Over the last year and a half, I’ve become a bit of a beauty book addict. Big surprise.
My favorites, though, are the vintage ones. The ones with words like “ye” and “olde” and “britches.” The ones where you cured issues with green things in the meadow, and soaked your feet in piping hot root water to get rid of a cold.
By comparison, in many current books you find tips like: “Scrub your face with Kellogg’s Cornflakes!” or “Stain your lips with Kool-Aid!” or “Condition your hair with Kraft Mayonnaise!”
The olden day books are so charming and pure.
ANYWAY, one of the most intriguing ideas I’ve gleaned from these is to use eggshells to powder your face.
Here’s a gratuitous picture of eggshells:
The gist is this: You grind eggshells into a very, very, very fine powder (like dust) and then use it as … face powder.
Before I tell you the issue, let me tell you this: It works incredibly well. I used some of the eggshell dust on my face this afternoon, and two hours later I was still not shiny (even in the face of 85-degree weather) and my skin had a nice even tone to it. Even though the eggshells didn’t “color” my face at all. Very translucent.
I love this so much, and I want to do it all the time.
But here’s where my problem comes in.
How the &$*# Do You Turn ALL Your Eggshells to Powder?
First, I know this: Wash your empty eggshells very, very well. After I did that, I set five them out in the sun to dry, brought them in at night, and set them out again this morning. All told, it was about 36 hours since I’d cracked them.
They were dry, I tell you. D-R-totheeffing-Y.
Here’s what I did:
- First, I put them in my big, good food processor. That produced about 1/8 tsp eggshell powder and 2 Tbsp tiny eggshell pieces that looked like confetti.
- Then I put them in my small food processor. I don’t know why. It doesn’t work. On anything.
- After that, I popped them into a little packet I made with foil and ran the rolling pin over it for what must’ve been the rolling distance between here and Rhode Island. That gave me about another 1/16 tsp powder and little pieces of egg that felt like sea salt. (Probably the kind of sea salt they have in Rhode Island.)
- Then I poured them into a bowl and tried grinding them with the back of a spoon. I now have a scratched bowl and 1/8 tsp of powder.
- Exasperated, I finally poured them onto a cutting board, washed off a hammer, took the whole shebang out to the backyard and just hammered the living crud out of them. A leaf blew in and I didn’t care, because all I was doing was grinding another pinch of powder into the cutting board, while the rest of the eggshell pieces bopped up and down in time with the hammer.
So all told, I got maybe 1/2 tsp of powder. After all of that.
Here is what I didn’t do:
- Use a mortar and pestle. This is because I do not have one. *frowny ashamed face*
- Affix a bag full of tiny eggshell pieces to the bottom of my car tires and drive to Rhode Island.
- Will them into dust with the awesome powers of my mind.
So help me. Help ALL of us.
Because this is really good stuff.
Do you have any idea how to grind eggshells into powder in a way that doesn’t a) send the powder shooting up into the stratosphere or b) require a permit from the city because your neighbors are sure you’re building an underground bunker with all the banging?
I know there must be some really super simple way to do this, but I’m at a loss.
If they could do it in the 1700s, we sure as heck should be able to do it now. Right? Right? RIGHT?
Right now, I’m so exasperated with eggshells, I don’t even want to look at them.
Unless they’re on my face.
HOW DO WE MAKE THAT HAPPEN?
Time to Play: What’s in YOUR Soap?
It does take longer to brew and does not store water. It puts out the water you add with each cup. So far working well in dorm room it is small
I powder my eggshells with a coffee grinder. It has to be the “blade grinder” kind though. Not the “burr grinder”. These blade grinders were actually originally designed as seed and spice grinders, but named coffee grinders because that’s the way to sell millions of them! True coffee oficionados shun them. Anyway, they powder the shells quite well, and I use them to fortify my growing soil (for indoor; I have no outdoor land, but aspire to).
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon every
day. It will always be useful to read content from other writers and practice something from other sites.
I have been drying and grinding eggshells on and off for a couple of years? For face masks etc. And I agree, braun and krups coffee grinders work well for me.
Also, not sure if someone has mentioned this but if you have a typical blender, with the screw in glass jug on top, then try using a small mason jar. I frequently use my blender this way, with recycled glass ball or mason jars, kind of like a magic bullet.
The small glass jar is great because dust won’t fly around as you try to put in a new container, and you can just store it in there when you are done blending. It does help if shells are very well dry.
I put a small sieve or cheesecloth type cover on mouth of jar, so I can gently shake small amount onto plate or bowl for my face powder brush. The parts that aren’t a fine powder stay in the jar and can be pulverized further on next blending round with new shells.
I like to grind some rice with either coffee grinder or mortar pestle, and then add to eggshell mix. I feel both rice powder and eggshell powder work well as face powder, so why not.
Still on the fence whether to believe that rice powder alone is effective as a sunscreen…so generally use this powder over sunscreen.
While you are making face powder, I use the egg shells for my green juice. This adds calcium to the mix. Good for everyone. 🙂
Joanie
Myself, I let a few eggshells from organic eggs collected over a couple days in refrigerator to dry, (obviously, washed before using the egg(s), throw 2 or 3 or more in my NutriBullet in the smaller container using the miller piece, and let grind until you are happy with the texture! I take maybe one quarter to one half tsp. morning and at night. It grinds it nicely to a very fine powder most of the time unless the eggshells are still too moist. I just started doing this, so don’t have the results in yet. What works for you?
Hey there, I just tried it and I first used a coffee grinder and it got them ground but not powder like. I then put them in my vita mix and turned it on high. That works, Got me some powder now! Can’t wait to try on my face. question: I use organic eggs and they are brown, should the shells be white? just curious, I’m not afro american, i’m Caucasian so do you have input? My powder is a little beigey
Hi all, just wanted to share my experience with this. I just tried it for the first time, with shells from free-range eggs and a small ceramic mortar and pestle. It took a little time and elbow grease, but it was worth it! The brown shells give the powder sort of a flesh-colored tint, which I don’t think is a bad thing at all – though it really doesn’t show when it’s applied. The powder is practically invisible on my face and gives it a nice, smooth finish. What a great use of egg shells! I don’t see myself ever spending another penny on face powder. *thumbs nose at cosmetic industry*
I laugh so much, I had tears running down my cheeks. Oh boy, too funny, you made my day. I will dust up my egg shells and have fun with it the way you guys do.
Merci pour ce fun!
um, not very helpful, but buy a mortar and pestle. I have two, and am an addict. the big brass one does not work as well for this as the small ceramic spice one. the ceramic one worked like a dream and my eggshell powder is currently residing in splendor in a little china powder dish with a rose on top (and other flowers as well). so go buy a mortar and pestle right now! (and maybe a $3 vintage powder dish. score!)
This might be a silly question… but does the egg shell color make a difference? I live in Namibia and we only have brown over here… but I’d love to try this out!
you may want to invest in the magic bullet…i used that for about 5 1 minute increments and received a very fine powder. Works beautifully.
Great idea about the powder – I’ll try it…! (thanks for tips for grinding – sounds like boiling/baking first is the key)
Buy a coffee grinder. Boil the shells and dry them either in the oven on low or out on the counter. Then blast the pieces to powder in the coffee grinder.
I second this. I’ve used my little grinder many times to pulverize dried shells for my garden. Works much better than a food processor, and is less labor intensive than a mortar-and-pestle.
I have bought a coffee grinder specifically for grinding things like this, it works really well. I also have another one for grinding almonds, etc.,.
Oddly enough, no coffee grinder for actual coffee!
Do u have to get all the membrane out first? Cause that’s what I’m doing and is there a secret to this cause my egg keeps crumbling up on me as I scratch layer after layer out and it seems like there’s always more to get
So, I read this ages ago. Got the mortar and pestle and have been grinding lots of things in it. Forgot all about the egg shells, though. LOL
The other day (early last week maybe?) I traded some of my handcrafted deodorant for some fresh chicken eggs (backyard chickens) and I remembered to save the shells as we used the eggs. I let the rest of the egg goo slide out of the eggs onto the cat’s dish. She loves raw eggs! Then, I washed them out and set them in my ‘drying area’ (I dry herbs and flowers, etc.), so the family would know to leave them alone.
This morning, I came across your FB post on eggs and was reminded why I saved them! Thank you!
I dropped them in the mortar and began grinding away with the pestle. Hmmm… not so much luck. Looks a lot like confetti. So, I clicked on the link in today’s post to arrive here and read more about grinding these things up into a fantastic face powder. Guess I get to experiment with other methods of grinding…
I actually do have a mortar and pestle and it didn’t take very long to crush them into a fine powder. I seriously advice getting one, they are very efficient and so much fun to play with.
You put it in the oven first!
I do this often to make powder for my garden. See “other uses for eggshells”, josasoma.blogspot.com
Have you tried A coffee grinder?
OH! You really don’t even need to dry them out in the sun. I just rinsed them, and put them on the counter, open side down. Some were there for a couple weeks, some were only there for a day! But ALL were extremely dry. 🙂
I collected 15 eggs!
We have our own chickens, so we have lots of eggs 😛 It took longer then I planned, because my family kept forgetting that I was saving them, and throwing them away 😐
BUT today I finally got to grind them up!
First I crunched them under a few paper towels with a big rolling pin, that made them into small pieces, then I just threw them in the blender, popped on the top, put it on high, and let it go fo a few minutes! I stopped it here and there to tap some down from the sides to make sure it was all mixing up. But it worked beautifully!
I have about 3/4 of a 4oz jar, full of beautiful powder. I used a bit to see how it felt and it is so soft, and so light! I love it! New favorite face powder!
Now to collect more eggs so I can whip up jars for friends!
Coffee Grinder. As powdery as it gets.
Brilliant! Here I was waiting for summer to get clam and oyster shells. And we get 6 – 7 eggs a day! If I come up with a good way to powderize them, I’ll let you know!
I really want to try this, probably with brown eggs though to see how they turn out. I need to get crackin’ 😛
I did it with brown eggs, but as you know, the inside of them is still white. So it is still very light, but it goes on extremely translucent any way! So either works just fine! Have fun!
hmmmm have you tried this with brown eggs? How long will the powder keep?? how do you store it? did you try it in like a “bullet” type blender?? i’M SOO curious! haha =)
I had the same problem….after about two hours of crunching, crushing, smushing and pounding, half my eggshell powder still looked like sand (in terms of size and shape). However, I found that if I put it all in a jar with a secure lid and shake it up, the soft, fine powder that we want sticks to the side of the jar. So then you just swipe your makeup brush along the side of the jar, and-voila- face powder!
OMG. i used a mortar & pestle, and i ground most of my eggshells into fine powder, then put it on my face, and WOW! it is translucent, and fills in my pores. my only worry is that it may clog pores… do you know if it does???
I DID THIS. I DID THIS TODAY!
and after about two hours of elbow grease, I got about 3/4 cup of powder.
Granted, I used about 13 eggshells, and I still have to brush off some of the larger bits after I apply the powder,
But…
It works! It is extremely translucent and it DOES keep shine away! I love the fact that I can keep the shine away with something I’m 100% sure about.
What did I use?
2 bowls: 1 small, one a tad bit larger.
I crumpled them up with my hands as small as I could in the larger bowl, and then I took the little “confetti” pieces and put a little bit into the smaller bowl. Then I used an ice-cream scoop (you grind the bits between the side of the bowl and the convex part of the scoop) (You crush the bits between the bottom of the bowl and the edge of the scoop). And I also used this random tool, I have no idea what it is, as a pestle. But I recommend the ice cream scoop.
I save the egg shells in a baking dish in my oven as I crack them. After I use the oven for baking, the dish of shells go back in… the shells air dry plus “bake” with the leftover heat.
I have been grinding them in my food processor and adding them to homemade dog food (calcium).
Just bought a marble mortar/pestle at TJMaxx for $10. They had several
I got a freestanding coffee grinder, a bit smallish, at Wal-Mart for around $14. I use it to grind panko crumbs and anything else I find that needs grinding. The whole top part comes off and goes right in the dishwasher. I have NEVER used it to grind coffee beans. This one is $13.96: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hamilton-Beach-Fresh-Grind-Coffee-Grinder/15758915. This one is the one I have, but is currently $19: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mr.-Coffee-Precision-Coffee-Grinder-With-Chamber-Maid-Cleaning-System/2593964
I cheated, and dried my eggshells in the microwave. *shame* I ground them in the coffee grinder this a.m., and just put some on. The few tiny bits that didn’t grind all the way simply fell off as I brushed the powder on my face. So far, so good!
http://daisybleedspinkglitter.blogspot.com/2011/07/crushing-eggshells.html
This is for you, Crunchy B. I crushed them up in an experiment and documented the process.
Hmm… I went to go try out a few ideas, like the coffee grinder, but then I realized ALL MY EGGS ARE BROWN!! I get them from a friend (who has so many chickens she can’t eat all their eggs, and really doesn’t want more chickens) and as a result… brown eggs. I’m pretty light skinned (aka, white as a polar bear) and I didn’t want to end up looking like I had put my face in a tanning bed. Does anyone know if the egg shell color makes a difference??
I doubt it would make any difference. You make discover the secret to tinted powder! But I don’t think it will significantly affect the overall look because there isn’t enough coverage
A mortar and pestle would be your best bet. You can pound the living daylights out of the eggshells. lol… And wow… I can’t believe that you can use eggshells to mattify your face. I really learned a lot. Thanks for posting this! 😉
I think the only thing that would get them fine enough would be a grain mill. And those can get pricey. I just use mine in my compost. On my face, I use a blend of silk and rice powders, with just a touch of kaolin clay. Silky smooth. It does a very nice job of getting rid of the oily shine, but I still have a nice healthy glow.
My daughter just got 4 chicks and now all I’m thinking is when they start laying eggs, she has to save the shells for me!! What a fabulous thing to do with them…of which I think there will be many – I’ll share with her too, of course!
Mortar and Pestle is my guess, not that I have one. I can try the coffee grinder though . .
Oh! So many after thoughts, but they always come after I’ve clicked that nice little submit button.
P.P.S. I have a little pepper shaker that you use to just grind pepper onto your food. I’m thinking from the pepper grinder to a flour sifter to the grinder to the sifter again.
/smartness
P.S. I love your eggshell picture.
A rock? Think corn grinding. Maybe. I was at this history-themed festival at a museum once, and they let people try grinding corn with a rock, and it was hard and tedious, (but I was a lot smaller back then) but it seemed to be working.
Use the coffee grinder. Back in the olden days, some of the Scandinavians used to use eggs to clear the grounds from the coffee. Your other half will NEVER notice. Or he’ll like it. Mine occasionally gets spice-tasting coffee, if I’ve needed to grind up cinnamon or cloves or some such–whole spices TASTE SOOOO much better–it’s worth the extra work to grind them. But sometimes, I need them powdered better than I’m going to do with mortar and pestle (mine was $3 at a rummage sale many years ago). Coffee grinders are less than $20 at any of the discount stores.
I see that you have plenty of votes for the mortar & pestle or a coffee grinder, so I’ll skip that. But my hubby and resident kitchen expert suggested drying the shells in the oven, on about 125 degrees.
Haha! I’m one step ahead of you. What I didn’t mention is that I actually tried this a second time last night – with more local, organic free-range eggs (which the first batch wasn’t quite as “good,” ’cause I begged eggshells from one of the local restaurants and I thought maybe THAT had something to do with it). I dried them in the oven somewhere between 125 and 150 for about an hour and a half. They were extra crunchy, but … alas … EXACT same result.
However, it is a fantastic way to dry them quickly, if you don’t have the patience to wait for nature to do it for you. So, thanks, resident kitchen expert hubby! (And you!)
Hm, I would suggest a spice grinder – actually, that would probably be good because then you can add various spices/dried flowers, etc. to tint the powder a certain color, if you want.
~Ness
Now I need to find my motor and pestle and go buy some eggs.
Yeah, I second (or fifteenth) the above ideas. Obviously in ye olden days they must have used the vessel with the pestle 🙂 and some mighty strong arms, I think the coffee/spice grinder may work great for those of us without a mortar & pestle (or Popeye arms).
I’m really excited about the outcome. I always have a ton of eggshells and would love to make my own face powder!!!
P.S. Ikea for the mortar and pestle. 😉
I wonder about the coffee grinder for eggshells. I dehydrated beets last month and tossed ’em in my Krups coffee grinder (that we use for spices and such since we don’t drink coffee) that has a blade. I pulsed and pulsed and pulsed over the course of 4 days! It is still too gritty for lip balm and blush.
I have a Vitamix, but the quantity of dehydrated beets is smaller than a baby food jar’s worth. I have found the Vitamix container (wet or dry) requires a decent quantity to do anything besides blow everything around.
Ikea is less than 5 miles from my house and it’s gonna be a scorcher today. They have air-conditioning and I don’t. Hmmmm… I see a cool outing in my day! 😉
Could it be possible to add some water to the eggshells while in the processor and then let it sit while the water evaporates??? I know nothing about the subject, just trying to think outside the box. =)
http://www.proec.ufg.br/revista_ufg/fome/casca.html
(sorry, it’s paper is written in Portuguese)
Cont….
If you want to mix the egg shell (powder) in soups, beans, pasta sauce, pudding, grits; then you should let it soak a little bit in vinegar or lemon/lime.
Coffee grinder. I mix egg shells and coffee grounds to use as a sort of fertilizer/plant food. This is a great idea too though!!
I ground some eggshells just now in my cheap-o coffee grinder. I threw in a handful, and got 3 1/2 tsp powder and 1 tsp larger bits. My eggshells were really dry- I save them to use in my garden- so that might have made a difference.
what about a grain mill if you have one? i’d go with a mortar and pestle though.
on a different note. social workers and nutritionists in brazil go visit some really poor areas and slums to teach people how to eat a little better with their limited resources. and one of the things they teach is to grind the egg shells into fine powder and mix into the food in order to increase their calcium intake. but it has to be mixed (1tsp) /sprinkle with something that has some acidity to it like fruit salad that had citrus fruit in it.
I am so putting a mortar and pestle in my amazon cart right now!
btw, I just love your site!
You always have such perfect timing! I just made homemade blush (using cornstarch, kaolin clay, and a mixture of hibiscus and beet powder – which was very successful!) and have been trying to figure out how to make a good face powder to go with it. I have a coffee grinder, so if I get a chance, I will try grinding some egg shells up with that. I have also been meaning to buy a mortar and pestle, so this may be a good excuse to go ahead with that… 🙂
Homemade blush sounds very very cool 🙂
It is! It’s so easy to make and you can customize the colour. An added bonus is that it keeps my cheeks from getting shiny (I have very oily skin).
Oooh can you give specifics or a recipe? I’ve been trying for six months to figure out how to make my own blush. I could never get the beet powder to provide any kind of stain to my cheeks. I didn’t consider hibiscus.
I don’t know if you can call it an actual recipe, but basically what I did was mix together 1 tbsp of cornstarch with 1 tbsp of kaolin clay. Then I kept adding 1/4 tsp each of beet powder and hibiscus powder until I reached a shade I liked. I think I ended up adding about 1 tsp of each powder. I have pale skin, so that may be why the beet powder works for me?
I hope this helps – Good luck! 🙂
I’d suggest you picking up a little coffee grinder. Not the kind with a “burr”, but the kind with a blade (much much easier to clean out). I picked mine up at the grocery store for under $15. I love it. I use it to powder a lot of my herbs (herbs I put into my own yummy face recipes!). I’m thinking that will work.
I’m going to try my Vitamix with the grain blender. If it can grind wheat or rice into flour it just might turn egg shells into powder. And it will be fun to experiment with colored shells.
Hey! Well, I think the coffee grinder would work really well. In my chef world, we use it as a spice grinder, and it works amazingly well. I picked one up at wal-mart for about 5 bucks a few years ago, and it still works like a charm!
Other than that…I will try to do it in my Vitamix, and I will let you know how it goes. That’s just a significantly more expensive, albeit life-changing, investment. Nevertheless…I will let you know how it goes.
I got my mortar and pestle at Ikea for $9.99 and it’s marble. It’s small but the heavy marble really works at crushing up spices and stuff.
The little coffee grinders would work too. I’ve seen a lot of chefs use those to grind up a bunch of spices super quick.
Love the idea of eggshells as face powder. I get eggs from my farm and we get brown, pink, green, and white eggs. I wonder if you could mix some of the brown shell powder with the white to customize the shade at all??? So cool!
Maybe a spice grinder or a coffee grinder?
Gosh, I had forgot about that powder. I made it years ago but don’t remember how. I think the coffee grinder would work. I have an extra one but don’t have any egg shells right now. Will have to try this. Thanks for the post.
Betty! Take the plunge! Stop by your favorite kitchen supplies store and pick up a mortar and pestle. You will be AMAZED how often you actually use the big hunk of rock that your boyfriend said would get lost in the cabinets the first week.
I, too, read somewhere that a coffee grinder would do the trick. I wouldn’t worry too much about eggshell coffee. Just think of it as calcium-enriched coffee!
I also use a coffee grinder for this. It works so very well. Don’t have one? Go search at the secondhand stores or get a new one at a discount store. They are so handy for grinding small dry things into a nice powder without it flying everywhere, that it’ll be worth the effort to procure one! I’m just sayin’ !! 🙂
I use an old coffee grinder (one of the blades is bent). The eggshells I grind used to end up in suet feeders and as a mix in with bread crumbs for winter/fall wild bird food. NOW I may have to put them on my face 🙂
I have no smashy eggshell solutions, alas. You caught my attention when you said “two hours later I was still not shiny”. I used to be a shiny, shiny girl, until I started the oil cleansing method. Have you tried it? Saved my sorry face – true story 🙂
I agree that a mortar and pestle is probably the best way to go. They are expensive, I know, but I found mine at a farm market for $25 and it is ginormous! You may be able to find a cheap one. I’d test it out for you but I’m traveling for the summer. If nobody figures it out by late August, I’ll give it a go.
I have a wooden mortal and pestle I got at a HUGE garage-sell type thing called Bridge Fest. it was about $3.
I think a mortar and pestle would be the best — artists use them to grind pigments into fine powders.
Coffee grinder?
Ugh. I don’t have one of those, either. Except the one that’s attached to my coffee maker and don’t think I didn’t consider trying it in there until I thought about eggshell coffee tomorrow morning and how Skip might not talk to me all day.
I REALLY should get one, though, because I’ve often wondered how much better one is at powdering things than a food processor.
I hope someone who has a coffee grinder (that they don’t mind getting a little eggshelly) will try it and see how that works.
I’ll try it for you (and me). I have one and I don’t drink coffee. (I use it for flax seed.) I’ll let you know.
I did it! It worked. Photo evidence: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23341566@N07/5927339240/
Thanks!
Roasting coffee with eggshells helps reduce the bitterness and acts as a calcium supplement, so using your coffeemaker may not be a terrible idea.