On some level, all skin types benefit from the same things: a cleansing ritual that doesn’t strip us of our natural moisture, protection from the harmful rays of the sun and ingredients that aren’t damaging to our faces and bodies.

Beyond the basics, however, African-American skin can require products with natural contents that address specific concerns that tend to be more prevalent for our race, such as hyperpigmentation, dryness, keloid scarring and ingrown hairs.

To that end, here are several quality ingredients to seek when buying natural body care products for African-American skin:

Coconut Butter / Coconut Oil

The list of benefits you can derive from coconut oil is a long one. Not only is the substance great with moisturizing your hair and face, it can also rival some of the best department store night creams on the market. There’s even an “oil pulling” craze that’s actually been around for years, whereby proponents of the practice swish unrefined coconut oil around inside their mouths for 20 minutes each morning then spit out the mixture, claiming that the oil’s anti-bacterial properties extracts impurities and whitens their teeth to boot, even helping with oral problems like gingivitis.

Returning to the benefits of using coconut butter or oil for our dry skin, it’s a natural ingredient that can work wonders on winter weary ashen appearances. From your feet to your knees and elbows, coconut oil slathered on after a bath can help combat rough spots. Combine it with brown sugar or sea salt to create a gentle exfoliate that doesn’t irritate your skin.

Due to its naturally high antioxidant content, coconut butter is a winner on many levels, even helping to prevent wrinkles and provide a portion of sun protection.

Shea Butter’s Benefits

Odds are that you’ve heard about the Shea butter craze, or already own a jar of the “women’s gold” resting in your bathroom or on your bedside nightstand. Although Americans weren’t always hip to the benefits of the butter, African health practitioners have known about it for centuries.

Shea butter has been praised for its positive effects on the skin. It can heal burns, improve skin conditions related to dryness, and even help better your circulation.

An awesome element for helping aged skin appear more youthful, Shea butter – like coconut oil – also contains sun protectant properties.

Jojoba Oil Can Be a Boon to Your Skin

Jojoba oil is derived from the jojoba tree seed, and actually isn’t an oil at all, but something called a wax ester. Either way, jojoba oil is beloved by many as a natural moisturizing ingredient that behaves in a similar way to the sebum that our bodies naturally produce.

A big benefit of using jojoba oil is that it can last and continue moisturizing your skin for hours upon hours, whereby other products may have already evaporated. Absorbent with a wonderful viscosity, jojoba oil is best used in moderation to avoid ending up with skin that shines too much.

Similar to other natural ingredients of its ilk, jojoba oil can be used in a variety of ways to benefit your skin. From acting as an emollient to a lip moisturizer to a make-up remover, jojoba oil can be used with a base oil for massages, or you can drizzle a few drops in a hairy body area as a pre-shave preparation product.

Raw Honey as a Natural Humectant

Using raw honey to sweeten your tea is wonderful, but did you know that the natural substance can be a blessing to your skin as well? It’s a simple ingredient that can be used to treat everything from acne to eczema – both on the face and body.

The properties of honey make it an excellent antiseptic that comes equipped with a gentle alpha hydroxyl acid that can help even out our skin tones in a way that isn’t harsh or doesn’t strip down our epidermis in a harsh manner.

Honey can also be mixed with soft scrubbing ingredients like cinnamon or brown sugar to provide a gentle exfoliating scrub that sloughs away dry and dead skin cells, all the while the wonderful hydrating solution helps to reveal smoother skin beneath the dull flesh.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil as an Effective Moisturizer

Lastly, people may tend to rave about the benefits of extra virgin olive oil as something you ingest – but it’s also a substance that comes with plenty of benefits when you put it on your body, too.

After your shower or bath, use olive oil that’s been scented with your favorite essential oil and rub it all over your body for a skin-softening treat. Concentrate on areas that tend to be especially dry – like rough elbows and feet – and in time you should be amazed at how soft they become.

You can dab a bit of pure olive oil on your face as well and even use it as a gentle but effective makeup remover, but make sure you don’t use essential oils in this process that might irritate your countenance or eyes.

Additionally, feel free to use the olive oil as a pampering hand bath in order to make your cuticles softer, or employ the liquid as your shaving cream in lieu of soapy and foamy products designed for shaving that can dry out the skin and cause razor burn.

By adding olive oil to your beauty arsenal, you may discover that your stretch marks have faded along with your acne – its benefits are just that varied and wide reaching.

Keep it Natural, and Keep Researching

I applaud you for taking the time to research the types of natural solutions that can provide a more beneficial way of caring for your skin, and for letting go of the notion that a product needs to contain a long list of complex and complicated ingredients to really be effective.

Continue on the path of seeking natural and healthy solutions to everyday skin challenges, and your body will reward you for the effort. Expect strangers to stop you and compliment your youthful appearance, and be prepared to pass on your new found natural body care knowledge!

As Always …

Dedicated To Your Beauty

Juliette Samuel
Esthetician/Author/Publisher
Nyraju Skin Care