Virgin Coconut Oil

We love, love, love virgin coconut oil. Not only does it have the smell of fresh coconuts – a welcome escape from the dreary weather we have been having here lately – but it also is good for both the skin and the body.  Of course, we will be focusing on how good virgin coconut oil is for the skin.

First, what is it?.  Virgin coconut oil is what results from the pressing of the coconut meat.  Usually one things of virgin coconut oil coming from the Philippines, but the oil can come from Australia, India and other places around the globe. 

If you run a search for virgin coconut oil, you will find that seems to be touted as the miracle oil.  It helps you lose weight, cures infections, is an antioxidant, helps your heart, is antifungal, anti viral, etc. etc.  neosoul.essentials doesn’t make any claims to the nature of what it does to your body, inside or outside, we just report what works and has worked for us and our clients.

When applied to the skin, virgin coconut oil melts very quickly and sinks into the skin, creating a barrier between the skin and the elements.  As a natural antioxidant, it is said to prevent premature aging and skin sagging.  And as a massage/skin oil, it is said to nourish the skin and hair, preventing wrinkling and age spots. 

We here at neosoul.essentials use virgin coconut oil in our lotion bars, glycerin soap, megamix whip and our soon to come sugar scrub.  I often use the virgin coconut oil on my daughter’s hair – lends a wonderful shine – or as a quickie massage oil.  It smells wonderful and helps the skin.

Visit us at www.neosoulessentials.com.

Tags: shea butter, coconut oil, virgin coconut oil, natural, skin care, no preservatives

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Happy Thanksgiving

A happy holiday to all who are reading this blog right now.  I hope your holiday was enjoyable!

More information about natural skin care to come!

Tags: shea butter, cocoa butter, natural skin care, natural, olive oil, no preservativesPowered by Qumana

Happy Thanksgiving

A happy holiday to all who are reading this blog right now.  I hope your holiday was enjoyable!

More information about natural skin care to come!

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Olive Oil

To begin the discussion about olive oil, first we have to discuss polyphenols.  Polyphenols are a type of antioxidant that can help stop the aging process.   Olives are high in polyphenols compounds and thus may help to repair and heal skin.    We use extra virgin olive oil in our products  and while we do not claim that olive oil can cure or treat any skin disease or ailment, I can attest from personal and family usage that it does serve to soften the skin.  As I mentioned in a previous post, my daughter suffers from eczema and while my shea whip does not make the eczema go completely away, it certainly lessens her itching and softens the skin to a great extent.  I would certainly rather use a natural mix of edible butters and oils, especially olive oil, on the skin than steroids and cortisone.

There are many benefits to the usage of olive oil all over the body.  You can treat dry, ragged cuticles with some olive oil on a cotton swab and use olive oil to remove makeup.  You can also use olive oil in the bath – after soaking for five minutes, add a few tablespoons of olive oil – it will moisturize your skin while you soak.

Nearly all of our product use olive oil from our glycerin soaps to our megamix and shea whips.  Check us out at www.neosoulessentials.com and thanks for reading!

Tags: shea butter, olive oil, natural skin care, small business, cocoa butter, skin care, dry skin, eczema

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Shea Butter

Shea butter, the butter extracted from the shea nut, from, of course, the shea tree, comes in many different forms.  When I first discovered shea butter, about four years ago – I remember because I ordered it to use with my firstborn  - I purchased it online from some company or another.  I was fascinated with the fact that shea butter seemed to be able to do it all and was gentle enough to use on infants.  Well, imagine my surprise when I received my first order of shea butter and found out that it looked and smelled like yellow Play-Doh.  Of course, my first thought was, if shea butter was so great, then why is it so hard and so difficult to actually apply to the baby’s skin?  I scooped out a bit of shea butter and tried to use it, but it was just too hard to spread!!

Fast forward about two years and the arrival of my daughter.  As I described in the previous post, she developed eczema at the nine month mark and I was frantic.  It was bleeding and weepy and it just devastated me to see her beautiful skin destroyed!  Back to the computer and again, I threw “shea butter” into the search engine…and found a few bulleting boards talking about this stuff called whipped shea butter.  Well, a whole new world opened to me – I started whipping shea butter with avocado oil, with coconut oil, with evening primrose oil – and discovered that these concoctions, with the base of shea butter, actually helped my daughter’s (and the rest of my family’s) skin.

Shea butter’s benefits vary with the type of shea butter used.  Refined shea butter is pure white and sometimes grainy – that is when you smooth it on the skin, one feels little pellets or beads.  These are tiny bits of shea butter that need extra rubbing to melt into your skin.  Refined shea butter has many of the natural nutrients bleached out, thus resulting in the pure white color.  Refined shea, in my opinion, is used when the person wants to have the label appeal of shea butter in their product, but does not want to deal with the variations in color or smell of natural shea butter.

Now, as I write about smell, I can hear people thinking – how should shea butter smell?  Believe me; I have purchased shea butter that smelled like the bottom of an old ashtray.  The smell of cigarettes on this shea butter was so strong that even the best fragrance oil could not cover it!! Eventually through trial and error and by reading bulletin boards about who had the best shea butter, I learned to purchase only from vendors who had consistent quality.  The shea butter I use is unrefined and is through a fair trade vendor.  My shea butter is unrefined, is a creamy off white color, and has a very, very slight nutty odor – it is so faint that you’d have to put your nose practically in the container to smell it.  It’s great for making whipped shea butter as well as balms andr.

First of all, a little research. Shea butter comes from the shea nut, a tree found most commonly in West African, i.e. Ghana, Togo, Nigeria and Ivory coast. These trees are located on the savannah in both the fields and the forests. According to abangakarite.com, shea butter can be used as a decongestant, cooking oil and a skin healing salve. Shea butter is high in oleic acid as well as vitamins A and E, which are very good for the skin.

In my own experience, shea butter has helped greatly with my daughter's eczema. I tried many commericial preparation, short of prescription medication, but my creations with shea butter, cocoa butter and virgin coconut oil helped her the most. In addition, I gave some whipped shea to my grandmother who claimed it helped lessen the pain of her arthritis. Shea butter is a mainstay in both my home and my products. I use my Megamix Whip whenever I see dry skin and I use it on my daughter twice a day, in the morning and the evening. The mixture's emoillent's keep her skin soft and supple, and no more scratching in the middle of the night!

neosoulessentials.com has natural shea butter products that will meet your needs. Visit us today.

Tags: shea butter, cocoa butter, whipped shea, dry skin, eczema, shea, natural

Canola Oil

In our increasingly health conscious society today, you most likely have read about the benefits of canola oil for your health. But have you discover the boon this oil may have for your skin? Certainly, you must think, an oil that I can find in my grocery store can’t have the benefits of those concoctions sold across cosmetic counters….but you would be wrong!

Canola oil has a high monounsaturated fatty acid content and contains Vitamin E, known as an antioxidant and skin conditioner. It penetrates the skin easily and does not leave a greasy film. It has also been suggested that canola oil may assist the skin in supplying the adequate lipids (fat) it needs to maintain its protective barrier.

Neosoul.essentials uses avocado, olive, canola and other oils to create products that are natural and beneficial to skin. Most of our ingredients are edible, believe it or not!