Fickle Face Masks by guest: Melissa Esplin

When my husband Chris asked me on our first date, he decided that we would do dinner and plaster face masks. Chris is unique. Making face masks is the antithesis of dinner and a movie, a super-memorable first date, and terribly difficult to do with eggs. You could call it successful in that we hooked up for the rest of forever, but the masks themselves were an utter disappointment. The root of the problem was plaster-impregnated gauze. All of the advice we found online said, "Start with plaster impregnated gauze...", but we couldn't find any. I decided that gauze and egg whites ought to work fine. The egg whites were supposed to harden just like they had on my hair before dance recitals. Negative. The night was a sticky, egg-drenched mess. We waited and waited. The eggs stayed syrup.



We have since switched out the egg whites for plaster of paris (found at Home Depot). Plaster is the best way to go, but you have to get the PERFECT consistency in order for it to work correctly. You also have to use gobs of Vaseline. After my last attempt I spent two hours crying in the shower trying to pry each little plaster chunk out of the few eyelashes I had left. Chris's latest outing (pictured above) was much the same, minus the crying. Miraculously, Chris managed to sacrifice his hair follicles to keep the mask intact. Chris assures me that it was not easy and hurt like crazy.



After making the masks and allowing them to dry, we slathered them in Vaseline and made positives (or Death Masks). I love the tangible reminder of our courtship, and it never fails to get conversation going with our living room guests.



Learn to make your own Fickle Face Masks with this tutorial.

For more tutorials and crafty home and baby ideas, please visit my blog, IS•LY at melissaesplin.com.