Skin care wasn't one of the top priorities on my list except that I'm married and women have a lot of interest in this sort of thing. Stretch marks weren't really big on my list either, but now that my wife is coming up on 5 months in her pregnancy and expanding around the middle, this is also becoming something of a priority interest in our household.
So I started finding out what could be done for general skin care and stretch marks. Most of it is pretty straight-forward stuff, really, and a lot of it was covered when I talked about sunburn remedies and making sunblock. I won't go into what's bad in normal skin care products like lotions and creams, suffice it to say that they are all chemicals with interesting names and many are the same as those nasties found in sunburn creams and sunscreens.
There are a lot of natural options, of course, but make sure that what says "natural" is really natural. Making your own skin care stuff is actually pretty easy and you can get most of what you'll need from a pharmacy or natural health store. A fair amount of the ingredients are found in most kitchens as well.
Here are the "big guns" of natural skin care:
Aloe Gel – I talked about this in the sunburn remedies article and the same applies here. Just take a stem from the plant and "smash" it like you would a roll of toothpaste to get the gel out of the cut end. This can be stored in a jar or other sealed container in a cool, dry place (out of the sun) for quite a while.
Aloe gel is good for just about anything your skin needs from moisturizing to healing and softening. It's also the base for a lot of skin care recipes, including some of those I'll be listing here.
Beeswax – This is also awesome stuff. Beeswax can be used for a variety of things, including several skin care uses. As a lip balm, it's hard to beat and tastes great too (more on that in a minute). It's also awesome as an overnight rub to help soften rough elbows, heels, and other patches. It also happens to be my favorite candle scent.
Cocoa Butter and Coconut Oil – These are two essential oils that make up the primary skin care ingredient in most natural skin care products. They both have similar properties in softening and helping skin produce more callogen–the lack of which is the primary reason behind stretch marks and wrinkles.
Shea Butter – Similar to cocoa and coconut, shea butter contains glycans and peptides, which are complex sugar chains that aid in making callogen. This is what makes skin supple and hydrated.
Wheatgerm – Like the others above, wheatgerm has glycans and peptides as well as many beneficial vitamins for healthy skin. This is one of the more common ingredients in natural skin care products because of its relatively low cost and great benefits.
Those are the main ingredients in just about every skin care product that isn't synthetic. Other, related ones you'll see include rosehip, sweet almond, olive and almond oil, and so forth.
Body Powder
This is similar to deodorant, but is a dry powder for general body coverage. This will help eliminate odors, reduce sweating, and keep your skin protected from the daily grind.
For this, you'll need about a cup of any dry powder from this list:
- arrowroot
- betonite clay
- cornstarch
- baking soda
I prefer baking soda, personally, as it's easy to get, cheap, and more absorbant than the others in general. To this cup of dry base, you can ad dried herbs to your liking to ad scent. Popular ones are rosemary, sage, clove, and even nutmeg. Make sure they're well powderized and use a mortar and pestle if needed. Small amounts of essential oil can also be used, which are often easier to find.
Mix the ingredients well by putting into a slightly over-large container with a good lid and shaking thoroughly. If you're using oils, a good flour sifter can also help break up the chunks inevitably created by adding the oils.
To apply, use a powder sponge, "poofer," or a "hairy" cotton cloth. Put liberally around your body, paying attention to your neck, armpits, and inner thighs.
Deodorant
I talked about making this in an earlier post, which you can read here.
Lip Balm
This is easy to make and if you happen to have purchased or used Neosporin in the little tin, that's a perfect container to store it in too. The base for this will be beeswax, of which you'll need about a two ounce stick. To that, you'll ad the nourishers.
For those, you'll need two ounces of shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, or any combination of the three. To this, liquid oils (up to an ounce) can be added: wheatgerm, olive, almond, echinacea, and others known for their curative properties. If you have access to powdered, but not oil versions of some of them, use half an ounce (at most) instead of an ounce. Only the three nourishers, in any combination, are required, the oils and powders are optional bonuses.
If you ad powders and they are over-drying the mixture, try adding more oils, more wax, or a scented essential oil like orange or mint. Well-powdered green tea leaves are also great.
Mix all of this together thoroughly in a small bowl with a spoon (I use a wooden spoon handle), your finger, or similar. A whisk might be nice, but good luck cleaning it afterward. Once it's well-mixed, butter-pat it into the storage container you've chosen. Apply liberally with your finger to your lips. If you're outdoors in winter weather, you can use this under your eyes, under your nose and on nostrils, etc. too.
Shaving Cream
The base for this is soap. Take some bar soap and grate it to get about four ounces worth. Natural soaps like Fels-Naptha, unscented/non-detergent Dove or Ivory, etc. work best. Grate it on a cheese grater so it'll melt easily.
Heat about four ounces of water (roughly half a cup) until boiling, then stir in the grated soap and let it melt. Remove from heat immediately. Ad about four tablespoons of green tea (liquid tea, not the herb), up to ten drops of your favorite essential oil(s) like sage or orange, and stir well.
Then ad solid oils to thicken it, preferably coconut or shea or cocoa butter. Stir those briskly into the mix until it's relatively thick. You'll probably use three or four tablespoons' worth. When it's finished and still hot, it will be about the consistency of thin pudding.
Let it cool until you can comfortably put your finger into it, then pour it into a storage container (jar, old shampoo bottle, etc.). Keep in mind how you'll dispense the cooled liquid, which will be about the consistency of shampoo when it's cooled down. I prefer a jar to dip my fingers into.
Lather it on liberally and shave as usual. Use a hot towel or wash cloth to soothe your skin before and after shaving.
Skin Salve and Stretch Mark Reducer
By using the above recipe for body powder, you can replace the base powder with aloe gel, shea butter, cocoa and coconut oils, and even beeswax in any combination. Shea buttter and cocoa/coconut are the cheapest to get in quantity, but at least some aloe is essential.
So make as the body powder recipe, but replace the cup of base powder entirely with a gel. Mix to desired thickness for rubbing on. You can add powder to thicken the mix, of course. The trick here is to have the key ingredients all there and making up the majority of the salve. More aloe is better and green tea or vitamin E powder is also a great additive.
Hope all this stuff helps! Let me know your favorites in the comments below.
