Beauty: B. Kamins face masque

Doing facial masques makes us feel cute and girly, like we’re playing make-believe-spa at a fourth-grade slumber party. The other night I tried B. Kamins, Chemist’s Diatomamus Earth Masque, named for the ingredient diatomaceous earth, which is a powder made from fossilized remains of a type of hard-shelled algae (I had to look that up on Wikipedia; I’d hoped Diatomamus was some Greek god or demigod). Full of lots of yummy antioxidants and minerals and vitamins, the masque also contains a maple sap compound that’s supposed to rehydrate, exfoliate, and protect against breakouts. The clay-like mixture creates a neat little Rice-Krispies-in-milk kind of sound as you massage it in, then dries quickly and turns supersoft while gently firming your face. It takes some doin’ to scrub off, but afterwards your skin feels soooo smooth and gives off a distinct glow that will make you want to keep checking yourself out all day long.