It’s a given that Black Women have a love affair with oils. The thought of having your body rubbed with a sensual, intoxicating body oil can be pure ecstasy. I mean let’s face it, it feels good to be touched and rubbed and massaged and touched … you get the idea. When you add a great smelling body oil to the mix, it’s awesome!
A Love Affair With Oils – Popular and Controversial
Whether it’s essential oils or carrier oils, black women have a love affair with oils. We’ll take a look at a couple of the most popular and controversial carrier oils for skin care.
The Most Popular oils used in caring for your beautiful black skin are coconut oil and olive oil. Why? One reason is because you can readily obtain them from your local grocery or health food store.
Coconut oil is used by a lot of you for days at the beach. It’s naturally anti bacterial, anti fungal and is an excellent moisturizer. Coconut oil has been found to be effective in reducing water loss in dry skin and increasing its hydration. Add it to a body scrub and you’ve got a great smelling, skin loving body scrub.
Olive oil is one of those all around great medium weight oils that feels oh-so-good on your skin, especially during the winter months. While a lot of people have talking about the beauty benefits of olive oil, it’s no stranger to black households.
You’ve had a bottle in the kitchen for cooking and a bottle in the bathroom for our skin care needs. If you’ve read your history books you’ll find that the Queens of Egypt and all of the Dark Skin Nations have used olive oil for skin care. Olive oil naturally packed with antioxidants and anti-aging properties.
It doesn’t clog your pores and just as with coconut oil, it makes a great addition to a body scrub for skin exfoliation.
The Controversial Oil
That all depends on what you’re making and who is defining controversial. We’re talking Hemp Seed Oil. Hemp seed oils come from the seed of the hemp plant. This plant is a variety of Cannabis sativa, better known to most as marijuana. Cannabis, as of this writing, is very big and very popular in the news these days.
For medicinal purposes Cannabis is being used in working with cancer patients, Alzheimer patients and many other stress related illnesses.
For your skin, hemp seed oils act as food. It leaves it nourished and healthy: It,
- Plumps up tired dry skin creating a more youthful glow.
- It provides long lasting moisture.
- It can actually balance the oil in your skin. Cannabis doesn’t clog your pores so it’s often thought of as an ideal moisturizer.
- It reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
The great thing about hemp seed oil is that it can be found in most health food stores. So you don’t have to concern yourself with any laws that deal with growing it, drying it out, infusing it or distilling it to get its oil.
What have oils done for your skin lately?
Oils, popular or not, are very good for your skin. As women of color, you’ve known this for years. You’ve created your own blends, scented them and even sold them. Keep doing what you’re doing and if you find that you don’t have the time or the desire to make your own, we’ve done it for you. Click here.
That’s it for this week. As always …
Dedicated To Your Beauty,
Juliette Samuel
Aesthetician/Author/Publisher
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