go. It worked in our hair then and it works on skin too.  Dull skin or little sun-spots (from sitting in the sun bleaching your hair in school) or melasma that start to appear in your 30s, will greatly benefit from lemon juice.

The making of this mask was a little tricky and timeliness is key.  I broke up six aspirin with my fingers, added a squeeze of lemon and then tried to mash the broken bits with the back of a fork.  There were too many big lumps that wouldn’t smooth onto my face.  I was wishing for a baby mortar and pestle.

How your mask shouldn’t look! The fork is a bad idea too

The best way to do it is to break up the aspirin as small as you can get them with your fingers, add a small squeeze of lemon juice and mash the rest with the back of a spoon.  You want a nice paste consistency but you have to work fast because of the soluble nature of the aspirin you might just end up with bubbles!

A good paste that’s easy to apply

To get the consistency right I added another 2 aspirin and another squeeze of lemon juice. (Sorry for the blurry picture above)

The Mona Lisa for sure.

The application was hilarious.  If you’ve ever experienced popping candy or super bubbly sherbet, you’ll be able to imagine the feeling on your face. In a word, excellent.  You can actually see the bubbles that have burst on my face.

I left the mask on to dry completely and then washed it off in the shower.  My skin was noticeably different and had that look and feeling of coming out of a salon peel.

This peel is going in my good book and will pull it out in the afternoon before a date.

Tips:

1. If you have a mortar and pestle (that’s clean), try that.  The more paste like you can get the treatment the easier it will be to apply to your skin.
2. Balance the amount of lemon juice you use with the number of aspirin by feel – though I don’t think you should need more than eight aspirin for one face.
3. Speed is key!  You want the bubbles to bubble on your face not in the bowl.

Try it out and let me know how you get on!

Lovelisaxx