Homemade facial masks and homemade acne treatments are becoming more popular as natural skin care enthusiasts are having trouble finding vegan skin care products. However, there are some ingredients you may want to think twice about including some ingredients in your home skin care remedies. Here are a few:
- Anything acidic: Ingredients with acidic pH levels like baking soda, vinegar, lemons and citrus fruit can burn or irritate skin. Once the skin’s protective layer is damaged by acid, it becomes much more vulnerable to other injury. A blended oatmeal sometimes serves as a good scrub alterenative, but even that’s been known to cause dermatitis.
- Vinegar: Many people use vinegar for natural skin care, especially as a deodorant. However, using vinegar might actually make you more smelly. You’re killing the bacteria and yeast that creates bad smells, but you’ll likely end up with a lingering vinegar smell instead.
- Egg whites: Some people use egg whites as a natural skin care remedy to tighten their skin, but with eggs, there’s always a chance of salmonella. If you use whites on your face, there’s a high chance you could ingest it and become infected with salmonella on accident.
- Citrus essential oils: These chemicals in these oils can make skin temporarily hypersensitive to light.
If you want to treat your skin safely with natural skin care remedies, it’s crucial to understand the science of your skin and the ingredients you use on it. Treating skin and hair is a complex and often difficult problem for people who don’t understand how different butters, herbs and oils interact with their body.
If you don’t feel absolutely confident in your home skin care recipes and mixtures, it’s probably better to stick with products made by natural or vegan skin care manufacturers. There are about 238 cosmeceutical skin care businesses in the United States that study skin care extensively, and chances are at least one of them has the product for you. See this link for more.
