Three kitchen ingredients worth using on your skin, and four that are not

Kitchen skincare is having a long moment on the internet, and a good half of it is a bad idea. Here is a short, honest sort of what belongs on your face and what belongs in your food.

Worth using

Curd

Mild lactic acid, cooling, and useful as a mixing base for clay packs. It is gentle enough for most skin and does not need to be left on long — ten minutes is plenty.

Honey

A humectant, meaning it draws water toward the skin. It is genuinely soothing on dry or irritated patches, and it rinses off cleanly. Raw honey is stickier and no more effective for this purpose.

Besan (gram flour)

A physical cleanser that has been used on Indian skin for generations. It works because it is mildly abrasive and absorbs oil — which also means it should be rubbed gently and not used daily.

Better left in the kitchen

Lemon juice

This is the one worth being firm about. Lemon is far more acidic than skin, and it is phototoxic — the combination of citrus oils and sunlight can cause a genuine burn, not just irritation. There is no brightening benefit that justifies it.

Baking soda

Strongly alkaline, and skin is meant to sit slightly acidic. Using it as a scrub or cleanser damages the barrier that keeps moisture in and bacteria out.

Toothpaste on spots

It dries a pimple by irritating the skin around it. What you are left with is a flat spot surrounded by a patch of chemical burn, which takes longer to fade than the original blemish.

Undiluted essential oils

Neat tea tree, clove or cinnamon oil on skin is a common cause of contact dermatitis. Essential oils are used at very low percentages in formulated products for exactly this reason.

The general principle

A food being safe to eat says nothing about whether it is safe on skin — the two barriers are completely different. And "natural" is not a synonym for "gentle": plant extracts are among the more common causes of contact reactions.

If you want the botanical ingredients without the guesswork about concentration, that is what a formulated product is for. Our skin care range publishes the full ingredient list on every pack.

And whatever you try, kitchen or bottle: patch-test on the inside of your forearm and wait 24 hours.