We are all familiar with the commercials out there drawing attention to the latest cream, moisturizer or exfoliator that will “revolutionize” our skin. Many of these products on the market promote their anti-aging effects or their ability to produce younger-looking skin.

We will lather it on, scrub it around, and/or smooth it over our face and body, in the hopes of it causing a drastic change in the way our skin looks and feels. Oftentimes, these products do work, and they even produce lasting results over time.

However, the question that must be asked is: “At what cost?” Are you seriously considering the items you are putting on your skin when we use skin products multiple time a day?

What To Look For In A Natural Skin Care Product for Black Skin

When it comes to finding what natural products will work best for your body, you must start with finding out what natural products are the most beneficial in helping you achieve skin that is smooth, even, hydrated, moisturized, and free of blemishes.

Many of the products advertised to smooth and nourish your skin are full of questionable chemicals that could cause harm to your skin over time. This is where the use of natural products for your body proves to be very beneficial.

Natural products for your skin are essentially built in with a list of healthy ingredients that can be traced back to soil and trees that have been around for centuries. Some of these healthy ingredients I’m talking about are items like Shea butter from the African Shea nut, Coconut oil from coconuts, Jojoba oil from the jojoba tree, Baking soda from an alkaline powder, Castor oil from the castor bean, and many more.

Some other natural and healthy products used for the skin are things like Apple cider vinegar. Not only does it have many benefits to your internal body but also is an excellent beauty product for all your hair and skin needs from head to toe. ACV as it’s often referred to, is cheap and due to its high acidity, it balances your skin and hair’s natural pH levels while leaving a beautiful glow.

Beeswax is a natural wax produced by honeybees in their beehive. Beeswax has many uses, but in skin products, once applied to your skin, it forms a protective and moisturizing layer on the surface. It also contains antibacterial properties. Beeswax is a product that is used in items sold by companies that provide skin and hair care products.

Vitamin E oil is a strong antioxidant that prevents premature aging and promotes healing. It is used in many products for skin and hair. Zinc oxide is not only an antioxidant that is able to soothe, protect and help heal your skin, but it is also a sun protector able to absorb UVA and UVB rays from the sun. It can be used in children and baby lotions, nail products, skin lotions and sunscreens.

These products, either combined or used individually, are highly beneficial for your skin in helping to nourish, moisturize, and enrich. It may not seem like a thought you can conceptualize fully, but your skin is the actually the largest organ in our body. Whatever you put on your skin will immediately go into your bloodstream and cause a reaction to happen –a good or a bad reaction.

Some commercial products on the market that are targeted to smooth and moisturize skin may contain toxic chemicals in them that can cause allergic or adverse reactions. You never know how something can negatively affect your skin until you try it.

These toxic chemicals can then get into your nervous system, immune system, or your reproductive system because whatever goes on your skin then goes into your bloodstream.

Fortunately, when you use natural products you can be sure that there are no toxic chemical added so your chance of having an adverse reaction is lowered. Now, this isn’t to say that you will never have an adverse reaction to natural products like apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, castor oil, or baking soda because there have been many people who have had allergic reactions to natural products.

However, compared to the use of chemical skin products versus natural skin products, the allergic reactions are much smaller than with natural products than that of products with toxic chemicals.

Four Reasons to Use Natural Product When Caring for  Black Skin 

If I could give you a list of the top 4 reasons to use natural products on your skin, they would be:

1. Irritation: No one likes to put on a type of lotion or face moisturizer only to then break out in a rash or pimples the next day solely because of the chemicals in that lotion or moisturizer causing an irritation. Natural moisturizers, lotion, and even makeup contain ingredients that work with your skin rather than against it because they do not contain any artificial products that could cause unnecessary irritation.

2. Smell: Commercial products often contain ingredients that not only cause irritation to you skin, but also irritation to your nose. They heavy and strong smell of their chemicals and/or their artificial ingredients can create a strong odor. Natural products, however, are scented with essential oils that produce a sweet aroma with any irritation or chemical smell.

3. Parabens: Commercial products contain toxic chemicals called parabens that are preservatives that help to prolong the life of these products when they sit on store shelves. These parabens are supposed to mimic the natural hormones in our body. However, over time, there is a fear that these parabens will negatively affect not only your skin, but also your entire body. With natural products you will not have to wonder about parabens because there are none contained in natural products.

4. Better over time: Over the long haul, using natural products will work best for your skin. Harmful chemicals don’t improve the look and feel of your skin over time, but natural ingredients do. We are all familiar with the benefits of essential and carrier oils for natural hair, and fortunately, these oils can benefit our skin as well. All natural products marketed and encouraged to use for your face and body a full of the richest ingredients, natural to the earth, that will produce the best results of softness and smoothness for our skin. These results will be seen for years and years.

That’s it for this week,

Dedicated To Your Beauty

Juliette Samuel

Esthetician/Author/Publisher

Nyraju Skin Care