Musings From The Farm Comfortable living in your own skin

So, there you are….. Looking at an overwhelming array of facial exfoliants.  All of them promise to brighten, microfoliate, peal, enhance, scrub, and the list goes on. In today’s tough economic times, you think about your credit card bill and bank balance and wonder…… “Do I really need to pay $57.98 for 2.6 oz of a microfoliant?”  I suspect not.

Yes, part of a good skin care routine is to exfoliate.  However, with just a few minutes in the kitchen and many dollars less than the $57.98 needed for a commercial product, you can make your own and tune it over time to meet your specific skin needs.  There is a lot of information out there on exfoliation.  Here is an easy read article on exfoliation.

Often, if you choose a mild exfoliating soap, you do not need a separate exfoliating product.  Or, if you do, you can use a less aggressive exfoliant and exfoliate less often.

So, the next time you are looking for an exfoliant, try to make your own.  You will be pleasantly surprised how well it works.  This will be both fun and economical to “do it yourself”.

Here are a few simple exfoliants that you can make your self:

• Yogurt – this seems to be the gentlest of all the natural skin recipes. Simply apply a tablespoon of, full fat plain yogurt to your face. Let it sit for a few minutes and rinse off. The lactic acid provides gentle exfoliation leaving your skin radiant and refreshed.
• Ground oatmeal – grind up some rolled oats in your blender or coffee grinder, mix with a little water or Replenish Facial Moisturizer and apply and gently rub on your face. Very nice and gentle.
• Combine the two – blend your ground oatmeal with yogurt or milk.  That will add a gentle, soothing cleansing action to the exfoliation process.

For a more aggressive exfoliant, give these a try.  Please note though that these give a much more “mechanical” abrasion so you will want to go slowly.  Also, be sure to test first on your inner arm or behind your ear.

• Ground almonds – good for dry skin, but be careful and go slowly and be sure they are ground up really fine. Simple to make by grinding almonds in your blender or coffee grinder. The almond oil provides moisture for dry skin.
• Ground Sunflower seeds – very similar to almonds.  This produces a really nice, soft, buttery scrub.
• Ground barley – grind and mix with avocado oil.  Go slowly and test before applying to your face.
• Sugar Scrub – simply add a little granulated sugar to cold pressed oil (olive oil is good). Has a nice brightening effect. Some people like using brown sugar because they like the smell.
• Sea salt body scrub – Not recommended for your face.  Use on your body.  Apply with some olive oil or a good moisturizer –Alabu Body Lotion is good :).  Go very slowly and gently, use for 30 seconds to one minute at the most. Use a finely ground salt. Salt can be irritating if you scrub too hard or leave on too long, however, it feels refreshing and energizing.
• Coconut oil and cornmeal – A good body scrub. Mix together and rub slowly and gently on the skin.

Alabu Exfoliating Soaps

• Oat &  Honey goat milk soap – A very gentle exfoliating soap made with our own ground oat flour.  We know that the flour provides the exfoliation action, but what about the honey?  Honey moisturizes, and protects your skin along with many other benefits.  Here is a great article on the benefits of honey.
• Lemon Scrub goat milk soap – This is NOT a face soap.  This is an exfoliant that you would use on your body.  It has corn meal.  So rub gently.  The lemon essential oil acts as an exfoliant as well.  For some information this, take a look at the benefits of lemon on your skin.

I was talking with a customer recently, and it didn’t take too long before we found ourselves on the subject of skin irritation—specifically skin care ingredients that cause skin irritation. So, I thought I’d take the opportunity to shed some light on this topic.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of irritating skin ingredients, but rather a guide that will hopefully allow you to figure out what ingredients do and don’t work for you.

There are literally hundreds of ingredients being used in skin care products, and what one person finds irritating, another person has no problem. There are, however, some ingredients that are generally irritating, and it’s worth your time to learn about them.

The first thing I want to discuss is alcohol. There’s a common misconception that alcohol in a skin care product is bad. This is true some of the time, but there’s more than one type of alcohol. The two that you need to know about are volatile alcohols, and fatty alcohols.

Volatile alcohols are what you’d typically think of when someone says alcohol:

• Denatured Alcohol
• Ethanol
• Isopropyl Alcohol

These—as you might already know—have a tendency to dry your skin out and cause irritation. So we like to avoid them unless it’s part of a specific skin care regimen, and you intend to use a moisturizing product as a part of the regimen.

The other kind of alcohols—fatty alcohols—are found in many places. Sometimes the names look “bad” and sometimes they look innocent, but in general they are pretty beneficial.

• Retinol (Vitamin A molecule to discourage wrinkles)
• Tocopherol (Vitamin E, a free radical fighting antioxidant)
• Cetyl Alcohol (product thickener)
• Stearyl Alcohol (Emollient)

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate – a detergent found in cleansing gels.  It may dry out your skin or irritate it.  Read a bit more on this and the ingredients contained in Dove for Sensitive Skin Bar
• Sodium Trideceth Sulfate – same as above
• Sodium Laureth Sulfate – same as above
• Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate – a harsh detergent found in cleansing gels and can be extremely drying and irritating to the skin
• Ammonium Laureth Sulfate – same as above
• Fragrance – the #1 cause of allergic reactions to skin care products. If you’re sensitive to fragrance, avoid products containing the word “fragrance” or “parfum” on the ingredient listing.  Most people can use products made with high quality Essential Oils.  Here is a great explanation of Essential Oils and their benefits.
• Dyes and colorants – An unnecessary chemical used to give a product its color and can be a skin irritant. Commonly listed as the very last ingredient with the words FD&C

At Alabu Skin Care we always encourage you to read the labels on your skin care products and learn about the ingredients that you’re applying to your skin. If you have a question on any ingredient in any of your skin care products, just contact us and we will be glad to try to answer it.

You might like to know:

• Alabu products do not contain any synthetic chemicals or ingredients.
• At Alabu we do not use ANY water in our products.
• Alabu’s primary ingredients are beneficial to your skin.