How to Make Rice Water for Skin: 3 Methods, Ranked

There are three ways to make rice water, and they differ in effort, in how starchy the result is, and in how comfortable we are recommending them. This guide gives the steps for each and is straight about the ranking: it reflects simplicity and hygiene, because no study has compared the three on skin.

Home-remedy note: these are kitchen methods for a traditional home preparation, not medical advice. Patch-test before using rice water on your face.

The three methods, at a glance

	Soaked	Boiled	Fermented
Hands-on time	5 minutes	20 minutes	5 minutes
Total time	35 minutes	About 30 minutes	1 to 2 days
Rice : water	½ cup : 2 cups	½ cup : 2–3 cups	½ cup : 2 cups
Result	Thin, lightly cloudy	Thicker, starchier	Thin, sour-smelling
Food-safety fit	Simple	Needs quick cooling	Outside the rules we borrow
Our ranking	1	2	3

Keep reading for the exact steps, or skim the ice-cube guide if you already know which you want and need the freezing steps. The batch calculator scales any of these to the rice you have and the size of your tray.

Before any method: rinse, and pour the first rinse away

Put the rice in a bowl, cover it with water, swirl for a few seconds and pour that water down the sink.

The reason is arsenic. Rice carries some, and a study of cooking methods found that “Rinse washing was effective at removing circa. 10% of the total and inorganic arsenic from basmati rice” [Raab et al. 2009]. What rinsing removes from the rice is now in the rinse water, so that’s the water not to keep. It also carries off dust and loose husk.

Method 1: The soaked method (ranked #1 for most people)

No heat, nothing to cool, and the least that can go wrong. Full recipe: soaked method.

You’ll need

• ½ cup plain white rice
• 2 cups cool water
• A clean bowl, a fine strainer and a clean glass jar

Steps

1. Rinse the rice once and discard the rinse.
2. Add 2 cups of fresh water to the rice.
3. Leave it for 30 minutes at room temperature, swirling once or twice.
4. Strain the liquid into the jar.
5. Refrigerate or freeze straight away.

Storage

Chill within two hours [FDA, storing food safely]. Use a refrigerated jar within 48 hours or freeze it [UK Food Standards Agency]. These are borrowed food rules, explained in rice water shelf life.

When to pick this method

First batches, small batches, and making ice cubes. It’s also the one to use for a patch test, since it’s the plainest.

Method 2: The boiled method (highest starch content)

Simmering pulls much more starch out of the grain, so the liquid is thicker and leaves more of a film. Starch is the one rice ingredient with decent human evidence behind it: as a bath additive it helped irritated forearm skin recover [De Paepe et al. 2002]. That study wasn’t on faces or on boiled rice water, so take it as a reason this version is interesting, not proof that it works. Full recipe: boiled method.

You’ll need

• ½ cup plain white rice
• 2–3 cups water
• A small saucepan, a fine strainer and a clean glass jar

Steps

1. Rinse the rice once and discard the rinse.
2. Put the rice and 2 cups of water in the pan and bring to a gentle simmer.
3. Simmer for 10–15 minutes, adding water if it runs low, until the rice is soft and the water is milky.
4. Strain the liquid into the jar.
5. Cool it quickly: stand the jar in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes.
6. Refrigerate or freeze.

Storage

Boiling does not make it keep. Rice carries bacterial spores that “survived cooking and were capable of germination and outgrowth” [Gilbert et al. 1974], and warm starchy liquid is what they grow in. Cool it fast and have it in the fridge or freezer within two hours. Then the same 48-hour fridge rule applies.

When to pick this method

If you want the starchier, more film-forming version, for example for dry forearms or shins. If your face is oily or the film feels heavy, rinse it off after a few minutes or use the soaked version.

Method 3: The fermented method (most effort, least support)

This is the method with the biggest reputation and the least behind it. Full recipe, with its warnings: fermented method.

You’ll need

• A batch of soaked rice water (Method 1)
• A clean glass jar and a loose cover

Steps

1. Make soaked rice water and strain it into a very clean jar.
2. Cover loosely, so gas can escape and dust can’t get in.
3. Leave at room temperature for 24–48 hours.
4. Stop at 48 hours at the latest and move it to the freezer. A mildly sour smell, like plain yoghurt, is expected; it is not proof the batch is safe.

Troubleshooting

• Smells rotten, cheesy or like nail-polish remover: throw it out.
• Film, fuzz or coloured spots on the surface: throw it out, and wash the jar in very hot water.
• No change after 48 hours: your kitchen is cool. Don’t extend it; start again or skip this method.

Storage

We don’t give fermented rice water a date at any stage. Leaving it out for a day or two is the opposite of the two-hour rule, and we found no source that says how long the result keeps or that it is safe on skin. If you make it, freeze it as soon as it’s ready.

When to pick this method

Honestly, we’d pick one of the other two. The usual argument for it is that fermenting produces kojic acid and other brighteners. Kojic acid is “a natural metabolite produced by fungi” [Saeedi et al. 2019], made by particular moulds under controlled conditions, and we found no study showing a jar on a counter produces any. The studies people cite are of a commercial yeast filtrate, a different material. See fermented vs plain.

Skip it if your skin is sensitive, broken or rosacea-prone.

Compare head-to-head

	Soaked	Boiled	Fermented
Closest evidence	One small tolerance study of a rice-water gel [Marto et al. 2018]	Rice-starch bath study [De Paepe et al. 2002]	None for the homemade version
Feel on skin	Light	Heavier film	Light, with a sour smell
Main risk	Keeping it too long	Slow cooling, keeping it too long	Uncontrolled microbes
Fridge rule we use	48 hours	48 hours	No date

Which method for which skin concern

We used to have a table here matching methods to concerns such as dark spots and large pores. No study supports matching them that way, so it has gone. What we can say:

• Dry or easily irritated body skin: boiled is the version closest to the starch research.
• A first try, a patch test, or ice cubes: soaked.
• Rosacea-prone skin: read this first; if you go ahead, plain soaked rice water at room temperature, no ice.
• Dark spots: no method has evidence. See rice water for dark spots.

Good habits for any method

• Clean hands, clean jar, clean tray. Added water is how cosmetics pick up “harmful microorganisms” [FDA, microbes in cosmetics], and this is all water.
• Small batches. Make what you’ll freeze, or use within two days.
• Label everything with the date. The use-by helper does the sums.
• Patch test on your inner arm before your face, for a week or more [AAD, testing products].
• Keep it plain. Additions such as aloe, tea or essential oils bring their own risks and none of this guidance covers them.

Bottom line

Start with the soaked method: it’s the simplest and the easiest to keep clean. Try boiled if you want more starch. We recommend against fermenting: there is no evidence in its favour and a hygiene question against it. Whichever you choose, discard the first rinse, chill within two hours, and don’t expect the method to matter more than the evidence says it does, which is not much.