Cosmetics

Shea Butter Benefits Dependent On Grade Quality Of Products, Research Shows

2012-01-11T14:53:37Z

Shea butter is a great moisturizer, but what most people don’t know – at least in the western hemisphere – is that depending on the quality of the product, it also has some great medicinal properties for the skin.

Raw unrefined shea butter from Ghana. Photo from eCrater.com.

What’s considered Grade A shea butter contains a high level of healing nutrients including Vitamins A (maintains healthy bones, skin, and other tissues), Vitamin E (protects against cell damage), and cinnamates (absorb UVB).

The American Shea Butter Institute, which specializes on the research, education, and quality testing of product, highlights that “Vitamin A in (high grade) shea butter is important for improving a number of skin conditions, including blemishes, wrinkles, eczema, and dermatitis.

“Premium shea butter cream also has properties that treat skin allergies, insect bites, sunburns, frostbites, and a number of other conditions of the skin” and “the moisturizers in shea butter are the same moisturizers produced by the sebaceous glands in the skin.”

In nature, shea butter comes from the fat extracted from the nut of the shea tree. As already mentioned, the healing properties depend on the grade quality of the shea butter after processing.

“In recent decades, shea butter has become a valued ingredient in the finest natural cosmetics, and even small amounts in a formulation can earn a prominent display on the label.

“The cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries consume an estimated 2 000 to 8 000 tons of shea butter each year, and this figure is expected to rise with growing demand in new markets,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

A big issue in the value of a shea butter product is its grade quality, which depends largely on how it’s processed and stored for consumer use.

“Product quality of both shea nuts and shea butter depends primarily on post-harvest processing, such as parboiling of shea nuts at the start of the season to prevent the seeds from germinating and to dry them more quickly. Sun-drying of shea nut provides better quality than smoking nuts over a fire, which contaminates them with hydrocarbons,” explains the FAO.

Pampering At Home: Giving Yourself A Luxury Pedicure All Year Long For Good Healthy Feet

2011-09-06T21:37:32Z

Photo courtesy of visualphotos.com.

From high-fashion business women to stay-at-home moms who run endless errands, every woman needs to take time to take care of her feet. And, it’s not just a luxury. Neglecting your feet means a host of problems including - bunions, ingrown toenails, plantar feet, and fungal infections.

You should have a pedicure once every two weeks. If you do it at home, there are a lot of benefits – you save on the cost (depending on where you live, anywhere from $15 to $70) that you’d pay a professional.

Doing a pedicure at home, you also don’t have to find parking, don’t have to wait for your appointment time, and can watch your favorite TV show while you tend to your precious feet.

No matter how busy your life is, you need an hour twice a month for yourself. Giving yourself a luxury home pedicure is a lot easier that you might think. These are the items you’ll need:

Nail Polish Remover - I recommend using an acetone-free, fragrance-free nail polish remover, so you won’t dry out your nails. Since the acetone-free removers usually aren’t as strong as traditional ones, it might take a little longer to remove darker colors.

Gauze - It’s better to use either gauze or cotton pads, instead of cotton balls to remove nail polish so that you don’t have to worry about traces of cotton on your nails.

Home Foot Spa or Basin.

Water.

Epson Salt - Helps relieve inflammation and pain.

Avoiding Allergic Reactions: Knowing What’s In Your Hair Dye Before You Buy It

2011-03-09T20:49:44Z

Coloring your hair at home is one of the easiest and most inexpensive ways to pump up your look. The challenge is finding a color that looks great and is safe for you, too!

This especially important because people everywhere are starting to color their hair at younger and younger ages, which “increases the potential risk of adverse health effects,” according to research from the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Products.

Stacy Ditroia: Hair dye caused an allergic reaction that caused her face to swell up.The concern is that the earlier a person starts dying their hair, the more overall lifelong exposure they have to chemicals that can build up in their body and potentially cause allergic reactions, sometimes leading to hospitalization.

A Denmark study found that in that country, the average age for someone starting to dye their hair was about 16.

A survey in 1992 by the Japan Soap and Detergent Association found that “13 percent of female high school students, six percent of women in their 20s, and two percent of men in their 20s reported using hair coloring products. By 2001, the proportions had increased in these groups to 41 percent, 85 percent, and 33 percent, respectively,” and it’s a trend that’s not slowing down.

The concern isn’t just in these countries. It’s an issue in most industrialized countries. Salynn Boyles, a contributing writer for WebMD Health News, said, “As more and more young people color their hair, the incidence of hair dye allergies is also increasing. The culprit is a common chemical ingredient in permanent hair dyes, called paraphenylenediamine or PPD.

“PPD is found in more than two-thirds of commercial (hair) dyes. Patients with severe PPD reactions commonly develop painful rashes around the hair line or on the face which often require treatment and can occasionally lead to hospitalization. Facial swelling is also common.”

Natural and Organic Nail Polishes Benefit Health

2010-12-23T18:22:22Z

Photo courtesy of Oprah.com

Wearing nail polish is a great way to bump up any look, whether you’re going for sophistication, playfulness, vintage, Goth, or anything in between. Along with more colors to choose from, there are more brands than ever before, ranging from convention to many newer healthier natural and organic-based products.

Conventional Nail Polishes

Conventional nail polishes are generally cheaper, but they are also filled with health concerns for wearers, especially those with allergies, chemical-sensitivities, pregnant women, and children.

All convention nail polishes contain a number of toxic chemicals, most notably include formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate.

Formaldehyde is used in many polishes as a nail hardner, but it also has the concern of being a known human carcinogen (can cause cancer in people), according to the National Cancer Institute, as well as other more short-term effects.

Rejuvenating Your Appearance: Matching Your Year-round Sunscreen to Your Skin Type

2010-08-24T22:59:15Z

Cartoon courtesy of greengenie.ca.

We all feel good when our skin looks healthy, but looking in the mirror and seeing sun damage can definately damper a mood.

The good news is that no matter how much exposure your skin has endured, there are steps you can take to rejuvenate it.

With improved nutrition to create new healthier skin and some sunscreen, everyone’s skin can look better. The best nutritional advice is to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat, as well as whole grains, and less red meat. Limit processed foods. It’s common sense advice, but makes a world of difference.

When it comes to sunscreen, that’s a little more complicated. First, you have to understand what the sun does to different skin types, then you can decide what sunscreen best meets your needs.

Lily Organics: Nourishing the Skin With Ingredients Straight Off the Farm

2010-04-16T19:14:57Z

Yarrow is a natural astrigent and toner.

With the continuing movement to preserve our planet, many of us have also started to reawaken to something that people have known for millenniums - everything that we need (with few exceptions) for good health and beauty comes from nature.

This philosophy is nothing new to Lily Morgan, president and owner of Lily Organics skin care company, who believes that “the quality of a product is determined by its freshness. It’s all about the ingredients; what they do; how fresh they are; and where they are grown. It’s what we have committed our company to.”

Creating a formula. Photo by Lily Organics.

Lily Organics’ skin care products are formulated using a combination of natural ingredients which the company purchases, and organic ingredients that are both purchased and grown on Lily Organics’ USDA certified organic farm.

“When we first started out, we couldn’t get many of the ingredients that we wanted certified organic, so we started growing our own,” said Ms. Morgan, who began formulating skin care products in the early 80’s for a very personal reason - her own severe acne.

“Having bad skin was such a motivator. I tried everything and nothing worked. I started to compare the ingredients in the products from the drug stores and the more expensive department stores, and started to notice that the ingredients were primarily the same. Besides that, when I looked up the definitions of the chemical ingredients, I couldn’t see how they would improve my skin,” she added.

Using Beauty Products With Phthalates While Pregnant Could Affect Baby

2010-03-15T19:33:28Z

Every woman wants to be beautiful and we all have different opinions about what beauty is. It can be a couple of things - looking good, being healthy, or helping others. These are the things most of us try to do everyday.

Photo courtesy of Sciencedaily.com.

This post - like many others that I write - is about what’s in the things we buy, and how they might affect us, our families, or unborn children. As part of that, I came across a study which found that higher prenatal exposure to phthalates seems to contribute to behavior problems in children between the ages of four and nine.

The study, Prenatal Phthalate Exposure is Associated with Childhood Behavior and Executive Functioning, was conducted as collaboration between Mount Sinai, Cornell University, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Phthalates are part of a group of chemicals that are known as endocrine disruptors that can interfere with the body’s hormone system. Phthalates are a family of compounds found in a wide variety of consumer products, such as nail polish to increase their durability and reduce chipping; and in cosmetics, perfumes, lotions, and shampoos to maintain fragrances.

Research Finding New Properties of Vitamin C Supporting Youthful Skin Renewal

2010-01-01T03:40:02Z

Photo courtesy of vitamincskin.com

Everyone’s always looking for healthy ways to look better. Well, here’s some research that might make you consider increasing your citrus intake, and maybe adding some beauty products containing vitamin C to your regiment.

In a collaborative study, researchers from the University of Leicester in England and the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology in Portugal found a form of vitamin C that helps promote wound healing and also helps protect the DNA in skin cells from damage.

In the vitamin C research, Dr. Tiago Duarte said the study analyzed how the human dermal fibroblasts (large flat cells in the connective tissue that secrete collagen and elastic fibers) are effected by “sustained exposure to a vitamin C derivative, ascorbic acid 2-phosphate.”

A researcher with the IMCB, Duarte added, “We investigated which genes are activated by vitamin C in these cells, which are responsible for skin regeneration. The results demonstrate that vitamin C may improve wound healing by stimulating fibroblasts to divide and by promoting their migration into wounded areas.

White Tea Outperforms 22 Other Plant Extracts as Best Wrinkle Fighter

2009-11-06T22:41:17Z

Photo courtesy of islandteashop.com.

Many synthetic cosmetics try to cover up skin damage, but the truth is that the best way to give ourselves a clean youthful complexion is to feed our skin with the nutrients and anti-aging compounds that nature has already provided us with.

Mankind has yet to outdo Mother Nature in this department, as the scientists at the School of Life Sciences at Kingston University, London, found out at the end of a recently concluded study. It found that out of 23 plant extracts, white tea has the highest concentrations of antioxidants that minimize wrinkles.

“We’ve carried out our tests to identify plant extracts that protect the structural proteins of the skin, specifically elastin and collagen,” said Professor Declan Naughton, who led the university team that worked in conjunction with Neal’s Yard Remedies, a maker of natural and organic bath and beauty products, which provided the study with all of the plant materials that were tested.

Dark Henna Tattoos: A Risk in Beauty

2009-09-10T21:37:05Z

Image courtesy of Healthinformer.net.

Dark or black henna tattoos are popular all over the world. They are beautiful and temporary, but recently a number of clinical reports have come out about cases of allergic reactions to the dye when containing Para-phenylenediamine or PPD. This chemical is often added into the product to make the color darker and speed up drying.

“PPD is a known skin sensitizer. This isn’t a huge concern when used in hair dyes because the material comes into contact with the skin only briefly. The real danger—many dermatologist are reporting patients with severe allergic reactions from dark henna (also known as mehndi) temporary tattoos,” said the Cosmetic Ingredient Review.