I love clay face masks, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with herbs lately, so I thought it was high time to combine the two to create a mask that boosts circulation, clears out your pores, and helps speed up healing with a dose of anti-acne goodness.
The herbs I chose for this mask are calendula, arnica, and while willow bark. Calendula and arnica are known for their healing properties—great if you’ve got any stubborn zits hanging about. White willow bark is a natural source of salicylic acid, and is a natural anti-inflammatory, making it an anti-acne favourite.
I added a wee bit of 200x concentrated aloe vera powder to the mask for some aloe benefit, but if you don’t have it, you can simply hydrate the mask with aloe vera juice instead of water.
The final mask is nice and smooth, and leaves the skin bright and firm. My mom raved about it and took the rest of the mix home with her. It’s definitely worth a go!
Healing Herbal Face Mask
1 tsp dried calendula flowers
1 tsp dried white willow bark
1 tsp dried arnica flowers1 smidgen aloe vera 200x powder (or hydrate with aloe vera juice)
1 tbsp French green clay
1 tbsp bentonite or white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
2 tsp zinc oxideBlend the herbs together in a coffee grinder. Once they are mostly powdered, tap them through a fine sieve to remove any large pieces of botanical matter. Keep the powder, and discard the large bits.
Run the aloe vera powder, clays, and zinc oxide through the coffee grinder as well. Add the herbs and blend everything together to combine.
To use, combine a few teaspoons of the clay mixture with some warm water and spread across the skin. Let dry, rinse off, and apply some argan oil. You’ll notice your skin is much happier the following morning 🙂
Do you ever sell your products? I am really interested in this mask.
Nope, sorry!
Sounds great, but why the zinc oxide? Can it be left out or substituted? Thank you~~
Hi Shelley! Zinc soothes the skin and helps it heal, but you can leave it out if you like 🙂
I have to say, your site is absolutely amazing. You’re like a wizard!
I have one question about clay, in general…what is the most versatile one? I noticed that you can sub many clays for each other. I’m a bit of a diy newbie, and on a budget :/
The most important thing I want to try is the mask recipe for ingrown hairs. They plague me like you wouldn’t believe. But there’s so much else I’d love to try too!
Thanks in advance 😀
Hi Victoria! Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me 🙂
In terms of versatility for everything from face masks to cosmetics to soap, I’d recommend kaolin clay. It’s fine, white, and relatively gentle. My second choice would be French Green, which is my favourite, but less useful in things as it does add a green tinge 😉
Have fun!
I am really excited to try this, but I don’t have any kind of aloe vera…can I just leave it out??
You can—just use water to hydrate the mask 🙂
Hi, Marie!
I tried this face mask without the aloe because I couldn’t find it. After it was on my face and I felt some heat, I remembered that zinc is known to make rosacea flare up. I didn’t worry too much about it, though. When I rinsed, my face was indeed beet red, but it didn’t last long, and after half an hour or so, it had calmed down and my face looked great!
That led me to wonder whether sometimes an irritant (or maybe that’s even too strong a word) might actually be healing. It happens all the time using natural remedies, right? We might experience a kind of “healing crisis” that’s really a purging of toxins and ends up being great for our system.
Not sure if that’s what was happening with the zinc oxide, but just musing. I suppose those with rosacea might want to take note that it could create some heat and redness, at least temporarily, but that might be counteracted by the soothing aloe if you follow the recipe exactly!
Thanks, as always for your thoughtful experimentation and sharing.
Hi Prudence! I always end up with a red, warm face after a face mask as the clay really draws blood to the surface of the skin, so that could be it as well (no rosacea, zinc oxide or not) 🙂 Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me!
Hi Marie!
I’ve heard that bentonite clay shouldn’t come in contact with metal. Is that true? If so, are there any other clays that have this rule? I would love your input!
Thanks!
Sophia
Sophia—I’ve read the same thing about bentonite and metal, but never in regards to any other clays. It’s supposed to “deactivate” the bentonite, but it isn’t outright harmful.
Hi Marie!
Can I use powdered willow bark or I have to powder it myself? Thank you
Hi Marina! If yours is already powdered you can definitely use that instead 🙂
And also, can I somehow substitute the herbs to their extracts?
For sure! For powdered extracts I’d use 1/4 the amount.
This is the first DIY recipe I have followed from your site, and I absolutely love it! I have extremely dry skin with red undertones while my sister has oily skin and a pale complexion. We’ve both used this recipe twice in the past two weeks because it makes our skin feel so good. I noticed my dry flakes were gone and the tone of my skin greatly improved after doing this facial. And my sister, being prone to acne breakouts, said she loved how her acne scars looked after using it. The pink blotchy spots were few and far between! Can’t wait to try more fun recipes here!!
This is so fantastic, Samantha! I am a massive fan of clay masks, though I’ve been a bit lax lately. I just did a couple in close succession and I cannot get over how happy my skin is whenever I do a mask—it’s like a wee healing miracle! I’m so glad both you and your sister are loving the mask 😀
What a beauty of a face mask. I’ve never been much of a fan of them, finding them too much trouble. But I’m glad I gave this one a go. Even if grinding the herbs was a bit of a pain, my coffee grinder just wouldn’t comply. So my mask had more bits in it than expected but it worked just great. Can’t believe how silky my skin felt afterwards, I kept stroking my cheeks in appreciation. It did leave me a little redder in the face – don’t know if that’s all the broken capillaries reacting, but the effect is glorious. I’ll definitely do this one again.
Wonderful! I find I’m usually a wee bit red after a face mask, I’ve always assumed it’s residue from increased circulation to the area; it always passes quickly. Thanks for reading and DIYing with me!
Can use Rhassoul clay as I don’t have bentonite?
Hey Nina! Rhassoul clay and bentonite clay are really, really different—bentonite clay is basically a total outlier in the clay world. Check out this post for a direct comparison between the two. You can swap the two, but the amount of clay and water you’ll need will change a lot, and the results will be really different. Hope that helps!
Hey Marie, I am gathering the ingredients for this amazing mask but could not find dried white willow bark so got White Willow Bark -Botanical Extract instead. What would be your recommendations for the measurement of the Extract for this recipe (for tinctures it is usually 1.25g of extract per 100ml of liquid)? So excited to make it! Thanks..:-)
Hmm. Having not worked with it before I’m really just guessing… maybe 1/4 tsp?
Hi Marie, I planned on making a double batch of this, but I don’t have arnica flowers, could I add a few drops of arnica infused oil? (I have seen you add a few drops of oils like pomegranate to some recipes which can be stored for a while) Thanks Marie.
Yup! Just be sure to do it up in a coffee grinder so you get super thorough distribution 🙂
Thanks for the quick reply Marie. Have a good day.