Skin - The Ultimate Protector!

Did you know the average adult has five to eight pounds of skin and that if stretched out flat, it would cover an area of about 20 square feet?  It's the largest organ we have and our skin performs nine essential jobs for our bodies.

• Protects us from damage (chemical, biological, thermal and electrical)
• Helps to maintain our body temperature
• Regulates moisture
• Prevents loss of minerals
• Converts ultraviolet rays into vitamin D3
• Responds to sensory stimulus - heat, cold, pain, pleasure & pressure
• Metabolizes and stores fat
• Secretes sebum, a lubricating substance
• Assists in excretion of waste & toxins via sweating

Our skin is alive and it's our first line of defense. In order for us to take good care of it, we need to know about our skin type. Stephanie Tourles has an extensive section on skin types and care recommendations. And your skin type can change often depending on the weather, your stress level, age, etc. The great news is that you can change up your recipes by using different carrier oils. I finished the spreadsheet that lists common carrier oil properties and it's listed under Know Your Ingredients on the Blog. Next I'll do the same for essential oils. My absolute favorite is Lavender! What's yours?

Choosing Your Ingredients - Carrier Oils

The recipe for this regeneration cream includes rose hip seed oil, and another choice of almond, soybean or macadamia nut carrier oils. Choices are also made with the water component - you can use distilled water or a hydrosol. I love hydrosols! Also called floral waters, they have similar properties to essential oils but are less concentrated. They contain all the essence of the plant in every drop and the scent is exhilarating! This rose hydrosol smells just like you're inhaling rose petals - heavenly!
Rose hip seed oil is pale orange-red in color. It's high in essential fatty acids which makes it perfect for mature, environmentally damaged skin. It softens and heals skin damaged by scars and extreme weather exposure. Kind of like today - it's been zero here with wind gusting to 25 mph. The wind chill advisory is in effect for -25 through tomorrow night!

A vitamin E oil capsule is optional in this recipe. I use one in this cream and have revised other creams to include vitamin E too. Just like cooking, I can't stick to the written ingredients. That's part of the fun and especially when it comes to the essential oils. With skin care, scent is so personal, not only that, essential oil properties can change a face cream to one that treats dry, weathered skin to oily skin types. More on that later...
Here's a spreadsheet that lists the key properties of carrier oils and a few miscellaneous ingredients at the bottom. Let me know of others and I'll gladly add them to the list.

What's your favorite go to carrier oil or essential oil, and why?

Choosing Your Ingredients

It's a great feeling of satisfaction to know the ingredients of what you put on your face every day. In fact, choosing the carrier oils, butters and essential oils is as much fun as watching them emulsify into their creaminess. The recipes in Stephanie Tourles' book are flexible in their ingredients, for example, my favorite body lotion can be made with your choice of soybean, almond, apricot kernel or macadamia nut base oils. It's wise to learn about the properties of these oils before purchasing your choice, and thankfully, Organic Body Care Recipes has devoted 50 pages to an Ingredient Dictionary. I chose macadamia nut oil after reading about its properties that help mature and environmentally damaged skin. It's helpful for sunburned and windburned skin too!
The ingredient decisions you make are especially important if you make lotions as gifts. My best friend is allergic to tree nuts, so macadamia nut oil would reek havoc for her and probably cause a nasty reaction. When making lotions for her, I choose apricot kernel or soybean. So the same lotion can have very different effects depending on the carrier oil you use.

A Great Beginning

For me, it all began a few years ago when I was invited to spend the weekend at the home of an acquaintance with a group of like-minded ladies. We ate, drank, told stories and stayed up way too late...but it was worth it! In the morning, we were talking about hair products, etc, and I asked what they used for their face care. At the time, I was using a commercial brand, only available in one store in town, and pretty pricey. I was caught up in this regimen of 6 different products. Let's see if I remember... it was the anti-aging cleanser, skin rejuvenating serum, skin brightening moisturizer, etc. etc...
When one of the girls mentioned that she made her own skin care formulas, I was intrigued. She brought out a book of recipes and I spent the rest of the morning pouring over it with excitement! I've always liked home made soaps and choosing my own scents for lotions. My favorite shop, back in the day (1980), was the original Body Shop in Berkeley, CA.  They opened a branch in San Anselmo, where I used to live, and my girlfriends and I used to spend hours in there choosing scents for our shampoos & lotions.
When my friend with the book brought out one of her hand made creams in a little cobalt blue jar, it was a defining moment for me. I wanted to go home and throw out my store bought stuff and start concocting right away!