very dry skin in winter

[guerrillamama]

ds and i both have extremely dry skin year round, but especially in winter (what with all the hand washing and indoor heating). feels like i'm putting lotion (Eucerin, mostly) on one or the other of us every few minutes and it's still never enough. will fire up the vaporizer soon, but does anyone have other ideas? especially to deal with the effects of frequent handwashing.

[carlasher]

My skin is very dry in the winter too. After showering, I use a mixture of shea butter and olive or almond oil on my skin. Lotion just doesnt cut it.

(I am still looking for a good solution for my oily/dry face)

[girlndocs]

I love coconut oil! I especially like the yummy smell of the virgin kind. I rub it all over after I shower, and into my hands after washing.

[mogit]

My hands are also very dry in the winter. I actually develop excema, complete with blisters, peeling, and painfully cracked skin. The product that has helped me most is Cetaphil. It's a mild non-soap cleanser with moisturizer, available in liquid and bar form. (I use the liquid.) Switching to Cetaphil made me realize how much of my excema was directly attributable to the use of harsh hand soap.

My dermatolgist also recommended that I wear rubber gloves when washing dishes and preparing fruit or vegetables. (Some such as kiwi and tomatoes really irritate my skin.) I think that would help, but I get tired of putting on and taking off gloves all day long. (I practically *live in the kitchen now that I'm a mom!) Besides, I just feel too klutzy trying to wield a knife with gloves on.

ETA: I'm not sure how "natural" Cetaphil is. Perhaps someone else knows of a more natural soap alternative? (I tried one with olive oil once, but it was a goopy mess.)

[PikkuMyy]

I don't use soap anymore - not anywhere on my body (or shampoo) and it has made a HUGE difference. No more dry skin (esp on my legs and hands). I also wear gloves when doing the dishes, cleaning, or washing fruits and veggies.

[xenabyte]

I have really dry hands from all the washing up afte changing cloth diapers. I now keep a small cup with a bit of coconut oil near each sink. If you don't like coconut oil, you could keep a small squirt bottle near the sink with 'olive oil' for a 'lotion'. Just wet hands, squirt a tiny amount, work it in, and you have soft, moist hands that are 'food safe'.

Not only is it nice to smell, but it's food safe if I end up doing something in the kitchen, I don't have to worry about hand lotion getting on foods or the teething baby gnawing on my fingers.

I am not sure I couldn't use ANYTHING on my hands, especially after I change a really explosive diaper....or I'd try that suggestion to go 'soap free'.

I do use just a tiny bit of JASON's all natural body wash in the shower and the TTO soap for my hands and it's helped tremendously with my legs and body not being so dry in the winter! (Compared to a regular body wash or soap product).

[carlasher]

Also, in the shower I like to use a sugar scrub instead of soap ever day. It is usually sugar, oilve oil (or any oil of your choice) and EO of your choice. I make my own or just buy some as a special treat. I still use soap every other day, but the sugar scrub gets the dead skin off and moisturizes. Just be careful in the shower not to slip!

[guerrillamama]

ok, well i got the cetaphil - expensive! i should have got the bar, but i got the liquid, will try the bar next time if this works.

and i rubbed olive oil on ds after his bath tonight, which he really liked, so now he smells like olive oil, which i really don't like. i'll probably dream about antipasto tonight. i think i'll have to shell out the $$ for almond oil, olive oil is probably not going to work for me.

thanks for the suggestions!

carlasher, how do you make sugar scrub?

[carlasher]

sugar and salt scrub

A very simple way to make sugar or salt scrub is to take some sugar (I use cane sugar or brown sugar in my home so I start with that) and gradually mix oilve or any other vegetable or fruit oil until you make a paste.

If you use salt, I recomend kosher or flakey sea salt instead of "table salt".

You can then add a few drops of EO of your choice. You can make it in large batches, keep in a jar in your bathoom. Or you can mix some up quickly before each use.

[xenabyte]

Yea, olive oil does tend to have a specific smell to it. I like the coconut oil and grapeseed oils better. A drop of some essential oil will help mask the carrier oils smell, if you are stuck with a big bottle of olive oil!

I used to use avacado oil, talk about a rich 'slip' to it!

[Divina]

My favorite is grapeseed oil, which has a light scent and absorbs nicely. I can't bear Eucerin--it actually makes my dry skin feel worse after I put it on--very "plasticky" feeling to me. But my DP likes it. I also like the Burt's Bees products. I tend to prefer lotion for myself, just because I don't like the feel of oil residue on my skin, and theirs have worked great for me. I live on the Front Range in Colorado, it gets really dry in the winters here.

You might have to experiment. I have found that some products that work great for others don't work at all for me, and vice versa. I think there may be some ingredients I'm more sensitive or less so than others, and that changes how they work. I also find that perfumes change their scents once they're on my skin, quite dramatically.