Somewhere around last summer I decided that I was really fed up with regular skin care products, as they felt like I was wearing a mask the first period after I applied them. Especially in summer time. I couldn’t apply and run out. I had to wait for it to be absorbed by my skin. For a really long time. Besides that, the ones that felt a bit less like a mask were excessively expensive for the amount of cream you would get. I decided I needed something more basic, more natural to as a skin care product.

You see, I only apply a few things on my skin, a few very store bought – nivea like – basic products to keep my skin moist. I don’t use any make-up or anything else (I am very boring!). But I do use a lot of moisturiser. I have a very dry skin and if I don’t use any products, you can find me scratching myself all day, as if I have a colony of ants that are walking all over me. Not so pleasant.

After I searched the internet to replace the products that I use, I decided that I preferred to join a workshop around this subject. I had found too much contradicting information, and therefore I needed a more trustworthy source of information. So in autumn I approached a local friend Amy, who runs a health and wellness studio and asked her if she would be able to host a natural skin care workshop. And she was!

The workshop that she organised was really useful for me. It was a basic introduction to natural skincare and was focused around vegetable oils. It was really about the bare basics and that was exactly what I needed. The bare basics were already a huge amount of information to swallow. We were introduced to a big array of oils and their healing properties. About how different oils were made and which processes were used to obtain them. It was pretty mind boggling to find out how many nut-, plant-, flower- and what-not-oils there were. We were able to try them all out and see which scents we liked and whether we liked the feel of the oils on our skin or not. Besides having different properties, every oil also really felt different. You wouldn’t expect that, I didn’t at least.
It was really a treat altogether. In the end I went home with a few (big!) flacons of self made oil mixes to treat specific parts or problems of my skin. I went for a day and night oil actually. One of them had oils mixed inside that protected against the sun (day) and the other one was mostly moisturising (night).

I used my oil-mixes in the first few months after the workshop as a test. They really made my skin less dry on the long run and when I use them they don’t feel like I am wearing a greasy mask. My skin seems to absorb the vegetable oils better than the creams I used to use. I also see a real difference when I don’t use the oils (I sometimes forget them when we go away for a few days). Especially this time of the year where we are around dry air most of the day.

This positive experience gave me confidence to order my own stock of vegetable oils and to keep on experimenting, till I create my favourite mix of oils. My favourite mix right now consists of macadamia-, avocado- and hemp oil. The macadamia oil really smells divine. If you like nutty flavours, you should definitely try it out.

Specific oil benefits:
macadamia – nourishing, restructuring, softening & protecting
avocado – nourishing & anti-aging
hemp – restoring softness and elasticity, hydrating & restructuring cell membrane

On Amy’s advise, I order my oils here now. If you are in France I can also highly recommend them. They have a great selection of oils and other supplies to make your own personal body care products. They also show which properties every oil has on their website. Very easy, if you are trying to solve a specific problem.

For the future I hope to replace more finished complicated store bought products with lots of ingredients for more simple products. Up till now I have replaced my creams, shampoo and deodorant for something simple. I’ll blog about specific mixes in future blogposts. I haven’t finished experimenting with them all.
As a general advise I can now tell you that vegetable oils are the best way to go when it comes to skin care. They are highly nurturing and all natural. Besides that, they are extremely affordable as you only use very small amounts. You don’t pay for any useless additives. And again if you live around Grenoble, before you change anything in your skin-care routine: first join a workshop with Amy. She is lovely, patient and knowledgable.

 

Further info & links:
Waterfall Wellness (natural skincare workshops)
Aroma-Zone (vegetable oils and other supplies)
Florihana (more high quality oils)
Dr. Jetske Ultee (good skin care source for the dutch readers)