Natural Skin Care for Prevention and Healing Sun Damage
Last week I wrote some quick tips for caring for your skin within a whole food - whole health lifestyle: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2015/5/17/holistic-skin-care (yes, go back and read it if you missed it. Skin care begins on the inside my friends!)
This week: Natural Sun Screen & After Sun Skin Repair Recipe
I avoid commercial sunscreens as they are loaded with chemicals; the chemicals in the base lotion as well as the chemicals used for the sun screen affects. Any chemical put onto the skin that can alter cellular function in a way to stop sun burning... hmm, sounds like a chemical I do not want on my skin changing the way my skin cells function.
Natural sunscreens with zinc and titanium dioxide you ask? Nah, I will pass on them as well. First of all the base lotions, again, are loaded with chemicals I do not want on my skin. The zinc and titanium are sticky and white filmy on the skin. Yes, they make nano particle zinc and titanium sunscreens but I will pass on them as well. Read on for my sun protective recipe.
My Natural Sunscreen Recipe
To make a natural sunscreen I start with an *organic, unscented lotion (no chemicals in this base lotion) and fill a 4 oz glass cosmetic jar almost to top... leaving room for:
1/2 - 1 tsp. organic instant coffee powder and 1/2 - 1 tsp. organic cocoa powder. Mix both into lotion very well.
And essential oils, see below.
*Check massage supply websites for organic, unscented base lotions. You can buy them in 8, 16, 32, and 64 oz sizes. Read labels carefully to make certain you are comfortable with the ingredients going on your skin and therefore into your body.
And...
1 tsp. Wild Pansy extract powder and 2 droppers of wild pansy extract tincture. Again, mix in well.
I use this sun protective lotion on my face, neck, and hands. I am very aware that I can not slather this on, head to toe, and think for a second that I can spend all day in the sun and not burn my skin. Life and sun exposure just does not work that way. This is my preventative for any more sun damage to my face and neck. I figure my teen years, living in the sun all day, have done enough damage. Now I do damage control.
I also try to do these things most of the time:
limit my sun exposure during the high, hot time of the sun 11 AM to 2-3 PM
Wear a wide brim hat when I am out in the sun
slather my face with my aging and sun damaged skin lotions.
Aging & Sun Damaged Skin Lotion
Summer Base: Aubrey Organic Aloe gel
Winter Base: Aloe plus 1-2 tsp. organic, unrefined, extra virgin olive oil (if you can make a comfrey infused olive oil... even better)
Using a 4 oz. glass cosmetic jar, fill it up leaving head space for olive oil in winter and drops of essential oils.
Anti-aging essential oils to add 6-8 drops of each (as per the Male Herbal by James Green)
Lavender
Frankincense
Carrot Seed
Immortelle (Helichrysum italicum)
I also add a Rosemary essential oil, 6 drops
The Anti-Aging Team of essential oils
Use on your face and neck after washing with water only in AM & PM. Apply a little extra around eye area to crows feet.
The aging skin remedy can also be made by adding the drops of essential oils to 4 oz. of the above mentioned unscented, organic lotion.
I sometimes add essential oils of rosemary or oregano as they all increase circulation to the skin. Increased circulation means more oxygen and nutrients to skin cells and better removal of cellular wastes.
Peppermint, in very small amounts, also aids circulation. Peppermint does cause / exacerbate reflux and it will bother reflux in your face lotion. If reflux is an issue, skip using peppermint.
The finished sunscreen and sun repair remedy.
Naked Sun Time!
Happy Summer Solstice, Happy Summer SUN Time!!
Vitamin D is essential for our body's functioning... every cell of our beautiful bodies! Vitamin D is actually a hormone. We know what happens when hormones get low or out of whack; this has far reaching effects on the whole body, mind, and soul. Think PMS!
Another Hormone D issue that was brought to my attention as a public school teacher: cognitive issues around low Vitamin D levels. A student was having great difficulties understanding and following simple instructions and directions and was found to be quite low in Vitamin D. Get your kids out into the sun (skip the sun screen, just be wise about skin type and sun time). Kids who are labeled with the ADD / ADHD diagnosis? Maybe they just need some sun and natural Vitamin D! (100% whole food diet would be very healing as well but that is another blog post!)
We must remember that this hormone, Vitamin D, is an important part of our hormonal feed back loop. All hormones, all body chemistry, work in harmony: a synchronized symphony of wellness! When one hormone is off (low levels in the body) this affects all other hormones, cognitive functions suffer, our immune system suffers... our whole body suffers.
Here is your beautiful hormonal system: a feed back loop system!
So, where am I going with this Vitamin, hormone D information?
Get out in the sun people! We are at the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
Live it up, get naked in the sun! (I just love this woman's post on being comfortable in our skin, in our nakedness!)
Funny Naked story: When 25, I went to Germany with a dear girlfriend. We were invited to a bath house. Now I had not a clue, at 25, that Europeans were so freely naked. (I should have figured this out by the male attendants wandering about the female locker room, cleaning and restocking towels.) Anyhow, we walk out of the locker room in our bathing suits. The gentleman who brought us to the bath house says: "You can leave your bathing suits on if you want to but you are going to be the odd one out and will be stared at."
I had my bikini off, lickety-split, and thrown into the wooden cubby on the wall before he finished speaking. My girlfriend hung onto her bathing suit straps with a death grip. Finally, she was convinced to remove it. After a couple of hours of hot tubs, pools, steam and dry saunas, cold pools, and sun rooms we were asked to head for the bar for a beer. Here is where my girlfriend said: "No way, not sitting at a bar, naked, drinking beer!" I found this to be a fine invitation, having grown up swimming naked in various locations up and down the St. Regis River and drinking beer around bonfires which inadvertently led to naked dips in the moonlight.
Naked beer drinking in Germany? Sounded fine to me!
Sorry Mom, I know you did not bring me up this way!
Find a space where you can shed as much, or all, of your clothing and let the sun love your body.
Skip the sunscreen, it interferes with Hormone D creation!
I do recommend:
- Hat to cover the face, no need to add more sun time to aging the face's skin (our faces get plenty of incidental sun time!)
- Keep it nourishing skin time, not "sun-burn" skin time
- Take awesome, natural care of your skin, in or out of the sun!
Love your skin, love your hormone D level, love the sun, love yourself!
Happy Solstice, Paula
PS I made certain my boys got naked sun time every day.
Shhhh, don't tell my boys I added their pictures!
