I Washed My Face With Rice Water For A Week – Here’s What Happened
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Hey, pretty people!
I just approached Rice Water, and I really couldn’t wait to try this sort of ‘challenge’ and share my results.
As you may or may not know, I am a big fan of DIY Beauty Products; I have a whole lot of fun crafting them, and they’re also a cheap alternative to a store-bought solution. Moreover, they’re perfect to ‘patch a hole’ if you don’t really feel like going out to buy something!
I took inspiration from this amazing article by Bustle.com, but I decided to slightly customize my beauty routine.
Since the weather is getting warmer and warmer, I am taking a break from makeup and only using Rice Water, the Miracle Toner by Some By Mi and a facial moisturizer. I plan on cleansing my skin with Rice Water twice daily, in the morning and night.
So, are you ready to find out how my experience testing out rice water for a week went?
Let’s get started!
Before starting: a quick note on rice water
I touched on the general topic of Rice Water in this post, including how to craft it. I prefer soaking the rice rather than cooking it, but feel free to take whichever approach you feel comfortable with.
To make your own Rice Water, you’ll need to soak 1/2 cup of rice in 2 cups of distilled water for 30 minutes, then sift the liquid for a couple of times and pour it into your desired container.
Also, I would like to disclose that I stored the rice water into a closed plastic container in my fridge for the entire week.
A spotlight on my skincare products for the week
Since I wanted this week to be all about rice water, I decided to lower my skincare routine to a super basic level.
These products are part of my daily routine, but usually work with other formulas as well. This time, however, I decided to go only for a tonic solution and a face moisturizer. Also, I used the Tea Tree Face Spray by Revolution at night.
DAY 1 – Monday
Monday, June the 8th was the first day of the experiment. If you see a lot of redness on my face, it’s because I took this picture right after completing the first skincare routine for the week.
The liquid looked an off-white color and seemed to be odorless. This latter fact, however, would be a changing factor throughout the week.
Right off the bat, my skin looked fairly matte – even after applying a moisturizer. This fact did not mean too much for me, since the mattifying effect is always the strongest when the product is firstly applied.
At the end of the day, my skin did end up looking ever so slightly more matte than usual, but it wasn’t really that much different than my ‘normal’ levels of oilyness.
DAY 2 – Tuesday
On day two, my rice water was still odorless; that meant that the fermentation hadn’t occurred yet, but I wasn’t really discouraged by that.
The first thing I noticed looking in the mirror was that my skintone seemed to appear slightly brighter – although, to be fair, it hadn’t been quite dull to begin with.
Another detail that I kind of liked was how soft my skin seemed to be. A lot softer than usual, to be exact. This effect reminded me a lot of a product I had been using before starting this experiment, the Lemon Sparkling Peeling Gel by Secret Key, whose review will come out in the near future.
Other than these two major changes, I wasn’t able to detect more effect this liquid had on my skin on tuesday.
DAY 3 – Wednesday
On the third day, my rice water started to slightly smell; it wasn’t too detactable really, but it still was a sign that the fermentation process had finally started.
Wednesday was also the day when I was able to see my skin definitely getting less oily, although it wasn’t a proper miracle transformation. It certainly was a noticeable change, but if I had to categorize my skin type by the end of the day I would still had to go for ‘combo-to-oily’.
DAY 4 – Thursday
On Thursday morning, I decided to snap a pic to see how my skin was doing. I made the mistake of taking it right after I woke up, before my skincare routine, but let’s ignore my lost gaze for a minute.
At this point, my complexion definitely looked brighter – even brighter than what it looked like on Monday. My acne scars seemed to be quite faded too, which was great. However, I have the suspicion that it was due to the Some By Mi tonic.
Another great detail to notice is that my skin was definitely more matte than usual, especially my nose. That’s especially nice because my nose happens to be the first part to get oily throughout the day.
DAY 5 – Friday
The real surprise, on Friday, was how soft my skin was. I haven’t been suffering from texture problems lately, but if I will in the future I know where to turn to!
I don’t really know if I can define rice water as an ‘exfoliating liquid’, but the effect it had on my skin definitely resembled it. Also, I felt slight and faint tingles whilst washing my face with it.
The effect was almost the exact same the exfoliating product I mentioned before gives me, which was mind-blowing to me. If you had texture problems, I would 100% suggest you to combine the two: you won’t regret it!
DAY 6 – Saturday
I am going to be completely honest here. I really couldn’t wait for this experiment to be over on Saturday!
In fact, despite me storing the formula into the fridge at all times, the smell of its fermentation had become quite strong and annoying. Therefore, washing my face with it really wasn’t the most appealing experience!
Despite this, my skin seemed to be even more matte; to be fair, though, the situation hadn’t really improved that much from the previous days. My complexion seemed to be quite brighter as well, which is the situation that seemed to improve the most throughout the entire week.
DAY 7 & DAY 8 – Sunday & Monday
I decided to put these two days together only to share my complete results in a more detailed fashion.
To be honest, I was more than happy to put an end to my misery. My rice water’s smell had become almost unbearable to me, and applying it to my face started feeling like a chore.
Something I learned while blogging is that I want and have to provide genuine, real content no matter what, which is why I look so horrifying in this final pic. I had a rough night plagued by a horrible migraine, which left me restless for the rest of the day. However, I feel like you can clearly see that rice water really did benefit my skin in the end.
Now, after an entire week, my skin really did seem to be doing quite better.
My acne scars had definitely faded a bit, and my complexion was even and bright. Also, the softest it had ever been without a proper scrub.
A bittersweet element for me was the mattifying one. I really did expect a much stronger effect, and by the end of the week I really didn’t see the difference I was hoping. My skin was slightly more matte than usual, that’s for sure, but I was still in the ‘combo-to-oily’ skin type.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, here we are at the end of this interesting journey.
All in all, would I recommend trying out rice water as part of your skincare routine? I would.
This experience has been quite interesting, especially because I got to explore different benefits than the ones I thought I would see on my skin. This hasn’t been a disappointing journey, but a rather steady and low-progress one.
RICE WATER AND DISCOLORATION
Firstly, I would recommend this ingredient to anyone with discoloration.
I feel like my complexion really made a lot of progresses this week, and it got a lot brighter almost immediately. This is the result I was able to spot first, and I was quite impressed with it.
I would also recommend rice water to people who would like to fight their skin’s texture in a more natural and organic way. If you don’t really feel like investing in a store-bought solution, give this starchy liquid a go!
RICE WATER AND ACNE
Now, on to the ‘disappointing’ part. Would I recommend rice water for acne? No, I wouldn’t.
Acne is one of the most annoying and tedious skin problems to treat. However, there are many natural ingredients that can help you fight it. Like Aloe Vera Gel and Tea Tree Essential Oil; however, rice water isn’t one of them.
The scars on my face did fade a bit, sure, but I suspect that was due to the tonic formulation more than anything. Rice water did quite a bit for my complexion, but fighting acne and pimples wasn’t its strongest suit.
Lastly, would I recommend rice water for people with oily or combo-to-oily skin types? Yes, but with a few disclaimers.
The first disclaimer would be not to expect a miracle in just a few days – or a week, for that matter. This formulation does work to reduce your natural oil production, that’s true. However, it will take time and patience to see a noticeable difference.
Also, if you put heavier or greasy moisturizers, the effect will practically melt away. So, if you want to use rice water to reduce your oiliness, make sure to pick a cream that will work well with it!
2 thoughts on “I Washed My Face With Rice Water For A Week – Here’s What Happened”
Did you use white rice or brown rice?
Hi, thank you for reading! I used white rice.