The differences between an African American body and others are not that many. If we’re talking about a natural difference, there was a time when full hips, shapely legs and sensuous lips topped the list.

With the introduction of collagen and other cosmetic enhancements, other groups are giving us a run for our money.

However, the most visible difference in your body and that of others is melanin. Yes, it’s the melanin which makes the skin on your body darker. The more melanin your body produces, the darker your skin appears.

Black skin is not a skin type. It’s a skin tone. Understanding the difference is necessary. Once you understand that, you also need to know that black skin while similar in many ways to other types, has some unique features and attributes.

Products manufactured specially for African American skin on your body, ensure skin care from the outside in. But even then, you need to pick products best suited to you.

Why Use Products with Natural Ingredients

• Helping Mother Earth and Yourself

Products with natural ingredients are most often completely chemical free. Use of chemicals, especially the use of very heavy chemicals in products is not only harmful to you, but also hurts the environment.

By making the decision to use products with natural ingredients in body care products, you are not only taking an intentional step to help mother earth, but yourself as well.

Natural ingredients used in body products for dark skin are made with the express purpose of keeping the body looking, fresh, healthy and youthful.

• Allergy Free

Naturally made products, or products with natural ingredients are in all likelihood allergy free.

Sensitive skin can breakout, show redness, and itch uncontrollably with some chemical based products.

While natural products don’t always cause the skin to irritate or show any blemish and keep the skin smooth, you’ll still have to test the use of them as well.. These ingredients typically work in tandem with your body.

They are not designed to attack your body in anyway.

• No Nauseating Smell

Synthetic/chemical based products  often use choice chemicals to give the product a fragrant smell. Or they add ingredients to cover up the nasty smell of the active chemical ingredients.

More often than not, the smell comes across as sickly sweet. These scents can invoke an allergic reaction also. Some scents can even cause mild to severe headaches.

Products with natural ingredients for scenting, such as essential oils are free from these chemicals. Scent blends from essential oils are all natural and soothing.

• Without Aftereffects

Since these products are chemical free, the chances of your body showing any adverse reactions are slim to none. You might have worries about body care products showing bad side effects and effecting you day to day in a very bad way, but you need not panic.

• Long Term Benefits

You will feel the difference as soon as you start using natural ingredients based products. They make the skin smooth and blemish free. And they will keep affecting the body the same way over a long duration of time.

That means that there are certain long term benefits of choosing to go with nature.

Use of Body Butter

The choice to include body butter in your body care routine might be one of the best decisions you could have made. Body butter is an excellent moisturizer.

Just think of it as a lotion on the super concentrated side.

There are many, many reasons to use a body butter.

• Use Body Butter as Face Moisturizer

With age, your face begins to show signs of maturity. When that happens, and even before that, you need to take a few well intentioned steps to keep the signs of aging away. Body butter as a very light texture, can be used all over your face.

But it should specially be used on the jaw line and forehead. Spread the butter all over your face and massage it into the skin in slow movements.

• Gentle Make-up Remover

Because it’s so light, it can also work as a gentle make-up remover. Free from chemicals, it can also easily be used to remove make-up around your eyes. Most chemical based products should be kept away from eyes as they could cause long term damage to your sight.

• For Foot Massage

A good body butter helps to lessen, or remove all together the roughness of your feet. Daily application can cause wonders and leave your feet feeling so smooth.

• No More Dryness

When used as a body butter scrub,  it will help you remove dead skin cells that not only cause dull, ashy, gray looking skin but you can also develop dry patches on your skin that look bad, feel bad and itch. Places like elbows, heels, in between your toes etc. sometime need extra care.

A good body butter, especially when used as a scrub, removes dryness and does not leave your skin feeling greasy should you use something else.

• Good for Hands

Believe it or not, your hands sometimes need the most attention. Your hands are used and abused during your every waking moment. Keeping them properly and continuously moisturized keeps them soft and free from roughness.

• For Your Lips

Butters can also be used as a great moisturizer for your lips. Its application is the same as the application of any other lip care product.

• Remain Burn Free After Shaving Your Legs

Butters saves you from the horrid burning that you feel after shaving your legs. It also heals your skin, keeps it smooth and feels very good afterwards.

• Full on Body Massage

You can use butters for an entire body massage. You can use that to moisturize your entire body or just to relieve your body of any stress accumulated after a day of hard work.

Shea Butter – The Most Popular Butter in Total Body Care

It comes from the Shea Tree. The process of naturally procuring it is completely chemically free. When found in its completely natural and chemical free form, it is basically just your everyday Vitamin ‘A’. There are many good things to say about it. Chief among them is its healing qualities and its function as a perfect body moisturizer.

If you suffer from any dermatological conditions like eczema, blemishes etc. then this should be your first option to use to fight your skin problem.

It works best in its pure and natural form. And it works especially well if it’s fresh. It is not something that gets better with age. In fact, it might even prove to be detrimental, if used after prolonged storage.

You might want to seriously consider using it if you suffer from dry skin, cracked skin, itchy skin, skin rashes, eczema etc.

That’s it for this week, until next time,

Dedicated To Your Beauty

Juliette Samuel

Esthetician/Author/Publisher/Aromatherapist

Nyraju Skin Care