A lot of people have asked me why I started making skin-care products, so I thought I'd share a bit about the skin issues I've experienced. Trust me when I say I was incredibly doubtful that all natural ingredients and products could possibly come close to having the healing benefits of synthesized ingredients specifically created to treat certain skin conditions. Turns out, I was wrong.
I've had dry patches of skin on my upper arms for a couple years, but this summer, whatever skin condition I had completely ravaged my arms and legs, leaving me incredibly itchy and with scabs covering a great deal of these parts of my body. Convinced I had poison ivy at first, I went straight for the calamine lotion, which helped with the itching temporarily, but only dried out my skin and made it itch worse than ever. So, I switched over to Aveeno's more moisturizing hydrocortisone cream. Again, this stopped the itching, but at $8 for a 1 oz. tube, I didn't see it as a very cost effective solution for my issue. I continued to try a wide variety of lotions, serums, and creams, and while some gave me short-term relief from the itching, none of them really seemed to be helping my overall condition or actually healing my skin.
At this point, you're probably wondering why I didn't just go to a doctor. Well, the answer is two-fold: 1) I anticipated allergy testing, which often involves blood samples and needles...and I'm a baby. 2) I was trying to avoid steroids because they can really wreak havoc on your body and overall well being.
Then one day I was in Whole Foods looking at some of the lotions and creams they have. One of the ladies working there asked if I needed any help and I showed her the dry, scabbing patches on my arms and asked if they carried anything that might help. She said she knew of the perfect thing and led me to an all natural salve that she said she swears by for any skin irritation. At $10 for a 24 gram jar of herbal oils, I hesitated, but finally decided to buy it. I had tried everything else, so why not? When I got home, I put the salve on my arms and legs and it quickly soothed the itching. Great, but so did a lot of other products, so I remained skeptical. I continued to put it on my arms and legs right after showering in the morning and before bed, and within less than a week, my skin began to heal. Although the jar was 24 grams, a little went a very long way, and I still have about 1/3 of the jar left. Considering my experience with the salve, I began to do a bit of research into various natural oils and herbs and their healing properties. Along the way, I learned about some of the scary potential risks of using some of the products marketed to improve skin quality. For example, hydroquinone, an ingredient found in many facial creams that even out the tone of your skin, has been linked to cancer, organ-system toxicity, allergies, and immunotoxicity. You can check out more about which cosmetic ingredients are potentially toxic at http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/
Surprisingly, a lot of the ingredients used in lotions and moisturizers can irritate allergies and people with sensitive skin. Weird. So, I tried shopping for body lotions that only contained ingredients that I could pronounce and only if I knew what the ingredients were. Without a strong background in chemistry, I found this was an incredibly costly and time-consuming task and probably wouldn't be sustainable. I also considered buying all of my lotions and skin-care products at Whole Foods, but as I read many of the label ingredients it occurred to me that the formulas weren't all that complicated and I could likely find the ingredients to make those products. So, after a little hunting around the internet, I found some lotion recipes, which I experimented with until I made a product that I liked.
Since throwing out all of my store-bought skin care products, the scabs and sores on my arms and legs have completely disappeared. There are some scars left, but they're fading as well. I also threw out all of my chemically infused facial washes and lotions, and my face is also beginning to heal. Although my acne isn't completely gone, the overall quality of my skin is much better. Before, my skin would be chronically dry and covered in acne, but I've found that many of the ingredients in the store-bought products were probably irritating my skin further because it feels so much better since I've started making my own facial wash and creams.
I could be completely wrong, but it seems to me that the synthetic ingredients in products are created to emulate one desirable quality of a natural substance while eliminating or neglecting the therapeutic value of the whole element or plant. I can only speak from personal experience, but this neglect and selective emulation seems to leave synthetic products lacking and unbalanced. Now combine that theory with the knowledge that at least 60% of anything you put onto your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream and you might start looking at the ingredients on your products a bit more closely. I mean, seriously, you wouldn't eat hydroquinone, would you?
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