The Beauty Dinner: the Recipes

How to continue treating your skin at home

Thank you to everyone who participated in The Beauty Dinner, created by artists Margherita Soldati, Krisztina Czika and chef Alice Héron. As we mentioned, we want you to be able to relive the dinner from the comfort of your home. Here is an overview of the 8 all-natural mask recipes that were served during the dinner.

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Dinner guests taking a selfie while nourishing their skin with fresh spinach pesto - Course 5 - Nourishing Anisa Xhomaqi

Scrubbing

Course 1

Ingredients:

  • Ground Coffee
  • Olive oil

Procedure:

  1. Mix 1 cup of ground coffee with half a cup of olive oil until it becomes a homogenous paste.

Tip: For other parts of the body, achieve a stronger scrubbing effect by adding sea salt in the mixture.  

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Guests using coffee as a natural exfoliant. - Course 1 - Scrubbing - Filippo Iannone

Steaming

Course 2

Ingredients:

  • Ginger
  • Water

Procedure:

  1. Cut the ginger in very fine pieces.
  2. Add them to boiling water and let it infuse for a minimum of 10 minutes. The more ginger you add and the more time it sits in the water, the stronger the effect will be on your skin. Ginger has amazing antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties and helps promote circulation.
  3. To start the steaming process, pour the infused ginger water in a bowl and place your head over it.
  4. Direct the steam towards your face by putting a towel over your head to create a tent.

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Steaming hot ginger broth and miso soup - Course 2 - Steaming - Filippo Iannone

Exfoliating

Course 3 

Ingredients:

  • Charcoal powder
  • Almond milk (or oat milk)

Procedure:

  1. Take a handful of almonds and put them in an equal volume of water.
  2. Let it soak over night in the fridge. On the next day, pour out the remaining water and place the soaked nuts in a blender, again add an equal volume of fresh water.
  3. Blend until you reach a creamy consistency.
  4. Continue by straining the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
  5. Lastly, mix the charcoal powder with the obtained liquid. Use 1 small spoon of charcoal powder for every 400ml of milk. Use less charcoal powder if you have sensitive skin.

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Syringes with three different exfoliation intensities of the charcoal mask - Course 3 - Exfoliating - Filippo Iannone

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Couple smearing exfoliating masks on each other - Course 3 - Exfoliating - Filippo Iannone

Moisturizing

Course 4

Ingredients:

  • Thyme leaves
  • Olive oil
  • Sesame oil
  • Focaccia

Procedure:

  1. Place your thyme leaves in any kind of container and cover them completely with olive oil.
  2. Add a few drops of sesame oil to give extra flavor to the mask.
  3. Let it sit for a couple of nights (the oil served during the dinner sat for three nights).
  4. Filter the oil and take out leaves.
  5. To create the sponge, cut away the crust of the focaccia.
  6. Cut the bread into equal cubes using a knife.
  7. Take a pair of scissors to transform the bread squares into the shape of a beauty blender.
  8. Now you are ready to apply it on your face with your own bread sponge. 

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Blending the the thyme infused oil into the skin with the bread sponges - Course 4 - Moisturizing - Anisa Xhomaqi

Nourishing

Course 5 

Ingredients:

  • Spinach (or basil) leaves 
  • Olive oil
  • Pasta

Procedure:

  1. Put 400g of spinach leaves in a blender and add a 100 ml of olive oil.
  2. Once you reach a creamy consistency, you are ready to apply the mask on your face.
  3. To create the patches you can either make your own pasta from scratch or buy lasagna sheets to cut them into patches. 
  4. Cook pasta al dente by bringing a pot of water to a boil and adding the pasta to it.
  5. Feel free to add some salt and a small piece of garlic to flavor your pastasciutta! 

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Smearing the spinach pesto all over the face - Course 5 - Nourishing - Anisa Xhomaqi

Detoxing

Course 6

Ingredients:

  • 3 plums
  • 3 kiwis
  • 3 tangerines
  • 1 big pear
  • 4 tablespoons of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of lime juice

Procedure:

  1. Start by washing and peeling the fruits.
  2. Blend the fruits and sugar thoroughly for 10min.
  3. Heat the mixture in a medium sized pot on a very low heat. 
  4. Cook over 10min, stir frequently.
  5. Strain the mixture to remove residual fruit skin and fibers.
  6. Spread the mixture on a mat or piece of parchment, make sure the material is not too thin, as it will shrink in size.
  7. Bake at ~°C90 with a ventilation oven for at least 2 hours to dehydrate your mixture.
  8. Regularly check your fruit leather, as the duration depends per oven. When the leather is no longer sticky, but still flexible, take it out of the oven. If it is crispy, it is too dehydrated and you unfortunately have to start over.
  9. When it has cooled down, peel off the fruit leather carefully and store it in an air tight container.
  10. Cut it to the shape you prefer using scissors. Spray water or kvass on the fruit leather until moist and place it for on your face about 5 minutes. 

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Spraying Kvass on one of the face patches - Course 6 - Detoxing - Anisa Xhomaqi

Refreshing

Course 7

Ingredients:

  • Cucumber

Procedure:

  1. Peel the cucumber over a bowl, as we need both the skin and the flesh.
  2. Blend each part of the cucumber separately until you reach a creamy consistency.
  3. Strain the mixtures.
  4. Pour them in silicone molds.
  5. Place the molds in the freezer. After a few hours you will be able to apply the fresh cucumbers blocks on your skin.
    Perfect to reinvigorate the under eye in the morning! 

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Moulding the sugar wax into a spoon to be able to consume the last course - Course 8 - Smoothing Anisa Xhomaqi

Smoothing

Course 8

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of white sugar
  • 1 cup of brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup of lime juice
  • 1/4 cup of water

Procedure:

  1. Mix the lime juice, the water and sugars.
  2. Heat the mixture up in a small pot, up to 118 degrees Celsius.
  3. Once it has reached this temperature, pour the mixture into silicone molds or jars.
  4. Be really careful as the mixture is very hot. The sugar wax will be done once it has cooled down.
  5. To use your sugar wax, stretch and fold the wax approximately 4 to 5 times. You will see a change in texture as well as in color.
  6. Shape the sugar wax into a ball and apply it to the desired area.
  7. Press the ball onto your skin to spread it. Let it sit for a maximum of 2 minutes.
  8. Peel off a corner and quickly remove the wax against the hair grain.
    Enjoy the smoothness after waxing!

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Cooling Cucumber face dish to hydrate the face, to reduce swelling and to provide a remedy for tired eyes. - Course 7 - Refreshing - Filippo Iannone