Women in Asian cultures have known the benefits of using rice in their skincare routine. Rice can be used an abrasive for scrubs or boiled in water and the leftover water splashed on the face as a toner once the water has cooled. Rice is rich in vitamins C and E and numerous minerals. Vitamin E is known to soften skin. Shrinking pores by tightening collagen are the main functions of vitamin C in face products.
Using rice in your skincare routine leaves your skin as delicate and flawless like porcelain.
Benefits of Using Rice in Your Skin Routine
- Rice moisturizes skin
- Reduced sun spots and brightens skin
- Softens skin
- Collect excess oil
- Minimizes pores
- Improves skin’s elasticity and collagen production
- Scrubs made with rice exfoliate skin
- Leaves face glowing
These are just some of the benefits to using rice in your daily face care routine. Fresh fermented rice water contains even more vitamins and antioxidants than drugstore face products.
Rice Water
Rice water is even more effective at brightening your skin when applied to the face before bed.
It should also be used in the morning as a skin cleanser, along with your regular beauty routine.
Rice water is a skincare elixir full of nutrients such as vitamin A (skin firmness), allantoin (calms skin), vitamins C (brightens skin), vitamin E (antioxidant) and many more vitamins and minerals.
In addition to being a natural ingredient for face and overall skin care, it can be used on your hair for smoothing split ends and hydrating your scalp. Many of the properties in rice water are anti-aging, reducing the effects of aging on the skin.
For the face, you can apply the rice water directly to your skin with a makeup pad or make a DIY skin toner to splash onto your face before moisturizing. You can also apply it before bedtime to help your skin look tighter and brighter the next morning.
The process of making rice water is probably the easiest DIY for skin care you’ll ever find. It takes about twenty minutes from start to finish, though you may want to put the rice water in the fridge overnight for it to ferment. After you’ve made the rice water, it can be saved and reused for four or five days.
The instructions for making rice water are SO easy:
- Rinse 1/2 cup rice (white, brown, jasmine, any kind of rice works) in cool water to clean it
- Place rice in bowl, submerge in 2 cups water
- Let rice water sit for 15 – 20 minutes
- Drain rice, saving the water in a separate bowl (You can reuse rice for food)
- Apply rice water to face by dabbing cotton ball into water and massing into skin
The rice water can be used to:
Soothe sunburn
Rice water can cool the sore and inflamed skin recover after a sunburn. Use cold rice water to prevent further damage to your skin.
Cleanse face
Gently massage the liquid rice water into your skin with a cotton pad. As your face air dries, it will absorb all the nutrients and vitamins that were enhanced during the cooking process. After several days of cleansing your face with the rice water, your skin will be radiant to look at and soft to the touch.
Toner
Using rice water as a toner can minimize pores by tightening the skin. The pores are actually small hair follicles that enlarge due to oil blockages. The rice water can help break up those blockages with its astringent properties, leaving your skin fresh and dewy.
Acne
Similar to how it can be used as a toner, the rice water breaks up the oily skin, tightens the enlarged pores and soothes the redness of acne.
Eczema and psoriasis
Eczema and other skin conditions are embarrassing, but they also cause immense discomfort and itchy skin. Rice contains starches that can help ease an eczema outbreak and cool your skin. Pat the rice water over the infected skin with a clean, cool washcloth. Let the skin air dry and repeat the treatment daily.
Studies have shown that taking a rice bath can help ease eczema in other areas of the body as well.
Rice, Milk, and Honey Mask
Typical face masks are used to nourish skin, remove excess oils and open clogged pores for brighter, cleaner skin. Adding rice into a facial mask turns the mask into an exfoliator.
Unlike rice water, you don’t use the actual rice in the face mask. You use rice flour or the rice water you’ve already made (or a fresh batch.)
While rice facial masks can be used on any skin type, they are especially effective for dry skin or acne-prone skin because the rice pulls acne-causing oil away from the face.
The rice is an all-natural ingredient rich in vitamin B, which has shown great promise in rejuvenating skin, promoting cell growth and increasing blood circulation. All of those things help your skin look youthful and bright.
The honey can help reduce the visibility of acne, dark spots and other skin blemishes.
Recipe:
- 3 cups cooked rice
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup honey
Directions:
- Rinse and cook rice until soft
- Strain rice
- Save half of rice water for later
- Add honey and milk to rice, mix well
- Apply to face and neck
- Leave on for 30 minutes
- Rinse with the extra rice water
Rice and Green Tea Mask
Rice and water both have a lot of vitamin C, which has the anti-aging properties of helping the body’s collagen production. Collagen is what keeps the skin’s elasticity. As we age, our skin loses its elasticity – the ability to bounce back after stretching. This is what causes saggy and droopy skin.
Green tea has detoxifying and antioxidant properties that help fend off wrinkles and reduce redness from skin irritants.
The rice flour absorbs excess oil that can clog the pores of the face and cause acne. Using rice flour gives your skin a healthy glow.
Directions:
- Brew green tea and let it cool
- Mix 3 tablespoons green tea with 3 tablespoons of rice flour
- Mix well until the ingredients form a paste
- Slather paste on face and neck and let it sit for 20 minutes
- Rinse with cool water
- Moisturize as usual
Rice and Yogurt Face Mask
You don’t have to go to the drugstore for skin care products – you can find them right in your kitchen. Ancient civilizations didn’t have drugstores, so they used natural ingredients like rice and honey for their skin care routines. Modern Indian women use yogurt in their daily skin regimen.
Yogurt and rice flour have their own benefits for your skin, but they both hydrate and smooth rough skin. Other benefits include:
Yogurt benefits:
- Prevents wrinkles
- Reduces visible fine lines
- Exfoliates dead skin
- Tightens pores
- Softens skin
- Rice Flour Benefits:
- Exfoliates
- Opens pores
- Makes skin glow
- Removes toxins and oils
- Evens skin tone
- Brightens complexion
Face Mask Directions:
- Mix 2 tablespoons of rice flour with 1 scoop yogurt
- Mix ingredients into paste
- Apply paste to face
- Massage in circles on skin
Rice and Tomato Face Scrub
Face scrubs made with rice have been used in skincare for centuries. The harsh chemical products found in drugstores can be abrasive and ineffective in long-term usage. Natural ingredients last longer and leave your skin cleaner and brighter than it’s been since you were a baby.
Tomatoes can act as an astringent due to their acidity. They help remove excess oil and are rich in acne-fighting vitamin C. For this face mask, you want to grind the rice before using. It works as an exfoliator to remove dead skin cells.
Directions:
- Grind 2 teaspoons rice
- Squeeze 2 teaspoons of juice from fresh tomatoes
- Mix ground rice with tomato juice
- Scrub mixture into your face for 2 minutes
- Rinse with cool water
- Apply toner and moisturizer as usual
Rice, Aloe Vera and Orange Peel Powder Mask
Aloe vera soothes irritated skin and leaves your face radiant and supple.
Directions:
Combine 2 teaspoons rice flour with a dash of orange peel powder and 2 tablespoon of aloe vera gel. Mix the ingredients into a paste and apply to face. Leave the mask on for 10 minutes and rinse off with cool water.
References
https://www.100percentpure.com/blogs/feed/how-can-rice-water-help-your-skin
https://theindianspot.com/quick-breakfast-healthy-rice-water/
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