DIY Beauty: milk & lemon whitening polisher
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
If you want to whiten your skin the natural way, you might want to try this homemade recipe using milk and lemon. It’s really easy and pretty effective if you use it often enough, but note that lemon can make your skin sensitive so you’ll need to be careful. The recipe is suitable for your face and body but do make sure you put on your sunscreen if you try this.
Ingredients and recipe
Depending on where you want to apply this, you can use half or one whole lemon mixed with equal parts of milk. I used Meji milk for this purpose. Once the milk and the lemon is mixed together, the milk will curdle because of the acidity of the lemon juice. If you do not like too much acidity, then lessen the amount of lemon juice.
No need to rinse off after polishing
After you have mixed the two ingredients in a container, soak a flat complexion sponge in the mixture until moist and massage the moist sponge into clean skin in gentle, circular motions for about for two minutes. No need to rinse off. I do this in the night before bedtime on my hands and tissue off the excess. I have also tried it on my feet because I have some small pigmentation marks there. My skin feels nice and smooth, but the smell of the milk can be overbearing. If you use this on your face, I suggest you leave the mixture on for about 10 minutes and rinse off before toweling dry and carrying on with your usual skin care routine.
Benefits of using milk and lemon
Milk contains lactic acid that will exfoliate and remove dead skin cells and the protein and enzymes in milk will help to moisturize our skin. In addition, it will help to soften the skin to allow the lemon juice to better penetrate. Lemon juice is acidic and on top of also exfoliating the skin, it works as a bleaching agent to help fade uneven pigmentation.
Words of caution
I noticed that with continual usage at one stage (three to four times a week), my hands were a shade fairer and some of the smaller pigmentation spots were fading. I hesitated to use this recipe on my face as lemon is a photosensitive ingredient. So if you really want to try this on your face, I suggest doing this once or twice a week at most in the evenings and please use sunscreen during the day. If you have acne-proned skin, I would advice you against using this because milk may trigger breakouts for some people. Additionally, some people may not like this recipe as lemon can sting the skin a little. So my advice is not to try this DIY recipe if you have sensitive skin.
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Posted in Homemade/DIY | 26 Comments »
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December 15th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Sometimes, I would squeeze a bit of lemon juice in my water & drink it up. i don’t dare to use it on my face though.
sesame Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
It’s nice to drink with a bit of honey or sugar too.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
oohhh I want to try this! My arms are uneven in color and I want an even tone color all-over my body:) Maybe this would help in lightening my arms and make it even with my shoulder… I just have a question: is it ok to use it more like a body scrub using the sponge? I don’t know if I’m okay of not rinsing it. I want to use it all-over my body. thanks for this great DIY recipe
sesame Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Yes, it’s okay but you need to leave on for at least 10 mins and not rinse off immediately.
The smell is quite unbearable though…
December 15th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I wonder if lime can be used as a substitute since I have a few lying around lol
sesame Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Lime should be okay.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Hmmm…I am considering using it on my elbows and knees. And even my feet which has some blisters that darkened through time. I don’t know about the no-rinse portion though. Will it be less effective if I rinse it say, after 15mins?
- Kaith
sesame Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
You can rinse it off after 15 mins – the effectiveness maybe slower however.
December 15th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I love DIY recipes! I may want to try this for my face because I have freckles >.<
Lemon can dry out skin, so it is best to put a moisturizer, too
sesame Reply:
December 15th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Okay, be careful when you use this on your face. Moisturizer and sunscreen are important. I’m not so sure it’ll work on freckles but it’ll work for small spots.
December 16th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Well if I try this, I will let you know if it works on freckles :3
December 16th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Thank you for this! I really like this kinds of DIY. I hope that soon you can do more reviews and etc for skin whitening and brightening. I have dull skin from too much sun and pollution exposure. I’m using sunscreen now but its not helping me even out my skin tone. I want my fair skin back
thank you again!
sesame Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
DIY recipes are quite fun and some are quite effective. Just that I want to be careful too cos some of the ingredients can be phototoxic – like lemon in this case. So I’m sometimes worried that readers will have adverse effects using them too.
December 16th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
WoW! I can’t wait to try this out tonight
sesame Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I hope you’ll like it.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Nice recipe!
You would not recommend putting lemon juice on your face often?
I have blackheads and I have been reading that lemon juice cna help clear them up if you apply it every night. I hav been hesitant to use it every night, but when I do, I dilute the juice and then wash it off after 10 mins.(Never left on overnight.) And I always use moisturizer afterward and sunscreen the next day if I am out.
Do you think this is still too much? I know that it makes your skin photosensitive, but are there any other effects that you know of? Thanks
sesame Reply:
December 17th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Lemon is effective in removing some of the pigmented spots. Works to fade small ones…but like I said, it’s photosensitive so you need to be careful. For me, my facial skin is thinner and gets pigmented easily so lemon is not good for me even with sunscreen.
If you do it at night and you don’t leave it overnight, then it should be better. Try not to use this long term.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:23 am
I was actually reading up on what recipies might help with under eye bags and it recommened yogurt and lemon.. well I am pretty daring so I actually put it on my whole face.. hmm… I feel like its sort of okay for my skin.. but not completely sure..cause ive been sick so I’ve sort of been home most of the time.. and I didnt get too much exposed to sun..i really didnt know that lemon actually might be that dangerous.. I do admit that i feel my sudden pimples are reducing.. but i really cant tell with my face.sometimes the pimples are there..sometimes..they arent..
sesame Reply:
December 19th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I find lemon stings my facial skin! But yes, it can cause sun sensitivity and if your skin is predisposed to pigmentation, it’ll be more of a problem. My suggestion is you don’t use that recipe daily and you use it only in the later part of the day. Always use a sunscreen too.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:13 am
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December 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
hello, i used milk and lemon too..but not meji.. i used evaporated milk..its very nice. i used it almost everyday. I leave it for about 30 mins on my body and face.then rinse it.sometimes i alternate it with whitening body scrub or moisturizer since lemon is acidic and makes my skin dry…try it! enjoy!
sesame Reply:
December 30th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Evaporated milk? That’s interesting. I hardly purchase evaporated milk though…
January 29th, 2010 at 8:03 am
dear sesame,
thanx alot for the tip. Please tell me honestly if this tip does whiten skin coour bcoz i really want to whiten my skin.
sesame Reply:
January 29th, 2010 at 8:32 am
It does but it can also create issues of photosensitivity if you don’t take care of your skin by using proper sunscreen protection. I do not encourage you to do this too often.
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:34 pm
can calamansi be used instead of lemon ?
anyway… thanks… this will be a great help in my research
sesame Reply:
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Calamansi has been said to help with whitening so probably you can use it in place of lemon.