Personal Story

In my life, I have only worn lipstick a few times. I tend to prefer lip balm. I do admire women who can pull off wearing lipstick. It makes them “standout” in a group. It is interesting to me that there is a holiday, of sorts, to celebrate lipstick.

National Lipstick Day, July 29, 2023

Lipstick has been around for thousands of years and made from many different ingredients. Many women and girls use lipstick in their beauty routine.

National Lipstick Day is an opportunity some people use to have an excuse to get dressed up and apply their brightest lipstick color. Other people use it as an opportunity to go shopping to buy a new color.

I’m using National Lipstick Day as an opportunity to research healthy cosmetic options, focusing on skincare. If I am adventurous, I might also try to make my own tinted lip balm. Please don’t hold me to this!

What Are Cosmetics?

Cosmetics are preparations the are applied externally to enhance the beauty of skin, lips, hair, or nails. Examples include skin care, moisturizers, body washes, foundation, blush, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, lipstick, nail polish, hair styling products, and perfumes. These can all be called beauty products.

Beauty Products

As I researched healthy cosmetics, I found out that conventional beauty products often contain harmful additives and chemicals. There are alternatives that have beneficial ingredients for your skin, and it takes research to find out which ones are best for the body. I really enjoyed an article by Katie Wells and am summarizing some of the skincare information in this blog post. (If you are interested, please see the whole article in the link below.)

Skincare

The main types of skin are normal, combination, oily, and dry or mature. Different ingredients and combinations work better with each of these different skin types. A few simple ingredients can be customized into products for each person’s needs.

Normal or Combination Skin:

People with this skin type can often use different options with good results.

• Normal skin types have few imperfections, pores are not very noticeable, and skin isn’t overly sensitive.
• Combination skin is when there is normal healthy skin, but patches of dryness or oiliness that need attention.

Healthy lifestyle choices and natural skin care can help nourish and repair combination skin. People with normal or combination skin do not need ingredients that are too drying or overly greasy, like Cocoa butter.

Some good carrier oils for normal skin include Jojoba or Coconut oil.

The best cleansers for normal skin are foaming face wash, body wash, or an oil cleansing method that has Almond, Olive, or other oils.

The best moisturizer for normal skin, if needed, is a homemade lotion.

Oily Skin:

Eating a healthy diet helps calm skin inflammation that could turn into acne. Switching to gentle, natural skin care goes a long way to reduce excess oil production.

We do not want to increase oil production or clog pores with ingredients. You do not want to use harsh soaps or cleansers because they could make the oily skin even worse. Some oils and butters clog pores so we don’t want to overdo it on these.

The best carrier oils for oily or acne prone skin are lighter and fast absorbing. Many of these are potent oils and can be deluded with sweet almond oil for cost effectiveness. Almond oil, Jojoba oil, or Apricot kernel oil are options that can be used for oily skins.

Oil cleansing is a good method for oily skin, but oily skin needs a higher amount of Castor oil in relation to the other oils to keep the skin from becoming too oily. In general, a half and half Castor oil and Olive oil (1:1) or even a 2:1 ratio of Castor oil to Olive oil works well.

Dry or Mature

When we do not have much oil gland production, we get dry skin. Dry skin can have flaking, lines, redness, and very small pores. Aging or dry skin benefits from using natural oils to prevent dryness and balance oil production.

Moisturizers or Coconut oil (some people can use it, and some can’t) are great for dry skin. Fish oil contributes nutrients to our skin. Collagen can help provide “filled-out” skin. Vitamin C supplements boost collagen.

Action

Spend some time thinking about your cosmetics, particularly your skin care products. Do you feel that they enhance your health as well as your appearance? You might want to start by carefully looking at your skin care products and make changes if they are not nourishing you.

May God bless your healthful endeavors!

Joni

P.S. What do you use for healthy skin care?

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