At least twice in the past few days I’ve said something out loud to my kids that sounded just like my mom. You know… “Close the door or pay the utility bill!”
And now I’m looking down at my hands as I type. There are my mom’s hands… thin, sagging skin that I’m not used to, and spots and colors I’m not used to seeing. My baby Sophie has fat, smooth, plump skin and here I am slowly looking like a raisin.
What happens to our skin as we age?
It Dries.
As your skin ages, it produces fewer natural moisturizing oils. One reason is due to a decrease in hormone production. Add the cold and windy weather to that bag, and you’re bound to have skin that feels chapped and raw. While you can’t turn back the clock, you can coat your skin with lotion that contains a beeswax sealant, like our Beesilk bar. The best time to apply your Beesilk hard lotion bar is after a warm shower, when your skin is at a higher than normal temperature and ready to absorb the ingredients.
Your Skin Thins and Sags.
I’m not to the point of paper-thin, but it will get there eventually. As we age, we start the lose the fatty layer below the epidermis. We have a decrease in collagen and elastin, substances that enable the skin to maintain its smooth, plump and youthful appearance. When you hear about anti-aging products on the market with the promise to stimulate the replacement of collagen and elastin by adding peptides, it’s unclear that they actually work. They have to penetrate deeply enough through the skin’s surface to have an effect. In the meantime, you’re more susceptible to sores and bruises, so protect yourself from random accidents and injuries.
You Get Age Spots.
Once you hit your 40s and 50s, you start to get age spots. They’re also called sun spots because they appear on the skin that gets the most exposure to the sun. These are annoying, but thankfully, they’re not harmless. You can dab fresh lemon juice on the spots two times a day for 30 minutes and they should be lighter in a couple months. But really, it likely bothers you more than anyone else.
What you CAN do…
When your mom says that certain habits adopted now do make a difference in the future, listen to her. Keep your body and skin (inside and out) hydrated and nourished with healthy oils and butters. Because our bodies decrease in the production of moisturizing oils, replace what’s lost by applying an oil like jojoba oil, which can take over in our hair and skin where our natural oils have failed us. Using products that are free of irritating ingredients will help keep the skin from having to battle the outsider. And of course, like your mama always told you, eat well.
One more bit of advice from my good friend and long-time customer, Allie: Always be vigilant about self care, healthy whole food (Whole30), filtered clean water for hydration, keeping stress low, priority on sleep, keeping possessions paired down so they don’t own you, keeping the home naturally clean organized and tidy, forgive, and live for God (most important)!
credits:
https://draxe.com/anti-aging-essential-oils/
http://www.livescience.com/36720-anti-aging-products-lotions-supplements.html
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/004004.htm
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