Creams, Lotions, Hair and Skin Products to Keep You Looking and Feeling Great
There’s an old saying that goes, “You are what you eat.” There’s a lot of truth to that, but we should also pay attention to what products we use on our bodies.
We all want to look and feel our best, and there’s so much out there in the world of creams, lotions, hair and skin products to help us with that. There are also plenty of gimmick products that want to waste our money but seem like they’re helping.
What are the keys to the great hair and skin kingdom?
This conversation should start off with collagen. Collagen is a protein that supports healthy skin, hair, nails, and connective tissues in the body.
Collagen doesn’t only make for stronger joints by super charging tendons and ligaments, but also gives us shiny and younger looking skin. There are dozens of different kinds of collagen, but only a handful of them are the kind we want to actively hunt down for body benefits. There are five that we really want, and they’re represented by Roman numerals, and are most of the collagen types present in our bodies.
The amount of collagen we intake is important. Collagen isn’t something we can take dose after dose of a day like a skin miracle cure. Too much collagen can cause health issues like several skin diseases. Collagen used in the right amounts can help fight skin aging and reduce wrinkles.
There are a bunch of collagen supplements on the market. Collagen supplements are user friendly, and are often tasteless or sweetened with Stevia, a natural sweetener that comes from the stevia leaf. Being tasteless or semi-sweetened makes collagen powder a great addition to your morning cup of coffee or an untasted but useful ally in a homemade smoothie or protein shake.
One of the best collagen supplements on the market comes from actor and fitness enthusiast Zachary Levi’s company, FloSupps.
FloSupps’ Collagen Plus is a clinically dosed, Stevia-sweetened product that goes well in morning tea or coffee or mixed into a nutrition shake. Collagen Plus contains Collagen Peptides I and III, which are in the big five we’re looking for. One order of Collagen Plus contains 30 servings, each packing 11 grams of protein, 5000 mcg of Biotin, and 11,000 mgs of hydrolyzed bovine collagen peptides. It also comes with a convenient scoop which holds one serving.
FloSupps prides itself on ethically sourced ingredients and giving the customer the best possible products with no filler ingredients and no gimmicks. Coming in at $39.99, Collagen Plus is on the expensive side, but it follows the motto of “you get what you pay for.
A cheaper but still a great option comes from Orgain, founded by Dr. Andrew Abraham, an integrative medicine specialist, and cancer survivor.
Orgain’s website has a surprisingly large variety of collagen products. A notable product is their Peptides and Superfoods blend, which mixes 10g of grass-fed bovine collagen peptides with 50 powdered superfoods for a powerful morning boost. Orgain boosts the use of amla fruit in their superfoods mix to give it a powerful Vitamin C punch.
Collagen isn’t the only way we can boost our skin and hair care game, and ingesting supplements isn’t the only way we can take care of our hides.
Our choice of bath and body products we use daily has a major effect on the quality of our skin and hair.
It’s best to avoid heavy chemical body cleaners, and search instead for natural ingredients that are not just easier on our skin but help to replenish it.
Taking a nice long soak in the tub isn’t just relaxing at the end of a hard day of work or a nice part of a day off, but can do wonders for skin and muscle repair.
Bath bombs are a fun way to make baths work a little harder for your relaxation and skin health. This bath bomb from Pottery Barn is made with milk and oatmeal, which is great for reducing skin redness, irritation, and rehydrating. And who doesn’t like taking baths that fizz? Pottery Barn carries a milk and oatmeal soap and lotion set that goes perfectly with the bath bomb.
If you’re more of a butter, lotion, or cream guy or girl, there’s endless varieties of that, too.
Trulybeauty.com has a jaw dropping selection of bath and body products for those important self-care days, like Unicorn Fruit Whipped Body Butter. This colorful and fragrant butter conditions and hydrates and moisturizes your skin with acai, matcha, and vegetable collagen.
Truly Beauty also carries a Moon Rocks Whipped Body Scrub made with whipped sugar, coconut oil, lavender, and Vitamin E. Vitamin E is packed with antioxidants that nourish skin and supports healthy cell function. Truly Beauty chose to use sugar as a natural biodegradable exfoliant instead of microplastics, so it’s a win for you and the environment, while being suitable for sensitive skin.
Body oils are another skin care option to keep your eyes our for. They don’t hydrate so much as keep skin moisture in.
A particular body oil that can be helpful for acne, dark spots, reducing wrinkles, and increasing collagen synthesis in the body is retinol oil. Retinol oil can be found in several beauty products, and is also in essential oils such as basil, oregano, clove, eucalyptus, and the little known but powerful Artemisia. Retinol is also in foods such as tuna, butter, and Swiss cheese. Retinol does make your skin more receptive to UV, so if it’s sunny out, make sure to use sun block or stick to the shade.
It should come as little surprise that Neutrogena is a good place to start looking for retinol oil products. A lot of Neutrogena’s skin care products contain retinol, Vitamin C, SPF, and hyaluronic acid to help fight aging.
It’s never too early to start a healthy skin care regiment, and Neutrogena argues that starting the fight early can help you out in the long run.
We’ve talked a lot about skin care, but what about taking care of your scalp and hair? A lot of the same rules still apply to hair as apply to skin; avoid harsh chemicals, and the lighter and more natural the ingredients, the better.
Unfortunately, those of us who suffer from dandruff and dry scalp may have a hard time avoiding the chemical-heavy shampoos. The ingredients we want to look for in a scalp-healthy shampoo is aloe, zinc, and green tea. We want to stay away from sulfates, artificial scented products, parabens, formaldehyde, and surprisingly, citrus.
Luckily, we don’t have to spend a fortune on good hair care.
Kamedis Dandruff Therapy Shampoo has none of the products we want to avoid, is soft enough for kids and powerful enough for adults and uses botanical ingredients.
L’Oreal Paris has what you need if you’re looking to add some shine to your hair game with the EverPure hair care line. The EverPure trio works to give you, shiny, glossy, healthy hair without using parabens, sulfates, and artificial colors and dyes, and is naturally scented with sandalwood and rose. EverPure’s 4.5-6 pH range can also help repair any damage done to your hair from any coloring or chemical process damage. The EverPure package contains shampoo, conditioner, and a spray that gives hair a salon glossy look.
Having a hygienic lifestyle is great, but healthy scalp, skin, and hair really start with diet.
It sounds like a broken record fix-all, but drink plenty of water. Staying hydrated by drinking water hydrates the entire body, inside and out. Greasy and salty foods can leave us with extra oily or dried out skin and hair.
What are some good food habits that can help us protect and enhance our hair and skin?
Bell pepper, egg, garlic, avocado oil, and tomatoes are all foods that are very commonplace or can effortlessly be added to our diets to give us an extra edge. Fatty fish like salmon are a tasty delicacy packed with Omega 3 that feeds the hair and skin.
A combo of the right products, staying hydrated, and eating clean is the best way to keep up with healthy and happy skin and hair.
Trying to keep our skin and hair happy and healthy can seem like a daunting task, and it can be, but there’s plenty of food, water, and solid products out there to help us in our fight to have radiant skin and hair.
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