The Beauty Guinea Pig

Theory tested: Your complexion can be soft and supple after 10-minutes of quality time with pureed pumpkin.

No one is thinking about pumpkin in the first week of June but perhaps we should be. It is high in vitamin A (retinol), zinc, beta carotene, alpha-hydroxy acids, lutein and vitamins C and E. Among many other things, pumpkin is supposed to slough off dead cells to reveal glowing skin underneath, which is why it is included in many cleansers, moisturizers and treatments at spas. My beauty buddies from The Beauty Cookbook suggest using it in a 10-minute mask.

Products used: A can of Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin left over from the fall.

Duration of test: 10 minutes

Application: Douglas and Pearlman recommend pureeing ¾ cup of fresh pumpkin and then putting it on your make-up free face. It is June and I don’t have any fresh pumpkins to puree lying around, but I do have a can of Libby’s orphaned after the aforementioned abandoned holiday cookie bake of 2010. The only ingredients in Libby’s are pumpkin and many traditional cookbooks claim that canned pumpkin is a great replacement for fresh, so I thought it was a fine substitute.

I put the cool puree on my face with my fingers. If you’ve ever cleaned out a jack-o-lantern at Halloween (and if you haven’t you really should), you know that as gourds go, pumpkin is a little messy. While it didn’t stick to anything, I found that if I put too much on my face, it sort of fell everywhere.

Results: After 10 minutes, I rinsed the pumpkin off my face and found that my skin indeed felt softer. I spent a lot of time outdoors the day before (with sunscreen on of course) and my skin needed a little bit of exfoliation, the pumpkin did the trick.

Conclusion: This pumpkin mask is a great tool to have in your beauty arsenal but pureed pumpkin is hard to come by outside of the fall months. If you can find pureed pumpkin, I highly recommend using this occasionally for all skin types—it takes 10 minutes and costs next to nothing. If you can’t find pureed pumpkin, this Pumpkin Enzyme Peel from Peter Thomas Roth can do amazing things for your skin. Or, check out this regenerating Pumpkin Lotion from Arcona.

Tip: Do not take pictures of yourself with the pumpkin mask on. It’s not cute, no matter how you try.