Behind the Mask

Another sake-related curiosity crosses my desk, a sake facial mask, from Taiwan. At least, I find out, that this is pretty inexpensive. Still, that's not the point, is it? With very little digging, I found an exceedingly simple recipe from the good people at Hakkaisan, which convinced me that I could make it better, at home, for nothing.


Mostly though, this product reminded me of early days with the missus, when my roommates and I received a crash course on beauty rituals from the terrifying Madam R.



Anyways, onto the "My Beauty Diary" - no, really... that's what it's called. It's got a lot of typical cosmetic chemical stuff, some non-sake essential oils, and a tiny bit of "sake yeast extract"... hardly good enough!


It was cold, very wet, and didn't stick particularly well. Madam R. suggested I should lay down. Nothing doing.


This time, truly in the spirit of making it at home for nothing, I was able to use only ingredients I already had at home: bentonite (used for fining, amongst other things, sake), rice flour (a darling of the Japanese cosmetics industry), yogurt (made at home, for nothing, naturally), and sake kasu. Oh, and a splash of sake, the last bit of Dassai 50, but now wondering if I should have opened the bottle of taru-zake instead...hmmm.


Nicely mixed with some of my brewing water.


Madam R. putting kasu-mask through the paces.


"Ten thumbs up!" says she! "Smells like sake!" says she! Even testing on my own hide was positive, so another one for the file.