Two years ago, I changed my mom’s skincare regimen to a natural skincare routine. Why? I came back for holidays and found my mom looking older than the last time I saw her.
Yes, a sad truth we come to accept is that as we grow up, our parents are aging too. But! Black don’t crack if you take care of your skin. Africans have the most beautiful skin in the whole world. (hmm I did the ranking myself…lol). Africans age gracefully through the years, if they truly take care of themselves, paying mind to their diets and having an established skincare regimen.
In this post, you will learn about my mom’s skincare routine and the benefits of the recommended African skincare products. Let’s dive in.
Recommended African skincare products
The African skincare products I recommended for my mom are:
Benefits of the recommended skincare products
Shea butter for African skin
Shea Butter is a very rich skin food that is easily absorbed.
Components of Shea butter
This butter is made up of chemical components such as:
Fatty acids ( e.g., palmitic, linoleic, oleic, and stearic fatty acids).
Vitamins, for example, Vitamins A, E, and F
It is the chemical composition of shea butter that makes it very beneficial for your skin.
Read: Get beautiful skin with aloe vera
Benefits of shea butter for your natural skincare routine
Shea butter reduces the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines
Shea butter helps to boost collagen production and promote new cell regeneration. Consequently, researchers say these benefits help reduce photoaging — the fine lines and wrinkles resulting from long-term exposure to sunlight, especially ultraviolet light.
Shea butter aids the reduction of the appearance of scarring and stretch marks
It’s believed that shea butter stops scar tissue from multiplying and encourages the growth of healthy cells to replace them.
As a result, it may help minimize the appearance of scars and stretch marks. And help your skin heal.
Shea butter is an excellent moisturizer
The moisturizing effects of this wonderful body butter are attributed to its fatty acid content, which includes oleic, linoleic, palmitic, and stearic acids.
When shea butter is rubbed on the skin, these fatty acids are quickly absorbed into your skin. Thus restoring lipids to your skin, and creating a moisturized barrier between your skin and the environment. This barrier helps to hold moisture in your skin and reduces the risk of dryness.You might ask, will shea butter not make my skin oily? No, It won’t. This amazing butter consists of high amounts of oleic acid and linoleic acid; they balance each other out. Thus, leaving your skin well moisturized as the butter is fully absorbed into your skin.
Also, shea butter is safe for all skin types, according to research.
Read up: The wonderful benefits of aloe vera for your skin
Coconut oil benefits for African skin
Coconut oil contains lots of antioxidants and saturated fats that offers many benefits for the skin, such as;
Increased hydration
Coconut oil helps in reinforcing the skin’s protective barrier layer, thus trapping moisture inside your skin and making it hydrated, supple and fresh.
Increased collagen production
There is a beneficial effect on collagen production, caused by the lauric acid present in coconut oil. By helping the skin produce and maintain collagen — which helps to maintain the skin’s elasticity and firmness. It gives assistance to help eliminate the formation of wrinkles and fine lines.
Reduced inflammation
I love the smell of this oil. Although people say, it has a distinct smell that is easily identifiable. Well, don’t let the scent of the oil, make you lose out on its anti-inflammatory properties. The oil can soothe your chafed and irritated skin.
African black soap natural skincare routine
Black soap is also called African black soap. The soap’s amazing benefits lie in its ingredients composition, which depends on the part of Africa it is produced. An average African black soap comprises of the following ingredients:
• shea butter
• palm tree leaf derivatives, including palm oil and palm kernel oil
• coconut oil
• cocoa pods
• plantain bark, a source of vitamins A and E, as well as iron
Benefits of black soap for natural skincare routine
African black soap helps fight acne and is safe for all skin types
So if you have oily, dry, or combination skin, black soap is great for you!
This soap helps to balance the oil your skin naturally produces. It does this without stripping your skin of its necessary oils or adding excess oil to it. This property of black soap makes it able to fight acne. Furthermore, due to its shea butter content, it helps repair damaged skin cells.
African black soap helps protect the skin from photoaging and moisturizes it
The shea butter content present in the soap makes it able to soothe dry skin, relieve itchiness, and protect the skin from photoaging effects. Additionally, the coconut oil and the cocoa contents contribute to black soap’s moisturizing effects.
African black soap can help reduce fine lines
Coconut oil and shea butter can help lessen the loss of collagen and promote the production of new collagen, which will help to straighten out wrinkles and fine lines.
African black soap has antibacterial properties
African black soap is an excellent alternative to chemical-filled cleansers because of its natural antibacterial properties. Moreover, it can kill more bacteria than chemical cleansers do. Notwithstanding its power, black soap is gentle enough to use for your skin.
Points to note
So you will notice I recommended a change of soap and body cream for my mom, she melts the shea butter and then mixes it with coconut oil to be used as her body cream. And her skin is super now, looking younger than that day I saw her two years ago, and I told her we were changing her skincare regimen to a natural skincare routine. I look at her now, and I marvel sometimes.
The above products are also part of my natural skincare routine; I just go a little bit further with my routine.
You might say, argh! Shea butter and coconut oil, have their unique smell, and everyone will just know. Well, my dears let me let you in on a little secret called scented essential oils. These oils offer several benefits to the skin, apart from the pleasing aroma they provide. I use rosemary and jasmine oil for scents.
Take away
Indeed black skin doesn’t crack; it just depends on how you take care of it.
Please share this post to everyone you know to help them too.
Till next time, Stay be “you” tiful people, stay blessed.
