Caring For Your Skin With
Natural or Organic
Body Care Products

---

When you choose natural or organic body care products you are making a healthy choice for your skin, your health and you're even helping the environment. Who could say no to that?

Our skin is highly absorbent.

Have you noticed how many medications like nicotine or birth control patches are now being administered through the skin? It has been found to be an efficient way to get them into our systems.

Well, consider the many skin care products we use on our skins every day and some of the ingredients in those products. Our skin is absorbing those ingredients into our bodies. When you shop read the ingredient list. Make it a point to learn which ones are safe and which ones aren't, check out nontoxic skin care for help with this.

Do you really want some of these ingredients being absorbed into your system? Probably not which is good reason for using natural or even better organic body care products.

Smooth, healthy, beautiful looking skin is the goal and as you probably already know it starts from the inside out with a good diet and plenty of water. We've heard this before and for good reason, it works. When our bodies take in all the nutrients and healthy oils from eating well it shows up in our skin.

Along with working from the inside out, we have a wealth of natural or organic body care products to choose from to help alleviate the everyday environmental factors that can harm our skin, heat, cold, indoor dryness, pollution and the sun. Even allergic reactions can create problems for our skin.

My Organic Body Care Routine

4 basic rules.

Rule#1 Exfoliate.

Get those dead cells off and allow your moisturizer to do its job. Salt and sugar scrubs are popular and help to remove dead skin cells. Loofah brushes are another popular choice.

Mountain Rose Herbs carries a natural fiber that is good for exfoliating called Ayate which is made from Agave plants. It comes as a washcloth or a pouch which you can put your bar of soap into and wash and exfoliate at the same time. The cloth provides good exfoliation just be careful not to rub to hard. It lasts for a long time making it very affordable.

My preference is for an old technique that has been around for many years called dry skin brushing. It has been found to be very effective in removing those old cells and also stimulates pores to eliminate toxins. (For how to do this technique see my page on skin brushing.)

Rule#2 Cleanse.

Remove all those excess skin cells, grime and excess oils. It's important to clean not over clean. Many soaps create problems when they are overly harsh . Organic body care products like organic soaps that clean without stripping my skin of all it's natural oils leaving it feeling dry and uncomfortable.

Your cleansing routine may be an invigorating shower or a more relaxing bath where you can add bath salts or oils that help us unwind while the warm water open our pores allowing our skin to absorb healthy minerals or essential oils. Just not too hot it can be very drying.

While your thinking about cleansing your skin have you given any thought to the water that comes out of your shower. If you are using a water filter to eliminate impurities in your drinking water you may want to consider a shower water filter to prevent these same impurities from being absorbed by your skin.

Rule#3 Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize.

I don't have to tell you that do I? Depending on your needs and the time of year a light lotion might be sufficient but for really dry skin a natural body butter could be the answer.

What about all these body butters that have been showing up lately? Body butters have been an important part of moisturizing for women around the world. We here in the U.S. are just beginning to appreciate the benefits of using butters for help in preventing moisture loss we experience in the winter cold and the drying indoor heat.

We are probably most familiar with cocoa butter which has been a popular skin care ingredient for a long time. While shea butter , mango, macadamia nut, illipe and many other butters have also been receiving so much interest the last few years for the unique qualities they bring to our skincare routines.

Rule#4 Protect.

We all should have made sunscreen a part of our regular routine. Protecting our skin with clothing, hats and sunscreen has become very important. But sunscreens are a product which may be made with many chemicals and the safety of some of these chemicals are being questioned.

Consider using a sunscreen which offers a safer way to protect skin. Many companies make natural sunscreens with safe, natural ingredients like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. They work by reflecting the sun rays and have been found effective in protecting us against those harmful UV rays.

Want that golden tanned look but don't want to spend time sitting in the sun and risking sun damage? Consider trying some of the new natural and safer sunless tanners available today.

For tips on applying sunless tanners and getting good results. Check out how to apply sunless tanners.

This full organic body care routine is something I try to follow at least once a week more if time permits. At the very least I do the basics, cleanse, moisturize and protect. If I don't do the dry skin brushing enough I begin to notice my skin being flakier and duller even with the moisturizer.

I have found that when I use organic body care products and I know what ingredients go in to them, my once routine maintenance seems more like a healthy, good for me and the environment kind of a thing.