Health & Beauty | Beauty: Products

There are all kinds of facial masks—refining, deep cleaning, rejuvenating, just to name a few. I like to use a mask every week or so, but I also like to mix up the types I use. Here are some I’ve tried lately and recommend!

Zia Natural Skincare offers a wide variety of excellent choices. Zia Oceanic Clay Rejuvenating Mask ($40) detoxifies and moisturizes. This unique clay from British Columbia waters acts like a magnet, bonding with impurities to draw out toxins. The organic apple juice, plantain and firming pectin in Zia’s Apple Refining Mask ($25) are especially beneficial to sun-damaged or clogged skin. And it smells good enough to eat! Zia’s Pumpkin Exfoliating Mask ($25) uses pumpkin purée and pineapple and carrot juices to eliminate dead skin cells and congestion, and vitamins A and E to encourage cell production.

Nica Aromatherapy Essentials (based right here on Long Island), has created an Organic Blue Green Algae Mud Masque ($32) that you mix up yourself. The nutrient-rich powder, which combines kaolin and bentonite clays along with spirulina, is especially helpful to inflamed or irritated skin. It was a little messier than pre-mixed masks, but fresher. You can experiment, too, to get just the right consistency that works for you.

I am a huge fan of Skin Nutrition products and their masks are my favorites. The Deep Cleansing mask ($45) is formulated with spinach to help restore essential minerals, plus their proprietary blend of super berry extracts and super-hybrid lipid soluble Vitamin C. My skin is noticeably pink and fresh afterwards. I like to follow that mask with their Hydrating mask ($50), which employs marine algae-derived omega 3 and 6 to deeply moisturize. My skin looks so healthy when I use these two in sequence.

There are also two spa skincare lines I particularly recommend—Eminence and Ilike—both use all natural, organically grown herbs, fruits and vegetables from Hungary, hand-grown and picked. They each offer multiple masks, with yummy names like Pumpkin and Orange Mask and Quince Apple Gel Mask by Ilike and Chocolate Mousse Hydration Masque and Carrot Vitamin Masque by Eminence. I’ve enjoyed Ilike’s Rich Carrot Mask and Eminence’s Stone Crop and Sugar Plum Masques. Check their websites to find a spa that carries these two amazing lines.