[NOTE: This is a version of an article I wrote for the summer issue of Get Fresh magazine. I also included a summary of my own skin care drill, because I get asked about that a lot. Yes, all of this pimps products we carry on one lucky duck particularly hard. The idea behind one lucky duck is to be one place to find the very best of what’s out there (that I can find, and in my humble opinion). My posts aren’t and won’t always be nearly so full of links back to the store as this one. By the way, I’m typing this from a lawn chair in the sun on my Mom’s porch with my sweatshirt hood over my head but backwards and pulled over and around the back of my laptop screen, to keep it out of the hot sun, so it doesn’t burst into flames. It’s like I’m under a mini tent.]

On to skincare: Assuming that old saying, “you are what you eat” is indeed a basic truth (and I firmly believe it is), then we should also be living by the saying “you are what you wear.” Most raw food minded people are probably pretty cautious about what they lather and lube themselves up with. But thinking of your skin care as food still may not be something that everyone is used to.

Note the widespread use of the “patch” as a delivery system for prescription and over-the-counter medications. The patch is, in fact, more efficient than a pill, because the drugs get delivered directly into your bloodstream instead of first being digested and absorbed through the stomach lining. It’s convenient and it works. The maker of an amazing line of skin care, Dr. Alkaitis (more on him later) once told me that if you step on and smash a clove of garlic with your bare foot, within about ten minutes your breath will smell like garlic. Now, I’ve never tried this, because I hate, yes hate, raw garlic. I hate the taste, I hate the lingering smell. However, a very forthcoming friend recently told me, “I used to stick garlic in my crotch when I had a yeast infection and within 15 minutes I could taste it in my mouth.” I’ve never put garlic in my crotch and I don’t plan to, but I’ll take her word for it. The point is, your skin is porous and whatever substances you put on your body will travel through it. Go look at the products in your bathroom and those in your make-up bag and ask yourself if you would want to eat them. Or, taste aside, if the idea of those substances going inside your body seems alarming. Because they do go inside your body and if those products are made with toxic ingredients, then you should indeed be alarmed.

Ahead of us here in the U.S. as usual, the European Union has banned hundred of ingredients from personal care products in contrast to just a small handful banned by our regulatory agency, the FDA. Furthermore, labeling can be very misleading. You might think that whatever is available at your local health food store or Whole Foods is perfectly okay, because it’s labeled “natural.” The dictionary definition of natural is, “Existing in or, formed by, nature.” Our cosmetics industry here defines it as, “Any ingredient derived from a natural substance.” Therefore, a product might be labeled “natural” but you may find in the list of ingredients a hard to pronounce word that is derived from a natural substance. For example, “Cocamide-DEA derived from coconut oil.” Cocamide-DEA may indeed come from coconut oil, but a synthetic chemical called diethanolamine is used in the extraction process. This chemical is said to cause cancer. An ingredient processed in this way should not still be considered natural, yet it is. As another example, when you see Vitamin C or Vitamin E on the label, these can be synthetic and usually genetically modified (GMO).

What about organic skin care products? Nothing necessarily too reassuring about that either, as many products labeled organic are full of toxic ingredients as well. For example, harmful parabens can be classified as “organic.” Just last year a major lawsuit was brought against a group of companies behind some very well known brands that you find in Whole Foods and health food stores as well as brands you can find only in high-end department stores. The Organic Consumers Association has charged that these brands claim “organic” or “organics” on their labels, yet the main cleansing ingredients are based on conventional agriculture using pesticides and chemicals, and/or they contain petrochemical materials. I’m pulling for the OCA on that one.

The very best source for truly fascinating information on what lurks inside those colorfully packaged tubes, bottles and jars is beatytruth.com, put together by make-up artist to the fashion world, Rose-Marie Swift. Even if you’re already on the raw and pure skin care bandwagon, it’s still a captivating read, and you’ll be better armed with knowledge you can use to lecture your mother, sister, spouse, neighbor, etc., all of course in the loving spirit of wanting to protect their health.

What to do to ensure you’re not poisoning your personal body armor? Most people don’t have time to run around making their own skin care products, but if you’re making a fruit shake, putting aside some papaya to mash up and put on our face as a mask is easy to do, and fun. The fruit enzymes in papaya are a naturally exfoliating. Also easily accessible are the variety of oils used in raw recipes. Pure coconut butter is the best example of all. You could write an entire book (and people have) about how good it is for your insides, but it’s also amazing as a go-to skin care staple. It’s body lotion, face lotion, shaving oil, lip balm, and make-up remover in one. I keep a tub in the kitchen and a tub in the bathroom. It’s also perfect for massage and other “indoor sports.”  I also love pure olive oil, almond oil, and the prized and exotic argan oil from Morocco.

There are loads of less common but lovely essential plant oils that can nourish your skin. Just as it’s beneficial to eat a wide variety of natural raw plant foods, it’s also nice for your skin to get a variety of different vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. But traveling the world foraging for these plants and extracting their oils is not for everyone.

People ask me a lot which skin care products are my favorite, what do I use myself at night and in the morning. Here goes.

The products in our glow section are what I use (though not all at the same time). It helps to have a personal relationship with the people who make these products, and in most cases we do. My favorite skin care lines are Simply Divine Botanicals, made by the lovely Barbara Rogers in Las Vegas, and Alkaitis, made by the previously mentioned Dr. Alkaitis, in Florida. And one of greatest products of all time is Bee Yummy’s raw and organic “skin food.” I use it year round, especially in the summer when I want something less oily. It’s incredibly healing for scars, redness or any sort of unwanted flare ups.

Every morning when I wake up (and to help me wake up) I spritz my face with Simply Divine Botanicals Face the Day Seaweed Serum or Plump Up the Volume (or one after the other). In fact, I spray them on whenever I want to wake up and more so in the winter when the air is dry. Speaking of dry air, the C-Weed Serum is in a small bottle and comes in under the limit of liquid ounces you can carry on a plane, so I always bring some in my carry-on when I travel, and spray it on my face throughout the flight to keep from feeling all icky and dried out. Plus it’s full of mineral rich intense sea nutrition. Note that the photo online of the serum shows it in a dropper bottle, but it now comes in a spray bottle. We just haven’t updated the photo yet! Also, you can get both of these in a Sampler Pack too.

Black Velvet is an amazing murky dark face cleanser that includes aloe vera, papaya and banana among the tasty sounding list of ingredients—I have one at the sink and one in the shower. Men love it too (and boys… my little brother is addicted to it. He’ll be mad at me for calling him a boy… but my point is… good for young, occasionally problematic skin too. Not saying his skin is problematic!). I use that most of the time to wash my face, and then follow with more of the seaweed sprays. Then Alkaitis Herbal Toner is just about the most refreshing thing you can put on your face, and you put it straight on, you don’t use it to wipe your face clean (for that, at night, I use Gypsy Rose Tea Astringent on a cotton ball to wipe any extra stuff off my face and neck). Sometimes I put Bee Yummy Skin Food all over my face and… décolletage (that’s a funny word). Pack Your Bags eye gel is the best in the morning for getting rid of poofiness (it’s nice to keep it chilled in the fridge) and then the richer Alkaitis Eye Cream at night before bed. Then for day Alkaitis Day Cream. At night I use either coconut butter, Melon Medley oil (which makes your face smell like honey dew melon), Alkaitis Night Cream, or Crème de Rose, which smells like (surprise) roses.

What happens in the shower?  Lathering up of Skinny Skinny soaps… I LOVE these soaps, and their packaging is so nice that I like to have my back up bars on display on the shelf, and then I feel bad unwrapping them.  And they somehow manage to last forever and come in the yummiest scents. Lemon and Blood Orange is my favorite. I’ve got one of our exfoliating cloths onto which I squirt Simply Divine Pink Grapefruit Outer Body Experience, (more refreshing citrus!) which lathers really nicely—an outer body experience for sure.  Peel Me a Papaya… this is a powder that I mix with a little of the pink grapefruit outer body experience to make a paste and use as an exfoliant, on my face and all over. For shaving I use Coconut Butter (I also have a tub in my kitchen cupboard for shakes and more). The coconut butter goes on my legs for shaving, but I put it all over like body oil so I’m already lubed up when I’m getting out of shower. The only thing is that it makes your shower/tub floor really slippery, so be careful!

For body lotion I love Simply Divine Pink Grapefruit Body Cream. It takes a bit of effort to put on because it’s so thick, and you’ll be a bit oily for a while (so not great if you have to hurry up and get dressed right away), but hours later, even in the wintertime, you’ll still be baby’s butt soft.  Also, very similar in effect is the How Now Brown Cacao body cream, which glides on really fast and smooth. Be prepared to smell like tasty chocolate all day. I’m sort of hooked on it. Sometimes I even rub a little bit on my neck before I go out, just because I like to smell like chocolate.

And when I’m going out and feel like being sparkly, I LOVE Glitter Butter. As the name implies, it’s lotion that makes you glitter. I usually put it on my shoulders after I’m dressed and before I go out.  In general I rotate through a lot of our products. I love all of the Alkaitis products for example, but they do get a bit pricey. To try some of their products (and absolutely perfect for traveling) the Alkaitis travel pack is a bargain. You can also get a Simply Divine product sampler which is also good for travel size containers.  Also if you’re looking to be economical, the coconut butter and bee yummy are two of the most multi-use products.

For years I have never had really good recommendations for cosmetics. Until recently, our selection of make-up was paltry. I never wanted to post anything online that I didn’t feel was an outstanding product. Meanwhile, I had also been eagerly awaiting a line that Rose-Marie Swift was working on:  RMS Beauty, which finally arrived (the luminizer is amazing!). I know her well and know her standards and how talented she is. I know how much work she put into creating her line—I even got to help her pick out names for the different colors! That was fun. I’m really proud that her product is world-class. The most famous models in the world regularly call on her. (In fact, the guys who come to Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck Juice and Takeaway can thank Rose-Marie for bringing in Victoria’s Secret models and turning them on to raw food and into our regulars). Rose-Marie’s status in the industry and her new line will help bring more attention to truly pure, clean, raw skin care and make-up. My own crusade is to help change the world of food—hers is to help change the world of skincare. Eating mostly pure, raw plant foods—including plenty of healthy fats—is what gives you a glow from the inside. Feeding your skin clean, pure, raw plant foods—again including plenty of healthy fats—is what gives you an extra glow.

Remember, skin is our largest organ, and one of our greatest protectors. One square inch of your skin has about 650 sweat glands and those tiny glands are an extremely important mechanism for your body to release toxins—among them, the kind that we inhale and absorb just walking around a city street. They should be free and clear to get on with their important jobs, not bombarded from the outside with more stressful toxins! As if we don’t put enough stress on ourselves… why rub it in? (Literally.)

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Skincare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.