If you have oily or acne-prone skin, clay masks are a must-have. They not only soak up all traces of dirt and grease, but they're also simple to use:
Apply one all over your face, have a glass of wine while you wait for it to dry to a hardened shell, and rinse. Am I right? No, no I am not. Turns out that most of us have been using clay masks the wrong way for all these years—and doing more harm than good to our skins.
So why? You should never let a clay mask dry fully.
There are three phases of a clay mask.
There's the damp phase where your skin drinks in the beneficial minerals from the outside.
Then you have the start of the dry phase, which exercises your capillaries and stimulates blood flow as the mask cools and contracts.
But then there's the dry phase, which draws out moisture from the surface of your skin, causing dehydration and irritation. Not only does skin then feel dry, tight, and sometimes itchy, but when you counteract it by slathering on extra face cream, you're just smothering your freshly cleansed skin.
So the next time you use a clay mask, don't wait for it to reach the flaky stage before you start rinsing. Do the touch test: When you start to see it drying (which usually means it gets lighter in colour) but it still feels a bit sticky, it's time to wash that sucker off—so it doesn't suck the life out of your skin.
Sources:
https://www.allure.com/story/right-way-to-use-clay-face-mask
