Review and Giveaway!
My main focus so far has on making real unprocessed and unrefined foods to eat, but now it’s time to look at what we are putting on our skin.
Did you know that our skin is our largest organ and pretty much whatever we put on it, we also eat? Think of all those common toxic substances we lather onto our bodies each day without a second thought. Are you gluten intolerant? Many of these products have gluten. Many lip balms have petroleum – yup you read that right – petroleum in them. And than there are the preservatives, sulfates and dyes to consider. Yikes!
Have you read the ingredient labels on these things? Shocking!
So I was thrilled to have a chance to review Hybrid Rasta Mama’s Coconut Oil for the Skin: Nourishing Your Body From The Inside In ebook.
Let me get to the point. This is a MUST have book! Jennifer from Hybrid Rasta Mama has put together a brilliant resource of safe, gentle and nourishing recipes for practically every possible body/beauty product you will ever need.
Every one of the 40 recipes is based on coconut oil. You might be wondering, why the heck did she write a whole book using coconut oil?
It turns out that coconut oil is amazing. I learned that coconut oil is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial/infection fighting, antioxidant and anti-viral.
Jennifer shares that:
Coconut oil is the most nourishing oil you can put onto your skin and into your body. Pure virgin (unrefined) coconut oil is the best natural ingredient for skin lotion. It prevents destructive free-radical formation and provides protection against them. It can help to keep the skin from developing liver spots, and other blemishes caused by aging and over exposure to sunlight. It helps to keep connective tissues strong and supple so that the skin doesn’t sag and wrinkle.
The small molecular structure of coconut oil allows for easy absorption through the skin and into the cell structure of the connective tissues. This means that it has the ability to actually restore damaged or diseased skin. Coconut oil will also have lasting benefits, unlike most lotions. It can help bring back a youthful appearance. The coconut oil will aid in removing the outer layer of dead skin cells, making the skin smoother. The skin will become more evenly textured with a healthy “shine”. While doing this the coconut oil will penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin and strengthen the underlying tissues.
Convinced? I am!
I LOVE how accessible these recipes are. Jennifer wrote this because she “wanted to provide everyone, regardless of their experience making personal care products at home, with an easy-to-use resource that covers some of the basic recipes.” So even me with almost no experience cooking up stuff for personal care was able to follow along with no problems at all.
Plus she has kindly included links to her favorite spots to get these readily available ingredients. It’s been fun shopping at the local health food store to get a few of the items that I didn’t have on hand. And I did order a few other items online.
At first, I thought, hmm…this might be getting a bit costly. But really you will SAVE SAVE SAVE money in the long run. Homemade products are free of added chemicals, dyes, synthetics, and other nasty stuff most commercial products have. As promised, I have found that a little product goes a long way and that your ingredients will really be able to stretch.
You will learn a lot about the healing properties of essential oils, carrier oils, and details on how to choose ingredients, how to store your finished products without even starting on the recipe section. Don’t worry if some of these terms sound foreign to you. Jennifer clearly explains it all and makes it simple.
Coconut Oil For Your Skin covers tons of recipes including body wash for several skin types, body oils and scrubs, a whole section on lotion (6 different ones that range from muscle soothing to treating the skin after sun exposure), a facial section covering cleansers, scrubs, masks, a cream, makeup remover, and eye cream, a hair section with shampoo, conditioner, scalp and oil treatments, a lip salve section, plus a “anything goes” section covering toothpaste, deodorant, bug repellent and even a love potion.
I tried several of the recipes and I love them. I can’t wait to try more! I am hooked on the Rejuvenating Face Cleanser on page 24. My skin feels great using an oil to cleanse instead of a convention soap type cleanser. No more dry and tight skin after cleansing for me. My face drinks this stuff up and I can now mostly skip any additional skin moisturizer. My facial skin is much calmer and smoother. Thanks Jennifer!
I made the Shampoo for Blondes from the hair section. I diluted the recipe a bit since my hair is so fine that the coconut oil left my hair a bit on the flat side. After adding a bit more water and a grated castile soap – it was perfect for me. So you can tinker a bit and get exactly what works best for you. With conventional products I would have no idea how to adjust the contents to get better results. But with the recipe in hand, you can see the ratios and sort out how to adjust if needed. The original shampoo recipe worked great on my son’s hair that is thicker than mine.
The final recipe I made was Basic Lip Balm. Only four ingredients, beeswax, coconut oil, vitamin E and a few drops of flavor oil (I used peppermint). Super easy and so soothing.
Next up for me is the Toothpaste recipe!
As you can imagine, this book is an absolute steal at $6.95. Seriously under priced, I don’t know what Hybrid Rasta Mama was thinking practically giving this away. You should grab a copy before she comes to her senses!
Plus Lisa’s Counter Culture Readers get a 20% off code good for the duration of the giveaway plus one week past the end date of the giveaway. Enter COCONUT20 for discount.
To purchase a copy of Coconut Oil For The Skin, click here.
If you want to win a copy of this amazing ebook use the Rafflecopter entry form. Hybrid Rasta Mama will give away TWO ebooks!
Giveaway opens today, January 4th, 2013 and closes on January 12th, 2013 at 11:59pm. Winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond.
a Rafflecopter giveaway