Taking Care of Your Skin During The Winter Months

     Snow has finally reached us in Connecticut and with the cold winds blowing and the low humidity in our homes and workplace, we should really take a look on how to keep our skin healthy looking.  Even though there are a large number of lotions, creams and soaps available, take a look on how are they effecting your body overall.
     Many of the commercial products might help keep your skin nice and soft, but have you ever taken a look to see what they contain?  For example, take a look at your soap label, the next time you un-wrap the packaging.  Does it contain olive, coconut, palm, sunflower, almond......oils, shea, coconut, mango.....butters?  Does the scent come from essential or synthetic oils?  What preservatives have they added?
      Since 85 percent of what you put on your skin is actually absorbed into your body, are there ingredients  you rather not have absorbed in your body?  How is it effecting your health?  Something to think about.
     I know a number of soap-makers (including ourselves) that are making products that will not only help keep your skin nice and soft, but keep in mind how their products effect the body as well.
     Our goal, is to keep the inside and outside of the body healthy.  The ingredients that are used are those nature provides us with, without fillers and preservatives.  We make our products in small batches, to guarantee freshness, use essential oils (even though we have a few fragrant oils that we used) and use ground up herbal plant materials, honey, and goat's milk.  As our business continues to grow, so is our knowledge on how we can use herbs in our everyday life.

     Here are some information on ingredients we use in some of our products.

     Shea butter: great for skin discoloration, softening extremely dry skin, chapped lips, smoothing out wrinkles, stretchmarks and fading scars.  High in Vitamin A and E.

     Olive oil: known as "liquid gold", great to moisturize dry hair and the skin. High in vitamins.

     Coconut oil: excellent skin softener and moisturizer.  Helps reduce the symptoms of skin conditions and supports the natural balance of the skin.

     Rice Bran Oil: high in Vitamin E.  Helps keep the skin nice and soft.  Wonderful to use on your hair.

     Sweet Almond oil:  easily absorbed into the skin, without leaving a greasy feeling.  Helps restore moisture to the skin and help relieve muscle pain.  Great oil to combat itching and inflammation.  Rich in minerals, Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, B2, B6 and E.

     Avocado oil: helps regenerate damaged skin, relieves itchy skin due to skin conditions, highly moisturizing and especially welcomed on matured skin.

The list can go on and on and on.

Other things you can do to help keep your skin healthy:  drink plenty of water and add moisture in the air at home or work.  Something as simple as leaving out a glass of water on the counter for the dry air to absorb.  You don't have to go out and get an expensive dehumidifier.  To keep the air nice and pleasant smelling, gather up some herbs from your cabinet such as cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, rosemary, lemon peels or old vanilla beans and make yourself a simmering potpourri mixture.  If you have any lavender buds, it makes a wonderful simmering potpourri by itself.  Just make sure that you keep an eye on it, if you put it on the stove.  Use essential oils to make your own diffusers or sachets place in different area work just as well.

For 2011, we are looking forward in having a few workshops on how to keep your body (inside and out) healthy.  We hope you can join us at one of our scheduled gatherings and learn what you can make at home from what Nature has to offer.