The healthiest ingredients for homemade face masks

For moisturizing

The right oil can hydrate your skin beautifully and serve as a good base for a mask or moisturizer. Just do your research before choosing a type of oil. While grapeseed, pumpkin, almond and sunflower oils are all great moisturizing oils, berry seed oils (like raspberry, blueberry and cranberry) and castor oil are actually more tonifying, so they would help remove excess oil on the skin, says Moffat.

For brightening

Moffat loves to make a skin-brightening smoothie mask with papaya, pineapple and mango. "Papaya contains an enzyme called papain, which helps you with digestion but also helps brighten your skin," says Moffat. "It's not as intense as a medical spa peel, but it's really quite refreshing, and with repetition it does help."

For exfoliating

"If you want to turn your mask into more of a scrub, blend in baking soda and massage that into your face," says Moffat. The fine texture ensures it isn't too abrasive for your skin, but it still provides good exfoliation—and a slightly tingly sensation so you know it's working. Plus, says Moffat, "It leaves a nice smooth, silky feel because of the mineral salts."

For fighting acne

Rather than using harsh cleansers to deal with acne and blemishes, Moffat suggests trying a probiotic-filled full-fat yogurt mask. "A lot of skin issues are due to an overgrowth of bacteria on the face. Just like in your gut, probiotics help to repopulate good bacteria on your skin, which will help to limit the bad bacteria." Plus, the cold yogurt will help soothe redness and inflammation.

For fighting inflammation

Matcha is one of Moffat's favourite ingredients, and it happens to be incredible at fighting inflammation. "Matcha tea is kind of like green tea on steroids. It's so potent," she says. "One of the easiest masks you can make is just to get a spoonful of matcha, dampen it with some warm water and coconut oil, then make a paste. Massage it in and it's so revitalizing." Can't find matcha? Turmeric is another inflammation-fighting superfood. "I take some dry turmeric and make a paste with raw honey. It's great if you're dealing with redness," says Moffat.

For the timid DIYer

Still not convinced you can mix up your own mask from the pantry? The Graydon Superfood Mask & Scrub ($39, clinicalluxurybynature.com) offers an encapsulated powder form of 19 superfoods that you can mix into a creamy cleanser to make a scrub, or into an oil or yogurt base to try your hand at a homemade mask. Filled with harder-to-find superfoods like licorice root and shiitake mushrooms, as well as kitchen favourites like matcha green tea and probiotics, it's as close to homemade as you can get without opening the fridge.