In my time working for Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics one thing I am really thankful for is my increased knowledge of which fresh ingredients are most beneficial to my skin. I love so many of the Fresh Face Masks from Lush so I decided to come up with my own mask using a few of the ingredients from those, resulting in my ultimate fresh face mask.  My definition of the ultimate face mask would mean it was cleansing, exfoliating, soothing, anti aging, spot preventing whilst controlling oil but still allowing the skin to look radiant with a natural glow.  I know that seems like a lot to ask for in one mask but so many ingredients are known to help with more than one of these, so less ingredients are needed than you might think.
I decided on four ingredients known for their benefits to the skin,

Raspberries, rank among the fruits with the highest antioxidant strength great for anti aging properties when used topically.  They are also known for reducing inflammation, calming irritation and toning the skin.

Oats - an amazing natural beauty enhancer. They soothe and heal the skin, while reducing inflammation. Inflammation is one of the number one causes of premature aging, and while it all starts on the inside, reducing outer inflammation is also necessary for gorgeously radiant skin.  they are also very slightly exfoliating leaving the skin silky smooth without using something too harsh.

Honey - known as a natural cleanser which naturally exfoliates your skin to bring out a radiant and glowing complexion.  It is naturally antibacterial, so it's great for acne treatment and prevention, full of antioxidants which slow down the aging process whilst being super moisturising.

Cocoa Powder -contains antioxidants that work toward repairing damaged skin. This will make your skin softer, especially when paired with other ingredients including honey.  This also helps to absorb excess oil in the skin as it can be very subtly mattifying.

If you are reading this thinking it sounds good enough to eat, you would be correct.  Good for your skin and delicious, the best of both worlds.  I have been using this twice a week for two weeks now and love the way it makes my skin feel and more importantly look.  Immediately after use my skin definitely looks more radiant without being shiny.  This is by far my favourite DIY beauty product I have ever created, i love it even more than my DIY Hair Mask.

What would be the properties of your ultimate face mask?

Since coming to Morocco I have run out of my favourite hair mask, Macadamia Deep Repair Masque,more unfortunate than running out is the fact that it is not available here.  I needed a solution quickly because after one of two weeks of not using my usual mask, I noticed the condition of my hair worsening.  I started researching ingredients that would be helpful for the health of my hair and I decided to make my own hair mask at home.  I wanted to share my experience as this is so cheap to make and you can see at the end of the post what I thought of the results.

Ingredients
1 Ripe Avocado (removed from skin)
1 Egg
10ml Argan Oil
10ml Olive Oil

I chose the ingredients very carefully as I knew I wanted my hair to be softer, shinier, stronger.  The avocado is deeply nourishing and helps to strengthen, soften and increase shine.  It also makes the mask a really cool colour naturally.
Eggs are well known for strengthening the hair and they were even used as shampoo back in the day, I just had to crack one of these into the mixture.
Olive Oil is a well known trick for softening and deeply conditioning the hair so adding a splash of this was a no brainier.  Make sure it's good quality olive oil though, the better the quality the better it will be for your hair.
Moroccan Argan Oil is one of huge most amazing things in the world, I buy mine from the local market for such a good price it's unbelievable.   Also I'd like to mention that the Argan oil I use is 100% pure not the 5% diluted rubbish taking over the beauty world, Moroccan Oil.  This made the hair mask a little but more luxurious with it's high vitamin E content.

All you need to do is mix all the ingredients extremely well together, I used my food processor to make sure there were no lumps and it's ready to use.  Then I applied this onto dry hair all over, concentrating on the ends of my hair, they are considerably drier than the rest of my hair and clipped my hair up so it was out of my face.  I have to admit the smell of this mask is not the best for me but then again I don't like eating avocados because of the smell, maybe next time I'll add some vanilla or something.

You can leave this on for as long as you like, the longer the better in my opinion.  I left this one on for about 4 hours but that was just because I was pottering about doing things, because of the highly moisturising ingredients one hour would be enough if you were in a hurry.
I rinsed of the mask and cleansed and conditioned my hair as normal and was quite shocked by the results, I didn't expect it to work so well.  I left my hair to dry naturally and I could immediately see how shiny the mask had made my hair and to touch the four hour injection of moisture was obvious.

I'm so happy with the results of this mask, especially as I can't get a hold of my favourite, Macadamia Deep Repair Masque, at the moment, I will be applying this mask once a week for the foreseeable future, although I am keen to experiment with other ingredients.

Do you have any great DIY beauty tips or tricks that I should know about, please leave them below in the comments, I'd love to try them out!