I am always a little bit torn, when it comes to writing about skin care. I love to help educate people about the importance of taking great care of their skin, after all you only have one body, but I am aware of how many people, especially young girls, are taught to compare themselves to others and find themselves lacking. This is never the goal. I don’t want to feed that particular monster. Everyone has days that their skin looks great, and days that it doesn’t. I don’t want to encourage you to seek perfection, because it does not exist. Even in skin care; especially in skin care. On the flip side, your skin is reflective of your overall health. If you are taking great care of yourself, getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, and consuming healthful foods your skin is going to show it. Therefore, excellent self care should be the priority. Always. A small part of self care is taking care of your skin.
Now that winter has come roaring in, you will probably see it taking effect on your skin. It doesn’t take much exposure to high winds, freezing temps, dry heat, and a total lack of sun, before your skin, even young skin, will start feeling, flaky, itchy, and dehydrated. With skin as young as early thirties, you may even begin to see crepey lines and some sinking around the eyes and other fragile areas of the skin. This is not necessarily related to aging, but when you see it on your own face, you may begin to panic. I know I do.
There are loads of skin care products out there, designed to help with all sorts of winter skin problems, but most of them contain nasty chemicals which may help in the short term, but cause you more grief down the road. A lack of hyaluronic acid and hydroxy acids may be the cause of your winter skin blues.
Hyaluronic acid affects your skin ability to retain moisture, keep skin looking plump, fresh and healthy. In it’s natural form, it cannot penetrate the skin, therefore you must consume it to actually gain its benefits. There is a synthetic hyaluronic acid that you can buy in chemical filled skin care products, but I would never recommend putting that on your skin. Instead I would suggest consuming foods such as bone broth, citrus,leafy greens, soy products, bananas, and potatoes, and root vegetables. Also red wine. I can get behind that;)
Hydroxy acids plump and smooth skin, increase cell turnover, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and boost product absorption. This says to me that, when using a product in conjunction hydroxy acids I need to make sure that there is nothing toxic in that product because it’s actually helping my skin absorb it, which brings us back to that old adage: If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin. If you would like to add AHA containing foods to your diet, reach for citrus, in all its various forms.
Today, we are going to make a gorgeous smelling, soothing, healing winter elixir for your skin, designed to combat these potential skincare woes. We are using shea butter, rosehip oil, castor oil, frankincense essential oil, grapefruit essential oil, and pine needle oil. You will need a mixing bowl, preferably glass, a hand mixer/ stick blender and kitchen scale or mail scale, and a clean tin for the finished product.
You all probably know of my deep abiding love of Shea butter. I won’t go into songs of it’s praise again, but just know, that I choose this for every skin care base because of it’s unmatched anti-aging, and healing properties. “Nuff said.
Castor oil was chosen for it’s hydrating powers, wrinkle fighting properties, and ability to reduce puffiness, not to mention staying power.
Rosehip oil mimics hyaluronic acid’s ability to plump up skin and reduce it’s sinking appearance, but without the synthetics.
Grapefruit essential oil is loaded with alpha hydroxy acids which will clear and smooth congested skin.
Another oil which is great for cell turnover is frankincense oil, which will help clear skin imperfections, and strengthen and tighten skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines and thin, crepey skin.
A great essential oil for relieving dry, itchy flaky skin is pine needle essential oil. This EO is loaded with antioxidants which can fight the appearance of wrinkles, sagging in the skin, and other signs of premature aging.
Let’s get started. Set your mixing bowl on your scale and tare it out. Add 1.5 oz. of shea butter to bowl, next add, .1 oz of rosehip oil, then castor. Add 30 drops of frankincense oil, 20 drops of grapefruit and 10 drops of pine needle oil.
Mix with stick blender until desired consistency is reached. I only whip until thoroughly combined, because I don’t want my shea butter over processed, as it changes the potency of the butter. You can whip the oils until you attain the consistency that you are comfortable with. Many people like a heavily whipped, shea butter, for it’s lighter, creamy texture and that’s ok. 😉
What winter skin care issues do you most often struggle with? Let us know in the comments, and feel free to share your skincare DIY recipes on insta #canigetaramen or find us on FB and pinterest@canigetaramen.food.blog.
