Many mainstream moisturizers use ingredients that may harm your skin and your health. Not products using natural ingredients, like olive oil moisturizers.

Today we want to look at olive oil moisturizers, and examine the use of natural oils as skin moisturizers compared to the use of artificial chemical moisturizers commonly found in the big brand skin care products.

The benefits of olive oil as a moisturizer have been known for centuries. Olive oil moisturizers work very effectively to moisturize and rejuvenate skin that can be low in essential oils.

Many big name skin care products use chemical and petrochemical ingredients as moisturisers. A good example of this is petrolatum.  Petrolatum is a petrochemical product derived from crude oil. It is used in many skin care products primarily because it is very cheap, but also because it is supposed to have some moisturising properties.

Petrolatum can also be known as petroleum jelly or Vaseline. It does not penetrate the skin and so does not have any direct moisturising properties. What it does do is coat the skin with a thin film of oil thereby preventing some moisture loss. This isn’t health and can lead to acne.

We won’t go into all the details of petrolatum as we have done so in a dedicated article about petrolatum in skin care products.

There are many excellent natural essential oils which work very effectively as natural moisturisers and which do not have any of the risks to your health, or your skin, of petrochemical ingredients such as petrolatum. We always recommend that you buy natural skin care products using safe natural ingredients, both because these are safe for your health and they work better.

Olive oil moisturizers are a fine example. Olive oil is obviously safe to eat, and in fact is nutritious and healthy, particularly because of the nature of the fats found in it. However it also works effectively to moisturize the skin.

It has anti-inflammatory properties and also works effectively against some skin conditions such as eczema, skin rashes, psoriasis and more. It’s natural oils show the closest compatibility with human skin of all the natural essential oils.

It is rich in nutrients and antioxidants and is particularly high in vitamin E. It is beneficial for sensitive skin, oily skin and dry skin. As a facial treatment it helps fight wrinkles and improve overall skin health that declines with age.

It is quite possible to use olive oil on its own for it’s skin health benefits. For instance you could add a couple of teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil to your bath at night. Don’t forget to splash some of the bathwater on your face.

However it is also possible to get excellent natural skin care products that incorporate olive oil. The best available, (though not actually a moisturizer, if you’re interested to find out why then read our article about the best moisturizer) uses an emulsifier developed from olive oil that is highly effective for improving skin health and reducing the effects of aging on your skin.

Using olive oil on its own can be quite effective for your skin, however the best natural skin care products combine an olive oil formulation with a range of other ingredients to increase the moisturising properties of the products compared to using olive oil alone.

The big name skin care brands make use of a wide range of cheap chemical and petrochemical ingredients, and here at Restore My Skin we seek to alert you to the risks of these types of products. Feel free to read more about this using the categories at the right.

But there are also some outstanding skin care products on the market using safe natural ingredients that are usually more effective than the chemical alternatives. We also hope to point you towards safer more effective alternatives to the big brands. A good olive oil moisturizer is a good start.

The best moisturizer for sensitive skin just has to moisturize well, even if it’s not a moisturizer.

If you believe health and beauty literature there are some wonderful sensitive skin moisturizers around. So how could it be that the best moisturizer for sensitive skin isn’t even a moisturizer?

If you read the magazines you’ll see advertisements for many different sensitive skin moisturizers. Just a quick look and we found ads for the Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion SPF 15 and the Aveeno Ultra-Calming Daily Moisturiser Spf 15, for example.

So what we wanted to do today is first have a look at some common moisturizers, see what problems they have and then consider why you need to have different moisturizing options than just buying the big brand name daily moisturizers.

We’ve spoken previously about the Cosmetic Safety Database. This database offers information about a wide range of skin care products and cosmetics that you don’t find on the label. For instance the skin moisturizer you’re thinking of buying might look good in the ads, but on closer examination you may find that it’s use has some unexpected risks.

These risks usually stem from the fact that the companies that manufacture such skin care products as skin anti-wrinkle creams and facial moisturizers use chemical ingredients in those products that may pose risks to your health. The Cosmetic Safety Database is somewhere you can look to see if that may be the case for an individual skin care product.

As we saw an ad for the Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion SPF 15 lets see what the Cosmetic Safety Database says about that.

The database rates products on a score of 1 to 10. The score indicates the possible health risks, or hazards, that users may be subjected to from some of the chemical ingredients in the product. (10 being higher health risk, 1 lower.)

The Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion SPF 15 scores a 6/10, being a “moderate hazard”. In particular it is noted that this product contains ingredients linked to reproductive toxicity, allergies and immunotoxicity, and other health problems including possible neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, persistence and bioaccumulation, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), contamination concerns, occupational hazards and biochemical or cellular level changes.

That’s a little scary. Now lets look at the Aveeno Ultra-Calming Daily Moisturizer SPF 15. It scores a 7/10, being a product that is not recommended due to possible health concerns. And according to the results it is also a potential health risk for the same conditions as outlined above.

And of course if you have sensitive skin these problems may be exacerbated. If you’re looking for effective moisturizing you need to consider something dramatically different to the big brand-name moisturizing creams.

If it comes as a shock to you that many mainstream skin care products, and cosmetics, and much more, contain chemical ingredients that may be dangerous to your health then spend some time reading about this. We suggest you begin with the Cosmetics Safety Database and the Campaign For Safe Cosmetics.

There are many natural skin care oils that are extremely effective at moisturising your skin and which do not offer any of the risks of chemical ingredients. They are also very good at promoting healthy skin generally.

Some examples are avocado oil, jojoba oil, shea butter and much more. Excellent natural moisturizing oils exist in abundance, however because they are more expensive than the chemical alternatives they are rarely used in the big brand name products.

Now lets consider why the best moisturizer for sensitive skin, or for that matter dry skin or oily skin, isn’t a moisturizer at all.

The reason is that there is an excellent natural skin care company that makes a range of different skin care products, including an excellent eye cream, skin anti-wrinkle cream, night cream and much more, all of which contain natural skin care oils which moisturize your skin effectively. They do not manufacture a dedicated moisturizer because if you use their natural skin care products you will get all the benefits of a moisturizer in those products.

Remember what we said at the beginning. Once you begin to understand the potential health risks of the chemicals used in so many mainstream skin care products you start to understand why you need a dramatically different moisturizing solution.

Healthy skin is, by definition, well moisturized skin. Dry skin is not healthy skin. That is why the natural skin care products of Xtend Life seek to produce healthy skin, the result being that it is also well moisturized. And that is why they do not make a dedicated facial skin moisturizer.

And that is why the best sensitive skin moisturiser isn’t even a moisturiser at all.

If you have sensitive skin the best facial moisturiser for you should not contain any artificial chemical ingredients at all, particularly if they may produce skin irritation. You need to source natural skin care products which use such natural moisturisers as avocado oil, jojoba oil and shea butter, and which moisturise effectively without putting your skin at risk.

Xtend Life are so confident of the effectiveness of their skin care products that they even offer a money back guarantee. If the products didn’t work then they would go broke fast doing this. Try getting a money back guarantee from the big brand-name companies.

The skin care products best for sensitive skin are not the big brand names, and the best moisturizer for sensitive skin is not one of the big brand names either.