lets just get right to it -
one of the products i had " on the chopping block" was the milk and honey bars and the butter creams. maybe not gone for good, maybe just a seasonal product - but the more i thought about it i realized we need them year round. although it seems winter is really when we most need intense skin therapy - that isnt necessarily the case - just as our skin suffers the bitter cold winter weather, we also do a bit to it during the summer that requires the same sort of care.
we swim, usually in chlorine or bromine, we are exposed to the intense summer sun ( hopefully in SPF) we tend to have a few more alcoholic beverages during outdoor festivities, or iced teas and coffees as well, which also will dehydrate your skin. so, the milk and honey bars and butter creams are pretty much a must have and although they were possibly going to be a winter only product, ive made the decision to keep them year round. they are officially OFF the chopping block. they are staying!
my personal shower currently has two things that i cant live without, the milk chocolate bar soap and the milk and honey lotion bar. i could use those two things only for the rest of my life in my regimen and be perfectly content.
something i am going to stop making, year round however is " cleansing scrubs" - you know, the ones in the pots that have soap, sugar, coffee etc? we dont need those year round and im not sure ill ever make them again to be honest. maybe, but more than likely if i do make scrubs, they will be like the sugar snap scrubs that came out this winter. so, please note- on the chopping block -- and officially taken off the line, are the cleansing sugar scrubs. they are simply a redundant product that uses wasteful packaging.
scrubbles: will only be out occasionally, special release, holiday etc. thats how theyve been for the last 2 years and everyone seems content with that.
so lets chat a bit about exfoliating while we're at it - a lot of people want to exfoliate, and sure, why not? im a fan of exfoliating .........IN MODERATION. i love exfoliating soaps, i enjoy the occasional loofa scrub, but only on the body.
i cant help but to cringe when people come in looking for " scrubs" for the face. nope, thats a big nope from me. we dont exfoliate the face with scrubs, we exfoliate the face gently here. milk and any dairy containing lactic acid is an amazing way to exfoliate your face. another really nice product that i personally love are konjac sponges, i highly recommend them and have recently been considering carrying them in the shop. they are a natural product, a vegetable root in fact, similar to loofa but very mild in comparison. they, to me, are the perfect facial exfoliator. they are not a harsh abrasive, they are a soft - and the perfect amount of scrub to remove dead and rough skin cells without doing damage to your delicate facial skin. which, so many people just dont seem to understand what happens when you scrub your face with those things. you just know it feels amazing afterward, well - of course it does, but not too far down the road you need to exfoliate again, and again, and again... and heres why:
when you are using harsh abrasives on your face, your body naturally tries to protect the damage you are doing to it by actually toughening your skin. think of a callus --- your hands are soft, you start working out and going to the gym, you start to develop calluses where you hold the weights -- you know why?? because your soft hands are trying to protect themselves from damage. this is the same things your face will do when you use too harsh of an abrasive as your exfoliator. i cant stress enough how important it is to not use harsh abrasives on your face. me personally, i use a konjac sponge and the milk chocolate bar once a week to achieve what i think is the place my skin likes to be best, however i am not against using the konjac more often due to its very gentle nature.
another thing you can do - which, i dont do, but people who enjoy spending time doing a routine for the skin may enjoy is to soften your skin with other things, not just oil, but things like honey ( it has a natural exfoliating enzyme), vitamin e and fruit acids ( again, fruit acids naturally exfoliate) and can also help you reach those skincare goals. these things would be something id personally choose if i did do things like that in my skincare regimen. they also help increase the renewal process.
if youve ever had the misfortune of mentioning wanting a scrub for your face when ive been within an earshot, youve probably heard me say " nope, stop scrubbing with SCRUBS and use yogurt with crushed berries and maybe some honey. " so, as we are baking and dehydrating our skin heading into my favorite season of the year -- just keep these things in mind, and dont mention scrubbing your face with a coffee or salt scrub if im within an earshot, unless you want an earfull from me lol
thats all for this post, ill be back with a chopping block update post on the serums, body oil, and chapsticks shortly!
-until next,
-heidi