Product Review Tuesday: Aspirin mask

Filed in archive Beauty , News , Product reviews on June 13, 2006

Darlings, it's PRT time again - and now for something completely different: instead of posting about real beauty products, I decided to say a word or two about the so often mentioned Aspirin face mask. It is supposed to magically take away your acne, blemishes etc.

Well, it's only a fad. Really. And, to be on the safe side, I consulted my favorite online cosmetic experts (with a great knowledge of chemistry and biology) The Beauty Brains. Check out what they've answered after I've sent them my aspirin mask question here. I'll just give you the highlights:

The ingredient of Aspirin that should soothe your skin is Salicylic acid (a part of the Beta Hydroxy Acid group) and is only developed AFTER the Aspirin hits your intestine. There is no BHA in non-digested Aspirin, instead there's only Acetylsalicylic Acid, which is not active BHA and does absolutely nothing to your skin.

Now that we've straightened that out, you are probably asking where did this all mix-up come from? Well, probably some darlings read something about Aspirin, caught the magic Hydroxy Acid mentioned, coupled it with the craze this acid got for being good for the skin and - voila - a new mask emerged as a substitute for once pricey cosmetics containing this acid.

If you're still wondering whether or not to crush those four Aspirin pills, mix it up with a bit of water and smear it all over your face, go read what Aspirin can really do for you (apart from making that tedious headache go away). Don't you think THE Aspirin company would publish it all over their website if it really was such a magnificent mask?