Stay Hydrated

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health, hydrate, water

‘Stay hydrated!’ We hear and say that over and over again, especially during the hot weather. But do we really know why we need to hydrate. Every part of your body, down to the smallest cell, requires water to function. Over half of your body weight is made up of water. Water is used to maintain body temperature, eliminate waste, and to help keep your organs and joints in working order. So without water, your body ceases to function. And if you aren’t getting enough water, your body doesn’t function as well as it could.

It doesn’t take exercise to lose water. We lose water continuously just from our normal everyday body functions like our heart beating. Obviously the harder the body works, the more water we lose which is why it is important to drink extra fluids if you are doing a lot of sweating due to exercise/exertion or heat.

I suspect everyone has heard the ‘8 glasses a day’ rule. Some of the research I was doing suggests that 30 milliliters for each kilogram of body weight is an appropriate amount for each person. But it can be challenging to keep track of the actual measured amount you are drinking. Personally I find the urine method the easiest way to know quickly if I’m drinking enough. Clear and light coloured urine means you are hydrated; darker means you need some more water.

The best way to stay hydrated is the obvious – drink water. Juices, teas, and energy drinks can all help replenish the water in your system but remember that they can also contain sugars or other substances you may not want too much of so be mindful of what is in your drinks. Fruit, like tasty watermelon, can help add some water to your body.

Enjoy the summer weather and remember ‘Stay hydrated!’

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Your Skin

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dermis, elastin, epidermis, essential oils, health, skin care

Currently a large portion of what I do has to do with skin care. Your skin is the biggest organ that you have and it has several different functions that help you through life. It creates the barrier between you and the outside environment – helping to protect you from radiation (the sun) and pollutants in the air. It holds in moisture, transports nutrients, and eliminates toxins. It regulates your body temperature and it produces vitamin D. It contains nerve endings allowing us to feeling the physical sensations around us.

The top layer of the skin is called the epidermis. It is comprised of layers of epidermal cells. These layers help seal the skin and only small molecules can penetrate these layers from the outside. Oxygen and various other gases are one example. Essential oils are also comprised of molecules small enough to be absorbed through the epidermis. As you age, the number of layers diminishes and it no longer holds in the same amount of moisture. Once of the reasons your skin gets drier with age. Epidermal cells are continuously created in the lower level of the epidermis and they move upwards to eventually form the top level of your skin before they are washed or rubbed away. Skin cells take about 4 weeks from when they are first formed to when they fall away from your body. I occasionally have small patches of psoriasis which is basically your body mistakenly causing an overproduction of skin cells.

Underneath the epidermis is the dermis. Here you will find collagen and elastin – part of the connective tissue in the dermis. Collagen and elastin can change as you age and are influence by factors such as stress. In the book “Aromatherapy Handbook for Beauty, Hair, and Skin Care” by Erich Keller, he gives an analogy that I really like of what happens with elastin. “A further main component of the connective tissue is elastin. As we age, cross-connections occur between the filaments of connective tissue that were originally parallel to each other, and bind the water in the spaces between them, like a coarsely-knit sweater that initially leaves much room for air to circulate, but that becomes more and more matted through frequent laundering in hot water.”

Many factors influence the condition of your skin throughout your life. Some you can’t necessarily control like your age or hereditary factors. But some you can such as your stress level, how much sun exposure you get, what you put in your body, and what you put on your body. Many people don’t realize that what you put on your skin is often absorbed into your body. If what you put on your skin contains ingredients that are foreign to your system, then your body has to work harder to deal with that.

Give some thought this week to how you treat your skin and how you might make even a small change to improve what you do to help maintain this often mistreated organ!

Lavender, Frankincense, and Patchouli!

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chapped skin, cosmetics, creams, essential oils, foot cream, frankincense, lavender, patchouli, rough heels, skin care

These are the three essential oils in my Rough Heel and Elbow Cream.  And they are all lovely oils to work with.

Lavender is a wonderful and very versatile essential oil. It is steam distilled from the flowers of the plant. It’s very healing for the skin with antiseptic and antibacterial properties. Most people find lavender a very calming and soothing scent. Lavender is a gentle oil suitable for all skin types. It is a great supporting oil, helping to boost the effectiveness of other EOs in a mixture and therefore, lavender is found in many skin care products.

Frankincense and Patchouli are more commonly known for their wonderful scents as incense and in perfumes. They are also great EOs for skin care!

Frankincense is often associated with the three wise men and their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It is an astringent EO with rejuvenating properties. It is great for chapped, rough skin.

Patchouli is another astringent EO that is good at healing inflamed skin. It helps stimulate cell regeneration and, like frankincense, is great for chapped skin and those cracked heels we all loathe.

And with the combination of frankincense and patchouli, you end up with a lovely light woodsy scent!

Rough Heel and Elbow Cream Part 2!

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coconut oil, cosmetics, creams, Fractionated Coconut Oil, grapefruit seed extract, Shea Butter, skin care, tocopherols

As mentioned last week, I’m going to talk about some of the ingredients in my Rough Heel and Elbow Cream. I like to keep things simple and easy. LCO creams are based on the basic cream recipe from my teacher, Jan Benham. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, creams and lotions “are simply oil and water with an emulsifying agent that allows the oil and water to bond together.”

For the water portion of the cream, LCO uses distilled water so it is free of any irritants.

For the oil portion, I use a mix of Fractionated Coconut Oil and Shea Butter.

Fractionated Coconut Oil (FCO) is a lovely oil to work with and I use it in a lot of my products. To obtain FCO, Coconut Oil is heated and liquid is removed. And no I don’t know exactly how it is done but I do know that the end product is clear and odorless. It does not leave the same slick feel that some oils tend to do and I also find it absorbs into the skin nicely. It also will partially dissolve in water, which makes it a great bath oil (and yes it is the main ingredient in my bath oils).

Shea Butter comes from the nut of the African butter tree. I get mine from http://www.sheaessence.ca who in turn gets it from Ghana. Shea butter is very moisturizing for the skin.

The other thing to consider with creams (or lotions for that matter) is how do you make it last? It is easy to make a natural cream that you know you are going to use up in a few weeks at home. But when you are looking at making something to put on the shelf and sell to the public you need a preservative.

Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) is a natural preservative, with antibacterial and antifungal properties. One of its active ingredients is ascorbic acid, commonly called Vitamin C. This is extracted from the grapefruit seeds and pulp.

Tocopherols (more commonly called Vitamin E) is another ingredient that helps to preserve cosmetics while also adding its healing benefits to the mixture.

I shall leave things here for today. Next week I’ll talk about some essential oils! Have a great week!

June is here and the weather is warming!

Tags

emulsifying agent, grapefruit seed extract

Welcome to the beginning of June! While it wasn’t all that warm here for May, it looks like we may finally be in luck for some warmer weather. Which means we are continuing to creep towards sandal wearing temperature. And that means showing off your feet! This month I’m spotlighting my Rough Heel and Elbow Cream.

Lotions and creams in the most basic terms are simply oil and water with an emulsifying agent that allows the oil and water to bond together. An emulsifying agent is something that is soluble both in fat (in this case oil) and in water and it allows the oil to disperse evenly among the water. The thickness of the lotion or cream changes depending on the ratio of water to oil.

All Lazy Cat Oils lotions and creams use lanette wax as the emulsifying agent. It is plant based, derived from coconut. There are many different kinds of lanette wax available. LCO uses an SLS-free lanette wax.

The process of making lotions and creams is fairly straight forward. You melt and mix your oils and wax, heat your water, and add the water to the oils. I love that part – nothing more fun than watching two clear liquids come together and seeing it turn milky white on contact!

As the month continues, I’ll write about some of the individual components for my Rough Heel and Elbow Cream. As an overview, it contains distilled water, lanette wax, fractionated coconut oil, shea butter, grapefruit seed extract, vitamin E, and the essential oils of frankincense, patchouli, and lavender.

Rough Heel and Elbow Cream is my feature product for the month of June and is available for $10 instead of the regular $12.