Woman Says Using Period Blood As Face Mask Leaves Her Skin Glowing

Every person on this earth is different, but there are a few golden rules that almost all of us follow: look both ways before crossing a road, sleep lying down, don't rub stuff that comes out of your body on your face.

It's unclear what Gabrielle Schlegel's stance is on the first two of these rules, but she certainly doesn't abide by the third.

The 22-year-old from Alberta, Canada, said she used to feel 'utter disgust' if she got a bit of period blood on her hand while changing a tampon, but nowadays she has done a complete 360 and claims using the blood as a face mask leaves her skin glowing.

When she first started having periods, Gabrielle felt embarrassed by them, and as she grew older, they became increasingly painful.

But her perception began to change in October 2014 when Gabrielle discovered yoga and spirituality. It wasn't until 2018 though that she was inspired to make use of her period blood though, after seeing a woman using it to paint on Instagram.

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Nowadays, Gabrielle collects her blood in a menstrual cup on a monthly basis and uses it to paint; she also applies it as a face mask.

She said: "Seeing myself in the mirror, with my blood smeared all over my face, really allowed me to realise that there is absolutely nothing disgusting or wrong about menstrual blood. In fact, it is completely harmless, manifesting without a wound to the body of any kind.

"If anything, it is the most sacred fluid the human body is capable of secreting. The literal shedding of the uterine lining that was preparing to grow a human body, should a fertilised egg have been implanted.

"It has been a whole other level of embracing my period. Not only does it leave my skin absolutely glowing, in my experience, it actively works in treating breakouts, as there are stem cells and many nutrients that are meant to help grow a baby if pregnant and the uterine lining were not to shed."

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Gabrielle added that painting with her period blood helps her feel connected with her ancestry.

She said: "Sometimes I will have something in mind to paint, most times I will just allow whatever comes to flow from my paintbrush onto the canvas. I love to think of it as painting with all of the women and mothers within my ancestral lineage that bled before me, connected so deeply by the blood they too once bled for me to be.

"Painting with my menstrual blood wraps me within a bubble of bliss that I cannot even attempt to describe. It is quite fun to create beautiful paintings with something that is heavily believed to be so un-beautiful."

Just goes to show, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Topics: Interesting, Community, Weird, Canada

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey