The Egg and I: An Adventure in Homemade Beauty Products

Steve A. Johnson, 2010

When it comes to beauty products, I’m the kind of woman who sticks with the bottled stuff. Shopping for obscure ingredients and following complicated recipes are great when it comes to cooking in the kitchen, but time consuming when I need a simple morning regimen in the bathroom. I might look at a recipe one in a while, but you’d never see me actually try it. Until now. Guess there’s a first time for everything.

Last week I read “Quick, Whisked Beauty” from the new online magazine Daring: The Art of Being a Woman. One ingredient. Three easy steps. So today I decided to give it a try. I whipped up a large egg – which ended up being too much – and spread it over my face. Despite having used a dozens of store-bought facial masks that looked and smelled pretty bad, lathering myself in raw egg did make me a bit uncomfortable. Maybe it’s the color.

After two minutes, I could feel the egg drying and tightening my face. Unlike store products though, I never “felt” it working. (Probably because of the lack of harsh chemicals.) The egg set the full ten minutes, and then I carefully removed the residue with a warm wet washcloth. I’ve heard a few scrambled egg horror stories associated with egg hair rinses that I didn’t care to experience first-hand with my hairline and eyebrows, but I emerged unscathed.

Now I have to ask, was it worth it? The egg hasn’t seemed to brighten my dull complexion, as was advertised, but it does seem to have had a tightening effect similar to other masks I’ve used. One thing that bothered me was the egg leftover. It’s easy to ration out amounts of bottled beauty products because they’re made to last a few months minimum. I’d feel rather uncomfortable saving raw egg in the fridge to use the rest of this week. So in the end, I’d say: Thanks, Daring. This was a worthwhile experiment, but I don’t foresee it becoming a part of my beauty routine any time soon.