You have seen how popular spirulina has become as a health food additive. You can add it into smoothies, food, or just take it in tablet form. Me, I would rather eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s than feel like my health has been immortalized by this algae! However, when I found a different use for this, a beautifying method; I had to try it!
Spirulina is a blue-green algae and is considered a complete protein containing all the essential amino acids. Good, healthy but not my type of food. I never really paid attention to this food until I was reading Lisa Lise Natural Skin Care blog (She also makes and sells her own skin care products.) on using spirulina as a mask/cleanser. I bought a jar of Spirulina Manna ($18) at my local market. There are many other brands available, I just chose this one because it was the only one not in tablet form.
You can see from the pictures it looks like a dry and gritty dark green powder.
Actually, it is a very fine and smooth powder, almost as smooth as some cosmetic powders! You can mix it with water alone to make a paste or you can mix it with your favorite cleanser. Here you can see how it looks as a thick and thin paste.
As Lisa mentions, the darkness of the color makes this a bit harder to wash off if you think of it as a simple wash-off cleanser. I consider it to be more of a cleansing mask. I allow it to sit on my skin for a few minutes then jump into the shower and allow the stream of water to remove it. The spirulina comes off easily.
With something as deeply colored and thick as this, you would expect some staining on the skin or even in the sink or tub. There is absolutely ZERO staining on anything except maybe your tongue if you actually want to drink this!
The feeling of the skin afterwards is different from anything I have tried from the conventional skin care products. Lisa mentions the word, "nourished" and I have to agree with her. The skin feels nourished, smooth, and moisturized. The funny thing is, someone commented how smooth and glowing my skin looked. I was wearing makeup! I am guessing this spirulina made my skin smooth and moisturized, allowing the makeup to set perfectly on top of it!
If you haven't tried spirulina as a skin care product, I would say TRY RIGHT NOW! It is like no other skin care product!
