Farmers Market Facials – Potatoes! (More fun than you think)

Don’t forget to add your farmers market recipe links at the bottom of the post! It doesn’t have to be potato – any fresh fruit and veggie recipes will do!

Potatoes. They’re lumpy, dirty, pocky, and misshapen. Clearly not the winner in the Miss Veggieverse Pageant. However, today we’re going to award these big dumpy doofuses Miss Congeniality – because they’re just so darned useful in homemade beauty products.

A few months back, someone (was it you? ) was  joking about whether or not you could put mashed potatoes on your face. Not so funny now, is it? Because you can! And you should.

And, okay, it’s still funny.

The fact o’ the matter is, potatoes have been used for about one bajillion remedies and beauty secrets over several hundred years. And many of the beauty products you use today have derivatives that come directly from potatoes.

Here’s a list of things that potatoes are good for in skincare: Acne, wrinkles, puffy eyes, oily skin, sunburns, hair conditioning, dark circles under the eyes, uneven skintone, warts … and believe it or not, the list goes on.

I fixed up a homemade potato facial wash/mask, which we’ll do first, but be sure to read all the way down to see other uses for our bud, the potato.

(You love puns.)

Brightening, Whitening, Tightening Potato Cleanser/Mask Recipe

• Four 1/2-inch slices of potato, washed well (peeled or unpeeled doesn’t matter)
• Four 1/2-inch slices of cucumber, washed well (unpeeled)
• 1 egg white (for dry skin, use the yolk, too)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• Washcloth

Toss everything into a food processor or blender and let it blend into a watery paste. Place 2 Tbsp of the mush in the middle of a washcloth or piece of cheesecloth like so:

Now gather up the ends of the cloth and twist them (careful not to squish all the liquid out yet). Twist until liquid starts to soak through the washcloth, and softly scrub all over your face with it – several times. Allow the cleanser/mask to dry for 15-20 minutes. As this is a tightening mask, you probably want to rest your head while  you’re waiting for it to dry. Otherwise, gravity will work against you and pull your skin downward as it dries (which will increase the look of sagginess).

End Result: Some beauty recipes, you have to use consistently for a while to see a difference. This is not one of those recipes. The results were instantaneous and very obvious: my skin was seriously porcelain, very soft, and completely and totally non-greasy (but not dry). If you want a lighter, smoother complexion and serious pore-tightening, do this mask. Now.

Other Potato Uses in Skincare

• If you’re feeling oily, rub a small slice of raw potato over your face. You could even use this, gently, over your makeup as a “powder” or as a way to secure your foundation. Luckily, potatoes smell like nothing at all, so you’re not going to be running around town with a veggie scent stuck to you.
• Sunburned skin responds very well to potatoes. Again, just a raw slice of potato (or grated raw potato), rubbed over sunburned skin, will help reduce redness and pain associated with sunburns.
• Get rid of under-eye dark circles by slicing two pieces of raw potato and placing them over your eyes. Rest for 15-20 minutes in spuds-induced bliss.
• Revitalize your feet. After you’ve boiled potatoes for dinner – or whatever reason people boil potatoes – let the starchy water cool for a bit, until it’s safe to put your feet in, and let them soak for 10 minutes. Tootsies are ready to go … and go … and go.
• Treat acne with a twice-daily facial rinse. Again, save the water after boiling potatoes and refrigerate. Use this water to rinse your face twice a day. It helps with acne and pimple-prone skin. (It also lightens the skin, so don’t use it if you’re married to your present skin tone.)

Again, this is only a tiny smattering of ideas in the grand scheme of potato beauty uses. There are so many possibilities, I’m saving more for a later post. It’ll be a few weeks, though. I’m potato-ed out right now.

I’m Weird About Potatoes

Given that I’ve spent hours with potatoes today, I’ve had to think a lot about how much I like them. And I do! Kind of. I have this love-hate relationship with the tubers, and here’s how it goes:

I love mashed potatoes, but only if they’re completely, totally and utterly free of lumps. If I find a lump, I will kick the person responsible.

I love french fries, but only if they’re completely crispy nearly all the way through. Show me a steak fry, and I’ll show you the door. Belgians, however, are always welcome.

I love hashbrowns, but only if they’re grated and not chunky – and if they ARE grated, they’d better be crispy from top to bottom.

I love raw potatoes. Crunchy, crispy, straight out of the ground – raw potatoes. Yum.

I HATE boiled potatoes with a passion only written about in Shakespearean plays and the movie Heathers. (They’re two comparable works of genius, aren’t they?) You may ask me to dinner. In fact, I would love that. But you may not serve me boiled potatoes. Thank you.

I am moved in no direction, however, regarding baked potatoes. Baked potatoes are my 3 on the 1-6 scale of my Myers-Briggs food personality, on which I came up an IFTP (Incessantly Fussy Towards Potatoes).

(For the record, I’m truly an INTP … if you want to, like, judge me or something)

Now back to the farmers market recipe fun. Aren’t you dying to try some of these? Mmmmm.

Add Your Farmers Market Recipe Links

Post your recipes to it all week long – we’ll just keep adding on every post as each day comes up.

You can post as many recipes as you want.

They should be recipes with a “farmers market” theme – or, at the very least, they should contain lotsa fresh fruits and veggies.

Fresh. Healthy. Yummy. That’s what we want here.

Nowwwww, go!