What You Should Know About Your Skin.....

Your skin is the body's largest organ weighing in at about 7-9 lbs. It protects us from the outside world and regulates the body's heating & cooling systems, with few differences between the male & female skin. Our skin is extremely sensitive to external factors such as stress, heat, cold & ultraviolet radiation. If your skin contains less than 10% water...it will feel dry. The epidermis is the outer layer of skin cells and the ones we see, but that is the products of the lower layer of the skin called the basal layer, where new plump, moist cells are produced. These travel upward & outward, on their journey they encounter various hazards that lose some of their moisture making them leaner. It can take 3-4 months for cells to reach the epidermis. So in treating the skin, results may not show for that length of time. When skin cells reach that outer layer--they fall off and become household dust. Skin cells are rich in keratin which also makes up nails and like nails can become brittle & flaky. Our skin is an excretory organ and is constantly at work to throw off toxic waste. The sebaceous gland work hard to lubricate the skin and just how hard they work determines whether you have dry or oily skin. The skin produces millions of new cells each day. The cells regenerate themselves every 30-40 days depending on age. After age 35, the natural rejuvenating process begins to slow considerably.

Daily bathing can rob the skin of natural oils & moisture. Dermatologists do not recommend daily bathing because of this. To compensate for this, the skin produces more oils, which can lead to enlarged pores and other cosmetic problems. When robbed of too much moisture - it loses the ability to store water and nutrients. Light, moisturizing lotions & creams are best to help retain the pH value of skin, protect against irritation & to help keep it from becoming de-hydrated. Pat skin dry, don't rub. Apply lotions/creams to the skin when it is still damp from bathing. Lotions & creams blend with the water and are drawn more easily into the skin, providing additional moisture and sealing in the water that was absorbed during bathing. As an added benefit, you use less of your lotions & creams!

Oils limit evaporation from the skin and are very moisturizing because of the barrier to water loss they make on the skin. Most of the big corporate manufacturers use water as a big part of their base, although the water helps the products to be less greasy, it also makes them less moisturizing. Mineral oil is a very common basic ingredient in big commercial brands because it is cheap. It is a by-product of petroleum, can cause clogging in the pores....smothers the skin so it can't breathe, and is considered a carcinogen among many other unpleasant things.There are moisturizers out there that may contain non-oily humectants. These prevent water loss from the skin by attracting moisture. Examples of these are glycerine, propylene glycol, lactic acid, glycolic acid, urea, hydrolyzed proteins, citric acid, hyaluronic acid & salicylic acid. Some of these work very well in absorbing moisture from the air, but they only work well when there is sufficient humidity in the air in which they can draw from. Synthetic humectants can cause irritation & contact dermatitis in some people.So why not use products on your precious skin whose ingredients are from a natural source that can heal & moisturize your skin.

Essential oils stimulate the skin cells into reproducing at a quicker rate, thus reducing 'lag time' between new skin growth & the elimination of toxic debris by improving lymphatic flow & the general condition of the lymph glands. Essential oils improve circulation which aids oxygenation & energizes the epidermis by the rate nutrients are fed to it. Some essential oils can balance the sebaceous glands, thereby stabilizing healthy skin conditions. As bactericides they neutralize unwanted & unfriendly bacteria--preventing blemished conditions & as anti-inflammatory--they can calm sensitive & damaged skin. They help to keep collagen & elastin in good condition. The nutrients & proteins contained in essential oils can actually restore the building blocks to all these important tissue fibers. Because the molecules of essential oils are extremely small, they penetrate the epidermis & get to do their work with their purity maintained.

Now that you know a bit more about how & why our skin works, you can make better decisions about what to use on the largest organ of your body. So remember...everything you put onto your skin is absorbed into your body. Wouldn't it make sense to use products with ingredients that help your skin & body instead of doing more damage to it??