Guest picks: top fave natural skin care ingredients

♥Guest Post♥ Today’s post is by Suzie Saw, a writer who loves nature, animals, making clothes, dressing up in them & waiting like a preying mantis for “50% off!” emails from online skincare shops to land in her inbox.


With natural skin care growing extremely popular these days, it seems that every other product has a “contains natural ingredients” sticker on it. But just because something’s natural doesn’t necessarily mean it’s great for your skin. Before you rush out & buy something just because it has a leafy design on the bottle, it’s good to do a little research on the ingredients – to make sure you’re really getting your money’s worth & truly protecting your skin from harmful chemicals. Since you probably have better things to do than Google plant extracts for hours, here are my top four. They solve dryness, spots, itching, irritation & cell deterioration – at least one of these is a problem for each of us.

Avocado & avocado oil
Great for your skin whether you eat it or smear it on your face, avocado flesh is packed with Vitamin E, which aids tissue recovery, helps fight infection & acts as an anti-oxidant, sweeping up those free radicals that we hear so much about but don’t really understand (they trigger cell death). It also contains Vitamin K, essential for healing cuts & bruises, & B vitamins, which maintain skin, hair & muscle tone. A diet rich in avocados even lowers your cholesterol levels. Avocado oil, obtained from the fruit’s kernel, is excellent for smoothing & softening the skin.

Beta glucan
The active ingredient in oats, which have long been used to soothe itchy, dry skin conditions. Even a handful of oats in your bath will moisturise your skin (put them in a little fabric bag or clean sock to avoid sitting in porridge) & any product made from oats should leave you feeling silky smooth. Beta glucan also encourages collagen production & cell regrowth, so it’s good for more than a quick fix.

Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate
It doesn’t sound very natural, but this is made from coconut & palm oils. Nearly everyone knows, now, that sodium laureth sulfate – also made from palm oil & used to make cleansing products foamy – is a skin irritant. This is because its molecules are small enough to enter the skin. There are various less harmful replacements coming into use, many with similar names. Of all those I’ve experimented with, particular on my scalp, which is very sensitive, sodium lauryl sulfoacetate has been the best. Its molecules are much larger than SLS molecules & can’t enter the skin to irritate it. It’s also less heavily processed, & more gentle – & it’s still foamy.

Willow (salicylic acid & salix alba)
They’ve been using willow extract in anti-spot treatments for a long time – it’s one of those ingredients that’s suddenly being promoted as “natural” even though it’s been there all along. It’s anti-inflammatory, cleansing & gently exfoliating, & in my experience has always done the trick, getting rid of pimples in 24-48 hours. Make sure you avoid using it too much, especially if you’re applying a concentrated serum, as this can make your skin go crispy, sensitized or sore. If you use a willow/salicylic face-wash, try to alternate it with one that doesn’t contain any, or even save it to use when you’re actually having a break-out.

Are any of these four your favorite too?

Comments

  1. pavani reddy says:

    will do that frm now…u have an awesome blog!!!!
    me too a hard-core DIY girl
    pavani reddy last post is: "Shape your life" self challenge

  2. espenine says:

    Can’t live without willow as it helps to control acne breakouts. Like what you said, need to be cautious not to over apply willow because it can cause peeling & sensitivity. Just wondering if you know what concentration of willow is considered concentrated?

  3. sesame says:

    Not too sure although I read that it’s best to start off with small amounts.

  4. Chris says:

    I really love pure shea butter in the winter. It’s so good for heavy duty moisturizing. My skin feels much better after I put it on.

  5. sesame says:

    Oh pure shea butter is a treat! Speaking of which, I miss the shea butter body whip! That’ll be great for winter too…although we don’t have that season here.

  6. Ms. Blacklace says:

    One thing I love about MVO’s sunscreen, it helps soothe and dry up my time-of-the-month acne.

  7. sesame says:

    That’s great…I find it has some drying effect on small pimples for me but still, I have to use another blemish fighting product if I have them.

  8. Swati says:

    I have never used either of these in the raw forms so no idea but what does sodium lauryl sulfoacetate do??? is it a cleanser like SLS???
    Swati last post is: Homemade Cleanser for Eyes {DIY}

  9. LatestGirls says:

    I really enjoyed this post. It contains good information about natural products. I would also like to use these products too.
    LatestGirls last post is: Fruit Face Packs for Glowing Skin

  10. sesame says:

    It’s a surfactant but more gentle than SLS. You can find it in some natural/organic cleansers.

  11. Lucia says:

    Hi, Sesame. I hope you share with us you current skin care routine as well as the skin care products (brands) you use. I’m sure that like me, all of your followers are also dying to know! ?

  12. sesame says:

    I thought I have covered this but not too sure now…I’ll go through my older posts and if not, I’ll consider. The thing is I do change around abit so maybe quite hard to pin the products down. Now, I use products mostly from Marie Veronique Organics.

  13. Lucia says:

    Thanks for considering, Sesame! It’s just that you are such an inspiration and knowing your step-by-step daily skin care regimen would really be great. ?

  14. sesame says:

    I would be happy to cover it actually…I went through my old posts and it seems I did not cover. I will sieve through one more time and if that is so, I’ll definitely do a post. ?

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