DRESSING ROOM : Time to pamper skin beset by wacky winter weather
Posted on Thursday, January 1, 2009
One With Nature's Dead Sea Minerals soaps and hand washes (shown here with other products from the line), stand ready to nourish dry winter skin.
Welcome to 2009, readers! I'm sure we were all quite eager to move on to what we hope will be a better year.
However, it's the same ol', same ol' for those of us who suffer from very dry, itchy skin. This is the time of year I seek out, and highlight, products that are good to that type of skin. (Look, I need products that work at least as hard as the cooking grease that fixed the ashy knees of my childhood.)
For the past couple of months, my husband, a fellow dry-skin sufferer, and/or I have tested various products. Here's a list of the ones that have impressed us.
Dead Sea Mineral Liquid Hand Wash by One With Nature (regular price $7.99). What it contains: shea butter, minerals, muds and salts of the Dead Sea Basin. What it doesn't contain: preservatives, synthetic fragrances, artificial colors or animal ingredients. It's available in four "flavors" - Lavender, Shea Butter, Coconut Lime and the fragrance-free Dead Sea Mud.
Dead Sea Mineral soaps by One With Nature (regular price $3.79). These triple-milled, vegetable-based soaps contain some of the same ingredients as the hand wash. Wrapped in biodegradable packaging, the soaps come in numerous flavors; are a generous, long-lasting size; and offer a luscious, silky, body-caressing lather. (Do try the Orange Blossom.) A portion of One With Nature sales goes to Friends of the Earth Middle East, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the preservation of the Dead Sea.
The one Arkansas outlet listed at One With Nature's nonretail Web site (onewithnature. com) doesn't carry the line, we were told. Find the products at lifesvigor.com.
Desert Essence Organics' Almond Hand and Body Lotion ($8.99), a vegan deep moisturizer containing almond extract/ almond oil, sunflower oil and shea butter. It smells wonderful while doing what it says it does. Get Desert Essence products at Whole Foods Market in Little Rock or at desertessence.com.
The Indigo Wild Peppermint-Fir Needle Zum Bar ($32.99 and made exclusively for Whole Foods stores for the Christmas season). This is a large, pleasantly fragrant chunk of goat's milk soap in a swirled, red-green brick. It comes with a soap cutter. Fans know Zum Bars for their gentle, nurturing treatment of dry skin, and rich lathering quality. Words cannot express how much we enjoyed the smell and feel of this soap. If Whole Foods has sold out of this soap, look for the Frankincense & Myrrh Zum Brick ($32), also a 21-ounce chunk of goat's milk soap that includes a soap cutter. The soap features saponified 100 percent food-grade olive, coconut, palm and castor oils in a goat's milk base, with herbs, pure essential oils, fragrance oil and natural colorings. In addition to Whole Foods, Zum Bars can be found online at indigowild.com.
Mario Russo Spa Soap ($7.50 per box of three). This stoneshaped, mildly exfoliating soap is made from a base of pure vegetable oils and contains olive oil along with a big dose of moisturizing glycerin. It bears the citrus fragrance of pummelo, an ancestor of the grapefruit. Arkansans must visit mariorusso.com to obtain this soap.
Avalon Organics Peppermint Hand and Body Lotion and Peppermint Bath and Shower Gel ($10.95 and $10.45). The lotion contains peppermint, plant lipids and beta-glucan for cellular rejuvenation. The gel contains organic peppermint, botanicals and gentle, plantbased cleansers to clean and soften the skin. Get the line at select GNC stores, Whole Foods or avalonorganics.com.
Ole Henriksen's Apricot Cleansing Lotion for dry/ sensitive skin ($21 and $30). Containing apricot, avocado, sesame, sunflower and wheatgerm oils, the pale-pink cleanser is, as it says, a "rich and creamy cleanser [that] comforts the complexion [and is] gentle and soothing." Most cleansers cause at least a bit of discomfort to my dry-in-the-winter, oily-in-thesummer face. This doesn't. You'll find Ole Henriksen products at Sephora stores, Sephora at J.C. Penney or at olehenriksen. com.
Shea Terra Organics. We fell madly in love with this line of products, made with herbs, plants and oils indigenous to and used in ancient treatments in Africa. Shea Terra, which helped usher in the use of shea butter in America, promotes "free trade" - African suppliers determine the value of their labor and resources. Among Shea Terra's natural products (noted flavors usually can be found in families of products):
Shea Nilotica Certif ied Organic Shea Butter ($16), raw east African shea butter with reparative benefits. Unlike its west African counterpart, east African shea butter is soft and easy to spread because of its higher olein content.
Cape Chamomile Lavender Organic Shea Butter ($12). This is the west African stuff, but extra ingredients of lavender and chamomile essential oils soften it. It smells as beautiful as it feels.
Honeybush Peach Body Nectar Oil Spray ($22), containing shea butter oil and rare herbs.
Bourbon Vanilla Indigenous Shea Body Butter ($18), also with shea butter and African herbs and bearing the scent of vanilla beans from Madagascar. This product is good not only for dry skin but for eczema and stretch marks.
Shea Terra Organics is available to Arkansans online at nord strom.com, Amazon.com, and sheaterraorganics.com.
Extra-virgin olive oils promoted by Olive Oil from Spain, a division of the Trade Commission of Spain. It's hard to beat something that's good for you internally and externally. Research has revealed that extra-virgin oil combats the effects of aging, "in part by stimulating collagen production, which will repair damaged skin," according to a commission press kit.
We tried three of Olive Oil From Spain extra-virgin olive oils - Pons Unfiltered, DHC Fine Foods' Nunez de Prado and Romanico Esencia - and were pleased with each as a cooking aid and a moisturizer. These brands are not available in the state, we were told. But Nunez de Prado can be found at gourmet country.com for $29.95, and dhccare.com for $14-$34. Pons Unfiltered is available at earthy. com for $24.50. Romanico Esencia awaits at lavishtreats.com for $18.50.
The term "extra virgin," by the way, refers to olive oil that comes from the first pressing of the olives. We've found it to be much nicer to our skin than regular olive oil. Other brands we've used include the popular Pompeian, which we've bought by the jug at Wal-Mart; and Wal-Mart and Kroger house brands when we need to buy it on the cheap.
DRESSING ROOM PICKS
If there's a month that brings nesting, cocoa-drinking and warm, fuzzy slippers to mind, it's January. And there should be plenty of Christmas gift recipients enjoying their warm fuzzies right about now. For those still seeking slippers, I recommend two fashionable and deliciously comfortable pair for the ladies:
The Chooka Women's Cherry Leopard Slipper ($49.95; online at ShoeMall.com). The shoes feature a printed and embroidered suede leather upper, a sheepskin lining, cushioned foot bed and indoor/outdoor rubber sole. The upper and sole are so thick and sturdy, I don't anticipate these slippers tearing up any time soon.
Dearfoams style DF144 ($22), a classic clog-silhouette slipper made of a microfiber suede. Available in black or tan, it features a leopard-print, fauxfur cuff; terry lining; molded outsole; and extra heel filler for support. Dearfoams are sold at Dillard's, J.C. Penney , Sears, Kohl's, dearfoams.com and just about anywhere else slippers are sold.
Dressing Room is published biweekly. Got fashion and beauty news? Know of any previously unmentioned Arkansas outlets for a featured item? Contact Helaine R. Williams, Dressing Room, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or e-mail:
hwilliams@arkansasonline.com
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