Natural Skin Care Blog

Before you spend time trying to track down a source for cocoa butter — because everybody says it’s the best way to get rid of stretch marks — consider this:

There was a study which followed 174 women in their first pregnancies. The results were published by a team of obstetricians and dermatologists. It was what is called a “double-blind” study where neither the participants nor the researchers know which women were given the cocoa butter lotion and which used something else (a placebo).

After many months, the researchers could find no difference in the development of the severity of the marks on abdomen, breasts, thighs. In effect, that means that cocoa butter is no more effective than any other cream or lotion.

On the other hand, researchers in another study (done back in 2002) of 100 pregnant women found that those who used creams containing alpha tocopherol, a form of vitamin E, actually developed fewer striae (the medical term for stretch marks) than those using the placebo.

Worth a try? Vitamin E is a natural substance and certainly safer than other advertised remedies which include surgery and radio frequency treatments. There is a significant difference in cost and little evidence of lasting improvement from the expensive alternatives.

No harm in putting cocoa butter on your stretch marks if you enjoy using it. A little extra attention never hurts.

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Your face shows the world what’s going on inside you.

What’s your complexion saying about the way you care for yourself?

Below your skin is the rest of you. Because you are an entity, a single creature, every part of you affects every other part.

Your kidneys not functioning properly? Your skin shows it.

Your digestive system struggling? Your skin shows it.

Your heart isn’t quite up to snuff? Your skin shows it.

Your lungs struggle with the air around you? Your skin shows it.

Those bumps, blemishes, rashes — they didn’t jump out of nowhere to annoy you by settling on your face. They developed from within. They affected a small group of cells first, then spread out farther and farther until — well, there they are. That ugly red spot, right on the end of your nose.

You want to eliminate those unattractive splotches? Those disgusting white blips? Those dirty-looking plugged pores? And all their friends-and-relations?

Grow a clear, beautiful, healthy skin by feeding your cells what they need and they will show up on the surface. The world will see a steadily-improving complexion, a more attractive you.

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Senior citizens always have skin that looks like a map from the automobile club. Or so anyone who hasn’t yet been invited to join AARP seems to think.

Deep wrinkles in the cheeks

Sagging skin

Age spots

Dry, crinkly-looking surface

Drab, drab, drab

Far too many people display these unattractive features as they add years.

Does that mean these are inevitable? That there is no way to avoid them? Or at least minimize them?

I’m glad you asked those question (you were going to ask, weren’t you?)–

Short answer?

It’s the shortest possible answer, actually: No.

No to all three parts to that question. (Or all three questions, if you prefer.)

Perhaps when we stop expecting to look like that, we’ll start to take effective measures to repair past damage. Then move on to positive steps to prevent future problems.

The present and future condition of your skin is largely under your control. Accept the wear and tear of gravity, the blueprint your ancestors passed along in your DNA and get started on the many ways you can improve your appearance. (And, no, you will never again have skin like a twenty-something.) You’ll be surprised at how much you can do.

Here are a three simple suggestions to start you off:

Remove dead surface cells gently and completely. (You can learn specific techniques for doing this yourself.)

Protect your face 24/7 from further environmental damage with a surface shielding product suitable for your skin type. Not just AnyOldCream.

And the third?

Healthy skin is beautiful skin.

Beautiful skin grows – from the inside out – it is not applied to the surface. Take a hard look at your eating habits…

Healthy “Senior Citizen” skin can be beautiful, too.

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Adult acne plagues almost half the US population aged 25-45. And you thought acne was for teenagers…

It’s a distressing skin ailment. You hate it. You’ve tried “everything”. It seems to go away for a while, then it comes back.

Cheer up! There is something you can do – several things, in fact.

Start here: toss out most of what you’ve been told about how acne occurs.

Forget Today’s Miracle Product– you know, the one you must rush to buy… right now. “Hurry! Our Special Introductory Offer ends soon.”

Your skin is paying no attention to the pronouncements of the beauty industry’s gorgeous spokesmodels or the razzle-dazzle of their highly-paid marketing teams.

Unfortunately, there is no One Cause for acne — which means there’s no one way to clear your skin of this nuisance. A tendency toward skin problems may be written into your DNA, your genetic code.

Is it likely you can really “Get rid of acne in three days” as the ads suggest?

The solution to the adult acne problem is in your cells and skin cells don’t work that fast.

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The larger the pores, the larger the issue and the more annoying it becomes. Can anything be done about it?

The condition of your pores is controlled in part by your DNA and your age. No one can change these for you. This represents at the most 20% of the pore size problem.

The rest is due to the way you live and how you look after your skin. You can find both people and products to help you but the choices are yours. You are free to attack your face with too much scrubbing, chemical burns, or simply too much of the wrong kind of make-up.

Everybody seems to be looking for some one or some thing to get rid of the problem for them. They really don’t want to have to work at it themselves.

But they are your pores and you are responsible for their condition. You can do something to improve pore appearance if your are willing to take a few easy steps, recommended by cell biologists — the people who study pores and how they work.

The researchers advise against any harsh treatment. Their work has shown conclusively that popular solutions like microdermabrasion (basically scraping off a layer of cells) or scrubbing with gritty pads and grains are far too harsh and lead to future problems.

Those large pores may be annoying now … Do you really want to make them worse?

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Natural skin care works with your body to improve your appearance through skin health. A healthy skin is a beautiful skin.

Complexion improvement in two words? Cell renewal.

New healthy cells create the only lasting change possible. The renewal process goes at its own, maddeningly slow, natural pace. It takes several weeks for the normal growth cycle to bring new cells to the surface of your face.

Is it worth waiting for? (You are the only one who can answer that question.)

What happens when you attempt to speed things up through chemical or mechanical means? Cell shock, that’s what. You shock the developing cells — with potentially damaging results.

Prolonged use of unnatural methods (chemical and mechanical) can cause serious, sometimes permanent, cellular trauma.

When cell “memory” is destroyed by repeated attacks (such as rough treatment and/or chemical damage), cells eventually lose their ability to renew themselves.

They’ve lost their instructions and no longer develop in the way nature intended.

Once lost, this ability cannot be restored.

Of course you want to improve your complexion. Just be careful how you do it. Natural skin care has been proven to be the safest and longest-lasting way.

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