Keeping Skin Care Simple

What do you think when you hear "skin care"? Are you more of a "of course I wash my face when it's dirty!" type of person? Or perhaps you're thinking guiltily of money you spent on a fancy serum that your not sure even works...

No matter where you are on this spectrum, this article is for you! If you're not used to spending any time on skin care, don't worry, it can be very quick and simple and your skin will thank you for the attention, especially as you age. If you're not sure whether a complicated and expensive skin care routine is worth the time and money, don't worry, you really can take care of your skin simply and inexpensively.

If you've ended up on my website, I'm sure you've been the target of some kind of skin care advertising. There is a wide range of advertising tactics, from the in-your-face jump scares, which try to turn the slightest wrinkles into a horror show, to the more subtle, which somehow convince you to spend hundreds of dollars on products while telling you that you're beautiful just the way you are. 

Rather than either of these tactics, I'd like you to feel better about your skin care and spend less money doing it! So let's dive into the two basic steps of good skin care: clean and moisturize.

Cleaning

If we ignore all the cultural and social pressures of the beauty industry (big ask, I know!), all your skin realistically needs is some balance of cleaning and moisturizing. Cleaning helps skin withstand the daily assaults of products, dirt, sweat and even air pollution. But any kind of cleaning, whether it's a natural, handmade bar of tallow and lard soap or a bottle of neon blue body wash, will in some way remove oils from your skin. So no matter how many claims a product makes of being "moisturizing", what we're really referring to is how intensely a product strips oils.

Something like our solid dish soap is on the most cleansing end of the spectrum, since it is not made with skin health in mind, rather it needs to be as cleansing as possible to get grease off of your dishes. Our milk and maple soap on the other hand, has much gentler cleansing properties and uses milk and excess lard and tallow (a process called superfatting) to protect skin after the removal of oils.

But even our gentlest soap and even the mildest of gold plated facial cleansers are still cleaning, which means removing oils. If your skin happens to do an excellent job of balancing its oil production, this is no problem, since the stripped away oils are soon replaced, without being overproduced. But for many people, a great solution is reducing either water temperature or soap use, or both, which avoids irritating skin towards oiliness or dryness in the first place.

Many people find that soap or other cleansers are not necessary for the delicate skin on your face, preferring to just wash with water and then moisturize or even use the oil cleansing method. (Farmers Remedy, our lard based salve, works great for oil cleansing!)

No matter how much you reduce soap use, some kind of cleanser is important for hand hygiene. If you find you have especially sensitive skin, keep in mind that even the essential oils in our scented products can be irritating to some people. That's why I make a popular collection of unscented soaps, made with various animal fats. Simple Tallow Soap is very long lasting and made with tallow from 100% grass fed cows, it's also great for those who want to avoid pork products. Simple Lard Soap is more conditioning and typically smells "soapier" than tallow soap (which some people find smells a bit "farmy"). Simple Tallow and Lard Soap is a combination of the two fats which has lard's soapy clean smell, along with tallow's ultra long lasting qualities. All three soaps are gently cleansing, with no essential oils, fragrances, dyes or other additives.

Unfortunately, we can't all live in a bubble of germ-free, unpolluted air with perfect humidity, so no matter what you do, your skin is going to encounter irritations throughout the day: from hand washing, to salt air breezes, to ice and snow and more. That brings us to the second part of simple skin care, moisturizing!

Moisturizing

No matter your skin type, you can always benefit from moisturizing. Moisturizing soothes skin and prevents it from getting irritated from the daily rigors of weather, products and cleaning. If you're out in harsh weather, that can exacerbate skin issues such as excessive dryness, which can lead to itching, flaking, cracking and even bleeding. Cracked, irritated skin is also more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal infections. So it's important to replace that lost moisture. 

Ever noticed that certain large brand lip balms only seem to help for a few minutes before you need to reapply? That's because most contain petrolatum, which is a petroleum derived gel that is almost ubiquitous in lip balms and lotions. The problem with petrolatum is that while it makes a great moisture barrier (keeps you skin from drying out further), it doesn't actually add any moisture. It will relieve chapping and dryness in the short term but as soon as it wears off, you're back where you started.

Animal Fats

This is where animal fats come in! If you're dealing with dry skin, animal fats not only create a moisture barrier but they also add moisture. Since humans are animals too, the composition of fatty acids in animal fats it much more similar to our own skin sebum than petroleum based products. Lanolin in particular is the moisturizing and moisture barrier champion, which is why I recommend my Tallow & Lanolin Balm for anyone dealing with serious dryness and chapped skin.

Lard and tallow also have great moisturizing properties. Both contain fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A and vitamin D and studies have found lard to contain powerful anti-inflammatory properties. As I mentioned above, our Farmers Remedy makes a great oil cleanser, since lard spreads smoothly on the skin without feeling tacky and comes off easily with warm water.

From a sustainability perspective, animal fats arguably have many benefits over plant oils. Beef tallow and pork lard are often thrown away, since not many people cook with these fats anymore. Turning these fats into useful products like soap and salve makes use of a waste product. Animal fats are also produced locally, rather than in far away countries, which means you can be confident of fair labor practices and environmental sustainability, not to mention a reduced carbon footprint from transportation. 

Better Skin Care Through Doing Less

So what do you think? Have you improved your skin and your budget by doing less? 

 

Sources:

A Compound Isolated from Pig Lard, Presents Powerful Anti-Inflammatory Properties:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8658921/#sec5-molecules-26-07363

Rethinking Sustainability in Skincare:
https://www.jdermis.com/articles/rethinking-sustainability-in-skincare-a-comparative-analysis-of-beef-tallow-and-plant-based-oils.pdf

The Impact of Airborne Pollution on Skin:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6766865/

Lanolin Performance vs. Petrolatum:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanolin#Standards_and_legislation