External factors have a detrimental effect on the skin. Women, unlike men, immediately notice changes on their face: loss of elasticity, enlarged pores, unhealthy color, and more. Many use cosmetics to combat such changes, others resort to reliable and proven folk recipes: masks made from flax seeds, gelatin, etc.
To improve skin condition, masks made from dairy products are often used. Their effect on the skin is no worse than many commercial products.
Composition of sour cream
This fermented milk product contains all B vitamins, C and D, retinol, group H, as well as E, K and others important for human health.
Of course, like all dairy products, there is a lot of calcium. There is potassium, Mg, P, S, Na. Microelements are present in the form of ions such as Cu, Fe, Se, Zn, Md. Good village sour cream provides benefits for the face, because its main component is protein (2-4%), and also contains milk sugars, some carbohydrates 3-7.5%, and ash residue. Important components are fats and organic acids. But it contains less cholesterol than butter. The rest (60-80%) is water.
By its physical nature, sour cream is an emulsion, very similar in consistency to cream. And emulsified beneficial substances, even in industrial creams and masks, are better absorbed into the skin, penetrate it very deeply, providing nutrition to tissue cells.
The skin of the face is very vulnerable, because we expose it to the scorching sun and “freeze” it in winter. This does not go unnoticed. From such contrasts, cells recover slowly and require replenishment. Since the product is a derivative of milk, it contains all the components necessary for humans. This means that the skin needs them too.
On cold windy days, the dermis becomes dehydrated and dries out. Sour cream will give her moisture and vitamins. When the heat is scorching, it will protect against burns. The cells will retain turgor - pressure, and accordingly, the skin will be firm and elastic to the touch.
Use in cooking
In cooking, sour cream is used as a separate food or as an ingredient for preparing various dishes. This fermented milk product can be consumed with fruits, jam, honey, vegetables, and added to both main and first courses. It is used to prepare gravies, mousses, sauces, various pastries, and delicious desserts.
It is recommended to put not mayonnaise in all spring salads, but sour cream. In addition, when baking any dish in the oven, add this product - such food will be healthier.
A glass of sour cream with sugar will relieve melancholy and depression, and help relieve the effects of stress. Therefore, if you are nervous and overtired, try this remedy, and the result will exceed all expectations. If desired, sugar can be replaced with honey.
The combination of sour cream with sweets, nuts, and milk is not recommended [7].
Beneficial features
This is an easily digestible product. When milk protein sours, it turns into a form that is broken down by enzymes. Pharmacists used dairy products as an ingredient in ointments, and dermatologists used them as medicine to cure skin diseases. A face mask made from sour cream is currently widely used in cosmetology as a tonic and rejuvenating component for care.
It is noticed that this product gives a healthy appearance to the skin and makes it velvety. This is a traditional remedy in folk cosmetics: a remedy for smoothing wrinkles, narrowing pores, and improving skin color.
In Soviet times, there were medicinal recipes - ointments based on sour cream. They were prepared in pharmacies. True, they had to be used within one or two days, no more, since this is a perishable product.
This is interesting
Sour cream is universal because it can be applied to a cleansed and warmed face in any season or time of day, unlike products containing a large percentage of water. However, masks give the best effect in the evening, before bedtime.
In this case, the skin must be specially prepared before applying the composition. When the dermis is dry, after cleaning the face with a scrub, it is necessary to warm it with a hot cloth so that the oily component is well absorbed into the pores. And the applied mass must be warm. If the skin is oily, then heating is not required.
Calorie content
Sour cream is based on dairy cream, which has a high fat content. Therefore, the number of calories in sour cream itself is also quite high.
As a rule, you can find this product with fat content on store shelves:
- 10%: its calorie content is 115 kcal per 100 grams;
- 15%: 160 kcal per 100 grams;
- 20%: 200 kcal per 100 grams;
- 30%: 290 kcal per 100 grams.
This calorie content means that, despite all the positive properties, moderation should be observed when consuming sour cream so as not to encounter unwanted weight gain.
How can sour cream harm you?
Note that everything applies only to fresh dairy products. When storage times and conditions are violated, many beneficial substances are destroyed, and the decomposition components harm the skin. Therefore, you should look at the lid of the box for the manufacturing date and shelf life when you buy it in a store.
So the benefits and harms of sour cream for the face depend on how correctly you use it and what components you use. There is also no need to use the recipes given here too often. Once or twice a week is enough. Any mask is not a daily remedy. Oversaturation of the skin with fatty acids will only worsen the pH balance.
Usage rate
How much sour cream do you need and can you eat to benefit from it? A reasonable biological norm is considered to be 6.5 kg per year [6]. Based on this, it is possible to determine the average consumption rate per day - about 20 g. However, this number is approximate, since more accurate indicators are influenced by many factors: a balanced diet, the body’s actual energy consumption, body weight, age, gender and others. Therefore, the consumption rate of any product must be calculated individually.
Choosing the right base for the mask
The creamy composition, depending on what goals are being pursued, is prepared from sour cream of different fat contents. For dry skin types, take the oiliest varieties. For oily people – with the lowest percentage of fatty substances.
According to the quality rating, the varieties of sour cream sold in Russia are distributed approximately as follows (top 10):
- President.
- Velikolenskaya.
- Kezovskaya.
- Kudymkarskaya.
- Avida.
- Brest-Litovsk.
- Zalessk farmer.
- House in the village.
- Yuryevskaya Burenka.
- Quilly-millie.
Reviews
Positive reviews about the use of sour cream masks are left by owners of different skin types, which once again confirms the absence of restrictions in the use of the product.
Nina: “When I make masks with sour cream, I try not to breathe, because I simply hate the smell of fermented milk product. But for its high effectiveness, I am ready to endure it, if only the skin remains as velvety and healthy as possible for as long as possible as after using such products.”
Tatyana: “Sour cream masks are my great love. Whatever task I set for them, they cope with everything: nutrition, cleansing, moisturizing, toning, getting rid of inflammation. Moreover, it is worth changing just one ingredient, and the properties of the product already change. But sour cream itself works great in combination with any products, in any case, the skin after it is very soft and smooth, smoothed and elastic.”
Ekaterina: “I smear sour cream on my face throughout the year. This procedure replaces many purchased masks for me. I can say that the product has a very good anti-aging effect, which is achieved in several directions at once. Pigmentation, if any, becomes less noticeable. Small wrinkles are smoothed out. Puffiness goes away, signs of fatigue are eliminated.”
Sour cream is suitable for skin care for any girl, both very young, suffering from constant rashes, and adults, whose skin has already begun to age. The benefits are due to the rich vitamin and mineral composition, as well as the high content of acids responsible for the renewal of dermal cells.
For hydration
Sour cream face mask at home
When a low-fat product is taken, it penetrates well into the skin and nourishes it. Honey, when added, provides cells with a lot of microelements. Therefore, in order to enhance metabolic processes in the layers of the dermis and moisturize, you can make a combined mass.
To do this, take 15 grams of sour cream and the same amount of honey. If it is liquid, you can add about half a teaspoon of rice or flour ground in a coffee grinder. Mix everything thoroughly with a silicone brush, spread on the skin of the neck, face and décolleté. Leave for fifteen minutes, then remove with a damp cloth and after 5 minutes wipe the skin with fresh cucumber juice or a slice of lightly salted cucumber. It is better to apply this product at night, when there is no allergy to honey.
If there is one, then replace the ingredient with a crushed piece of banana. The product will moisturize the skin and smooth out wrinkles. If there is inflammation, a banana will help relieve it.
A sour cream-based mask can be used not only for the face, but also for the hands. Very effective relief for dry skin.
Use the recipe only once or twice a week. To do this, take a tablespoon of fat sour cream and 2/3 honey. Lubricate your hands, put on rubber gloves and hold for about half an hour. Then you need to wash everything off with water.
Sour cream for the skin around the eyes
Just take it with a low percentage of fat (1
tsp). Add a few (2-3) drops of St. John's wort or chamomile essential oil, 1/3 tsp. finely grated cucumber, mix everything with a silicone brush. Now you can apply. Keep it for 7-10 minutes.
A mask of sour cream and egg yolk is used when it is frosty outside, the skin is chapped or rough.
Recipe: one yolk, a tablespoon of sour cream plus honey (if there are no contraindications - 1 tsp). Just as in the first case, beat thoroughly and bring to a homogeneous state.
Moreover, the white of the egg will also come into play. First you need to clean your face well. Then apply the resulting cream in a layer of three to four millimeters. Leave for about a third of an hour and rinse with hot boiled water, then rinse with cold.
Then beat the egg white into a foam and gently beat it into the skin with a brush. When the protein dries, there will be a feeling of “tightness”. Wash it off with warm water very thoroughly. After 2 hours you can go to any VIP party - sour cream on your face gives an amazing cleansing effect!
The egg can be replaced with cottage cheese (thirty grams). Let us note that in the kitchen there are always products that, from a cosmetological point of view, are perfectly combined in recipes. These are oatmeal, juice of lemon, carrot, cucumber, apple, orange, yeast (a large amount of B vitamins), olive oil, salt, egg, currant berries, sea buckthorn. So you can come up with quite a lot of options for preparing cosmetics for your appearance.
Sour cream mask for dry and flaky skin
Prepared from fatty farm fresh product. Take pharmaceutical oats, grind about twenty grams and pour boiling milk in a one-to-one ratio by volume, leave until it cools, then stir in sour cream. Apply to a dry gauze pad, which is placed on cleansed facial skin. Keep it for a quarter of an hour. In the summer, those with dry skin can repeat the procedure every three to four days. More often it is not necessary.
Sour cream face mask against wrinkles
Art. spoon of sour cream + teaspoon of live pressed yeast + table. spoon of grated cucumber + half tsp. starch. Mix carefully. Pre-clean your face with gel. Then apply the mixture to the skin, hold for about ten minutes, and use warm water to wash. Afterwards, wipe the application area with toner.
Harm and contraindications
Unfortunately, sour cream, like other dairy products, has contraindications. It is better to avoid it for those who are diagnosed with:
- gastritis;
- ulcer;
- diseases of the gallbladder and liver.
Even if you do not suffer from any of these diseases, it is believed that it is better not to consume sour cream at night, as it can negatively affect the digestion process, lead to heaviness in the stomach and problems with sleep.
You can also learn about the characteristics of sour cream from the following video.
For whitening
Like any fermented milk product, sour cream itself whitens the skin, but if you add some ingredients to it, the effectiveness increases.
Take fatty varieties of the product (35-30 g), a couple of strawberries and half a tsp. flour (oatmeal or rice). This recipe is suitable for women with any skin.
Strawberries can be replaced with twenty grams of juice squeezed from lemon. Then the freckles will disappear. To reduce them, instead of lemon, use the same volume of gruel from parsley leaves. You can add the same amount of cucumber juice to the parsley (1/2 tbsp.) (fresh cucumber only). The dermis will be “nourished”, whitened, and wrinkles will be smoothed out.
Sour cream whitens the face on its own. But a very good remedy is cottage cheese and sour cream cake with parsley and cucumber juice.
To do this, take a tablespoon of fresh cottage cheese. Wipe through a strainer. Add a few grains of salt, parsley juice (1 teaspoon), cucumber juice (1 teaspoon), 1 tablespoon of thick country sour cream. Mix everything very thoroughly. You should get a soft, plastic cake.
If suddenly the mixture is runny, add more grated cottage cheese. Lie down on the sofa and spread the flatbread in an even layer. And quietly watch TV for 25 minutes. Then the mask comes off on its own. The face should be wiped first with a damp cloth to remove excess, and then with a toner to moisturize the pores.
Depending on what effect you want to get, you can change the ingredients. Instead of cucumber juice, add sea buckthorn oil, grated apple or chamomile infusion.
There is no need to act on the principle “the more ingredients, the better.” It is not recommended to use more than three or four components. Get a consultation with a cosmetologist in advance. He will examine, determine the characteristics of the tissues, and, based on this, give advice.
Sour cream for dry skin whitening is a unique product. To ensure a lasting effect, such masks begin to be applied to the skin from mid-January, then freckles do not appear by spring. If you don’t have freckles, but you’ve overexposed yourself to tanning in the solarium or on the beach, these masks will also help remove excess tone.
There is another composition, but it cannot be used by those who have superficial blood vessels. Recipe: add crushed bodyaga on the tip of a knife to fresh cucumber juice (1 tbsp) and sour cream in the same volume. Keep the composition on the skin for 5-7 minutes, then rinse with plenty of water.
Apple cider vinegar also has a whitening effect. The base of the mask is prepared from liquid honey and sour cream (1:1), its volume is 1 dessert spoon.
If the mixture is too thin, rice flour or starch can be used as a thickener. But don't overdo it. When the mask turns out to be dense, it does not stretch well over the face. Add no more than 7 drops of apple cider vinegar to the resulting mass while stirring. When you get a homogeneous white ointment, leave it for 10-12 minutes. Then remove with a damp cloth and wipe with a swab or cotton pad soaked in tonic. Sour cream and lemon for the face, as well as apple cider vinegar, give a wonderful glowing effect.
Benefits for men
Men can benefit from sour cream because it contains a lot of protein. This component can increase potency and libido, as well as increase testosterone levels.
Protein helps rapid muscle growth, which means this fermented milk cream will come in handy for those men who actively play sports and take care of their shape.
In general, regular consumption of sour cream has a positive effect on the male body:
- promotes blood flow to the groin area;
- protects the body from viruses and infections;
- increases the production of male hormones;
- improves hemoglobin levels.
Attention! Despite all these positive properties, I advise against eating fermented milk in too large quantities, as this can lead to undesirable results: weight gain and digestive problems.
For scrubbing
Factory-made scrubs are not suitable for everyone. There is no need to despair. You can prepare them at home, and sour cream is also useful for this. You will get a double effect: cleansing and nutrition.
Most often, for this purpose, they use a proportion of 1 part cosmetic clay + 2 parts low-fat sour cream. Clean your face of dirt and makeup, then spread the mixture onto your skin and leave to dry. Then, using circular motions, gently exfoliate your face, remove any excess, and wash your face.
Ground coffee is also used as a scrubbing element. After brewing, the grounds are dried, mixed with a dairy product in a 1:1 ratio and applied in a circular motion to the dermis to be cleansed. This way you can clean not only your face, but your entire body during bath procedures.
For oily skin, soda (1 part) is often used, which is gently mixed with sour cream (3 parts). And massage the nose, forehead, chin with your fingertips, especially those areas where there are “black spots”. Avoid using the area around the eyes to avoid getting burned. Then be sure to rinse with warm water.
Chamomile sour cream
Chamomile seeds are very small, soft and contain whitening and anti-inflammatory agents.
In the fall, when they are formed, you need to collect the seeds and put them in a wooden or glass box after drying them lightly on the window. If you take care of this, you will get “two in one”: all winter you can prepare a wonderful, soft, effective sour cream-based facial scrub that will moisturize thin, delicate skin and gently cleanse, and also prevent inflammation.
Recipe: moisten a small amount of seeds (about a third of a teaspoon) with water (don’t pour it on, just wet it, the water should be hot, but not boiling water). Leave for 5 minutes. Then mix with a teaspoon of sour cream. This amount is quite enough for 1 cosmetic procedure. Do not store it for use, because the leftover mass will already lose all its beneficial properties.
Apply to face and slowly massage into skin. No need to stretch it. Touches should be light, stroking. We carry out this cleansing session for 3-5 minutes, then wash the scrub with a damp cloth or water without soap. You can apply a light cream or wipe your face with cucumber juice. For those with oily skin, you can infuse cucumber with apple cider vinegar solution. This is a wonderful tonic.
Salt scrub
Salt is a well-known cleansing agent. In cosmetology, it is taken finely ground. There are two options.
First. The steamed face is massaged in a circular motion with salt-applied fingers. Afterwards, rinse the skin well. Then apply a thin layer of low-fat sour cream for 10 minutes, then wipe with wet wipes, and then with a swab dipped in tonic. In this case, the fermented milk product replaces the fatty cream, so there is no need to apply it additionally afterwards.
Second. One teaspoon of salt is mixed with a tablespoon of sour cream and this mass is transferred to the face, neck and décolleté. Do a massage using a mask as a massage tool until the salt is completely dissolved. Remove the product from the skin with a paper towel or damp cloth, wash with water and apply tonic. Avoid areas where there is damage to the skin.
Sea buckthorn and sour cream scrub
There is one more remedy. To do this, sea buckthorn berries are dried in the summer, then ground in a meat grinder or coffee grinder. This powder can be stored in a glass jar. A third of a teaspoon of powder is mixed with a teaspoon of sour cream and kept for about twenty minutes in a warm place. After some time, the pulp acquires an orange tint.
Mix again and apply to the face with light circular movements in a clockwise direction. Around the eyes you need to move your fingers in the direction from the temple to the nose. When you lubricate your forehead, then from your temple to the bridge of your nose. Around the mouth, first clockwise, then counterclockwise.
Massage like this for 3-5 minutes. The touch should be soft, the pressure very light. The “grains of sand” of sea buckthorn in sour cream swell, but they are not very hard, and the fatty base of the product draws useful substances from the berries and gives them to the epidermal cells. It turns out to be a double effect. On the one hand, there is a thorough gentle cleansing of the pores and exfoliation of the surface layer of dead cells, and on the other hand, good nutrition.
After cleaning, you need to rinse the composition off your face, but do not wipe it with a towel. It is better to dry with a cold hairdryer. Apply a light nourishing cream to dry skin. Or brush it with a freshly cut piece of cucumber.
Benefits for weight loss
Sour cream is a fairly high-calorie product, but it is often used in diet menus. The paradox is explained by the fact that this is an absolutely natural product, full of vitamins and substances necessary for humans. If you follow the recommended daily intake, it will not negatively affect your weight or figure.
Sour cream is perfect for dressing vegetable salads, making them a little lighter and more interesting in taste. In addition, it serves as a complete replacement for not very healthy mayonnaise.
At the same time, for the diet it is better to choose a product with 10-15% fat content and, of course, not combine it with sugar.
Sour cream face mask for acne
Especially in youth, during the period of formation of the body, acne plagues many. This causes complexes; teenagers do not want to “go out into the world” and are embarrassed. Although it is quite possible to get rid of unpleasant red inflamed spots.
Every first aid kit has aspirin. One tablet of this popular product (not the effervescent one) is crushed, 15 drops of water are added with a pipette, mixed with the powder in a spoon and poured into a bowl with a prepared tablespoon of low-fat sour cream. The contents are turned into a homogeneous mass (stir or whisk) and left for 5-7 minutes. Then apply a thin layer to a cleansed and steamed face and leave for 10-15 minutes. After the procedure, the composition is washed off with a damp cloth, then rinsed with water.
Aspirin can be replaced with turmeric powder. The only drawback is that the plant stains the skin orange, taking this into account, you need to prepare very carefully: stock up on wet wipes that will remove the “paint” from the face, apply only in the evening on a day off, when there are no important events.
Sometimes starch is added to sour cream. Its grains swell, and when massaged, the pores are cleansed. Inflamed skin reacts to it, not like a scrub - there is no such aggressive action - but at the same time the pores are cleansed, nourishing and anti-inflammatory substances begin to penetrate into the tissues. There will be no irritation unless you have allergies.
An excellent remedy for acne in combination with sour cream is pumpkin juice or gruel.
Prepare a mask in a 1:1 ratio (pumpkin + sour cream). Keep it on your face for up to 20 minutes, then remove it, like other “sour cream” products, with wet wipes, wipe the skin with tonic (preferably without alcohol). The question is often asked how long to keep sour cream on your face. It's very individual. Nourishing and anti-inflammatory masks sometimes last up to 20 minutes, whitening masks - 10-15, and a scrub cleanses the skin for 3 (maximum 5) minutes.
It is important
It is necessary to warn that when using dairy products for cosmetics, there is no need to prepare them for future use. They can deteriorate and lose their healing effect or even cause harm to the body. All recipes are prepared immediately before use.
We check the quality of the product
To find out what is in the package - a sour cream product or sour cream, you can use several methods:
- Add a drop of iodine to a spoonful of sour cream. If the product does not contain herbal additives, its color will remain virtually unchanged or become more yellow. If there are third-party components, such as starch, which are added to give a thicker consistency, the sour cream will turn blue.
- Apply sour cream to a piece of glass in an even, thin layer and wait until it dries. The product is considered high quality if an even layer is formed, which cannot be said if there are streaks.
- Add a spoonful of sour cream to a glass of hot water and stir. If it is of high quality, it will dissolve completely; otherwise, it will curl and sediment will fall to the bottom.
