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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Body Oils



Another way to keep your skin moisturized & comfortable



Some of you may remember a television commercial from the late 70's, early 80's, in which Johnson's & Johnson's Baby oil was used on wet skin at the end of the shower to help keep skin moisturized. This is something I did for years. It's the fastest way, in the morning, to get soft dewy skin.


I've recently rediscovered this and wonder why on earth did I ever stop. When you have to take your shower at 5:00 am, you don't necessarily feel like taking the time to apply a body lotion & then wait for it to penetrate. Using oil on wet skin & then pat dry is fast, effective & probably saves a good 10 minutes in the morning. In my case anyway.


Long ago, when I did this, I used plain baby oil, the scented one and then for a while, I used Neutrogena Sesame Body oil which is lighter and just lovely. Unfortunately, when I started using oil again recently, I wasn’t able to find any. It should be available in Canada since it's shown on their website. These days I use unscented baby oil which is in fact plain mineral oil. It's super inexpensive and does what I want it to do, which is keep my skin moisturize for the day. A word of caution, when using oil in the shower, just make sure not to spill any. The bottom of the tub, or shower, can get very slippery.


Next time you go to the grocery store you may consider one of these options for body moisture. My favorite is plain coconut oil, especially in the summer. Since it's in solid form, I take about a tablespoon of it & warm it with my hands. Sadly, the lovely smell doesn’t last but thankfully the the moisture does. Coconut oil is easily found at health food stores. Some like using extra virgin olive oil. It is very rich and high in antioxydants but I personally prefer to cook with it and have it on my salads. Even if it's very effective and quite popular and in fact has been used for thousands of years for that purpose, but I'm not a fan of the smell on me. Safflower oil is another excellent option to help to replenish loss of moisture in the skin with it's high linoleic acid content.







Perfumed body oils


There are more and more perfumed body oils available on the market. These are just lovely and depending on what you like, applying some on arms, neck and décolleté will replace any fragrance. They are more subtle than an eau de toilette but can last as long as and eau de parfum. They can also be used to tame hair frizzes.


Liérac Huile Sensorielle aux Trois Fleurs Collection Blanche is a light fragrant oil for body, hair & face that can be used on wet or dry skin. I use it on dry skin and it realy dosen't take much. The moisture and subtle smell both last all day. It contains hazelnut, sweet almond, grapeseed and argan oil. The beautiful smell is provided by camelia oil, jasmin and gardenia extracts. They do mention that you can use it on your face, but, even if I do like argan oil for my face, I would not consider it for that purpose since essential extracts can be irritating. I often use a small amount of it on my hair to make it look smoother. This is truly is a great concoction.


Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse is one that receives an almost cult like following. It was developed to combine all the benefits of essential skin and hair caire in one product. It's also very moisturizing and non greasy. I honestly didn't like the odor the first time I tried it. I ended up getting a large sample of this in a GWP and must say that it totally grew on me. When I use it I don't need as much as Liérac's oil since the smell is stronger, almost woodsy like. According to Nuxe's website, one bottle or Huile Prodigieuse is sold every 6 seconds in the world. This is a complex mixture of oils which include St John's Wort, moisturizing & calming; borage oil that has antioxidant qualities; sweet almond & camellia oils who both are very moisturizing. The formula is completed with vitamin E which helps sooth, protect and regenerates the skin.


Huile Prodigieuse OR, a replica to the previous mentioned, is infused with ultra-fine gold-colored pearly particles that are both illuminating and sublimating, this formula gives an elegant sheen to the skin.


Roger & Gallet's Bois d'Orange Huile Sublime is a dry, quickly absorbed perfumed oil with the scents of wood and orange. It's said to contain 6 active plant oils with “beauty secrets” and natural qualities. The website remains secretive for the ingredients, which is rather annoying in my opinion. Said to be dermatologically tested and suitable for sensitive skin, I would not consider this for the face. The essential oils, again, could be highly irritating. All that is mentioned is that it contains Mediterranean citrus fruits (mandarin, orange and bigarade petitgrain which is another name for citrus aurantium) and sweet fruited orange flower. Feminine notes of jasmin and of Atlas cedar for the woodsy part complete the concoction. It truly is a very nice mixture.


Fruits & Passion has some very nice & affordable options with their different Nourishing Dry Oil Body & Hair. They are all lightly fragranced and all penetrate quickly into the skin.

Argan has 32% mix of sunflower and argan oil, great for toning and moisture.

Avocado with it's 32% mix of sunflower and avocado oil is recommended for skin's regeneration.

Monoï is said to be a 32% mix on sunflower and monoï of Tahiti GOS (guarantee of origin seal). I just don't know how much monoï is realy in the formula since in the ingredient list we can read coconut oil before gardenia tahitensis flower extract. This is rather interesting. Still, even if there's little of it, this remains a nice body oil.



On a lighter note


Jet Fan Minerals Face Oil. Doing a post about body oil and talking about unscented baby oil I just cant resist mentioning the following. On MUA, last fall there was quite a bit of drama caused by a member who was eventually removed from the site. Unfortunately, lacking in maturity, this person kept coming back, each time creating new screen names. Every time this childish individual would reappear, it would be to make silly posts about mineral oil. So, one of our very imaginative members came up with this:


This is for the MUA Anti-Troll Squad or as a very wise member likes to calls them Counter-Trollism Agents. This was a great success when it was first posted. So much so, that some have even asked where this was available. Great job Ashley and thank you for letting me use it.


Fruits & Passion oils are available in their boutiques across Canada. All the others can be found in major drug stores/pharmacies. As for Jet Fan Minerals Face Oil, well who knows, maybe one day it will be mass produced.... xoxo L
















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