If winter weather leaves your hands cracked and dry, especially if you wash your hands often, there are a few things you can do to soothe dry hands.
Use a mild soap for hand washing. Preferably natural or organic, without the harsh ingredient sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). An organic soap has milder sulfates that won’t dry your skin or harm the environment.
Apply hand cream after washing your hands. Use a natural organic one. The synthetic soaps are often based on mineral oils which come from petroleum. Not good for our skin or the planet. Body buddy lotion also works really well as a hand lotion.
Use an overnight hand mask. Apply an extra thick balm/ointment such as All you need is me balm on your hands which will nourish and work during the night when your skin is in repair mode. If you feel that it’s too sticky, use thin cotton gloves.
Dry skin is more common in the colder winter months. We often expose our skin to changes in humidity and temperature which can irritate our skin. Turning the heat up high indoors and taking hot showers, then going outside to colder temperatures. The cold weather, snow, rain and harsh winds can strip the skin of its natural, moisturizing oils. We need moisture for the skin barrier to perform well. Loss of moisture can result in skin flaking, show up as rough patches or redness and cracks. Dry skin may be itching, stinging and feel sensitive to the touch. The All you need is me balm is perfect to use as an overnight mask. It locks in moisture while allowing skin to breathe. A family staple
When your lymphatic system is stagnant, it can show up on your skin. The lymphatic system assists with the expelling of toxins. It lies just beneath your skin. If it is not working as it should or clogged, your skin may suffer from acne, loss of elasticity, premature aging and other skin conditions. The lower body gets a head start in the morning as we get up to walk around and move. To get the circulation going for the upper body try this: clasp your hands behind your head so your elbows stick out. Now in a pumping motion put the elbows together in front of you for a count of 30-50 times. Other ways you can kickstart the system is to dry brush your skin and jump on a trampoline or maybe doing the chicken dance 😉
When temperatures are going down and the weather getting cooler it sucks moisture from our skin. Leaving the skin dry and itchy. This is the time when it becomes important to counteract with a good quality organic body lotion. Body lotions add a coating to the skin to prevent water evaporating.
With laundry day coming up, I'm starting to think about fabric softener, what an unnecessary and toxic product it really is. I used it for years without really thinking about it.
Fabric softeners and dryer sheets coat our clothes with a subtle layer of slimy chemicals - in fact, that's why they feel a little softer.A recent University of Washington study on air contaminants from fragranced consumer goods detected between 18 and 20 chemicals in each of four laundry products - including likely human carcinogens acetaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, developmental toxicants methyl ethyl ketone and chloromethane
Even worse than liquid fabric softeners are dryer sheets, whose chemicals are heated and then shot into the air for you to breathe into your lungs. ... That strong artificial scent is masking a seriously unhealthy chemical mix.
With every wash, we are pouring these toxic chemicals into the ocean and we all know by now that the ocean does not need us to dump more garbage into it.
Scary stuff, but I'm happy that more and more of us are starting to think about what is in our cleaning and skincare products. Love your skin, love our planet. Unfortunately I don'thave the possibility or line drying but I'm using a dryer ball and put a few drops of essential oil into the space where the fabric softener is supposed to go. Do you have any good tips for laundry days?
