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Every woman wants clear, healthy, wrinkle-free skin, but that doesn't mean you need to spend a fortune to get it. There are a million at-home, natural solutions to keep your skin in tip-top shape. One ingredient you may wonder about is vitamin E. While this supplement can do wonders for your insides, it's also often touted as a fab topical ointment for your face. Before including vitamin E in a face mask, do some research and weigh its pros and cons.
Benefits
When used topically, vitamin E is thought to benefit in a bevy of ways. Not only is vitamin E an antioxidant, but it's been proven to protect skin against harmful ultraviolet radiation. vitamin E may also decrease roughness on the skin and the appearance of wrinkles, notes the University of Maryland Medical Center. Along with its moisturizing properties, these are attributes every lady is looking for in a skin care product. While vitamin E can't be a facial mask all on it's own, you can mix it with a variety of other ingredients to create your own tailor made version.
Cons
According to both the Harvard Health Publication's article, "Do Skin Creams Deliver?" and Richard Hughs article, "The Mysteries of Vitamin E" for Creighton University, the downside to using vitamin E topically is that while many brag about it's benefits there is no scientific proof that applying vitamin E directly to the skin does anything at all. In fact, there is a possibility that you may have a negative reaction to topical vitamin E -- breaking out in a rash. Before you change up your beauty routine be safe and consult a dermatologist. If that isn't a possibility, test out the topical vitamin E on a patch of skin that is easily covered by clothes, in case of a reaction.
Where to Find It
If you've weighed the research and opt to mix together your own homemade face mask, you'll need to snag vitamin E gel caps or vitamin E oil. Both can usually be found at drugstores or health food stores. The oil can be directly mixed together with whatever other ingredients you choose to put in the mask. The gel caps will have to be broken open and their liquid centers squeezed out. If you aren't a DIY kind of gal, there are plenty of face masks available on the market that count vitamin E as one of their ingredients, just check the back label.
Alternative Sources
Aside from using straight vitamin E in your face mask, you could also use a food item that is super rich in vitamin E instead. Avocados and almonds are two foods that are rich in Vitamin E and both are used in several all-natural facial mask recipes. Vitamin E can also be found in olive oil and sunflower oil. While these foods won't pack as big of a punch as Vitamin E oil, they can be a convenient alternative.
