Protect that skin you're in!

We all know it's important to know what you put inside your body, but it's just as important to place healthy ingredients on your body. Your skin is the largest organ you have so take care of it and it will take care of you!

According to number of articles women place on average 168 chemicals on their body each day. Wow! From the chemicals in your mascara, lip gloss/lipstick, lotion, foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow and the list goes on and on.

I encourage the ladies out there to limit the products they use on their skin and use essentials such as lotion and sunscreen. Good sunscreen can go a long way in preventing wrinkles, but so can staying active, and hydrating (not with soda). These are some basic keys to the fountain of youth. And don't forget all the money you will save and use towards a good vacation for relaxation to help decrease that cortisol from all that chronic stress.

Other big NO's are drinking alcohol and smoking, these can dehydrate those cells and speed up aging,

don't forget that smoking deprives your skin of oxygen and can cause uneven skin coloring. Smoking also destroys collagen and elastin, the two things skin products out there are trying to market to you, but why not take care of what you already have?

If you smoke you can avoid needing fillers and botox around those lips simply by not smoking. Imagine how much the smoker's pucker affects the muscles around your lips over time all while loosing that elasticity. I hope I have convinced you to let that cigarette go. And if I have, come see is us for smoking cessation to make your transition to healthier you easier.

So today I had the fun idea of trying to make my own lotion, why not? It's just a few simple ingredients mixed together.

Have you made your own lotion before? Me either until today and it was pretty simple.

Ingredients are simple: ( this is a very oily based lotion you can use on your body but there are plenty of online recipes that have less oily based lotions that are great for the face).

* Beeswax pellets, coconut oil, almond oil, jojoba oil, distilled water, aloe (from my own aloe plant), lecithin found in food products and safe enough to eat), and essential oil which is optional.

Why you may want to avoid essential oils -avoid if limiting products as they can have few other ingredients with them as well. Some essential oils are alcohol based for extraction purposes so watch out for all of this if you want the basic of the basic ingredients. I counted four other ingredients in the essential oil I used, all other oils.

These are the Ingredients in my Aveeno lotion: (see how easily you can get up to 168 chemicals if you count what's in all the other make up we use).

*Water glycerin, distearyldimonium chloride, petroleum, isopropyl palmitate, cetyl alcohol, Avena sativa, kernel flour, benzoyl alcohol, and sodium chloride

These ingredients range from being emollients, solvents, preservatives, and viscosity controlling substances.

As you can see all you need are simple ingredients, easy to get your hands on, and you can make your own.

Caveat: no preservatives so you might want to keep it in the fridge for longer shelf life or just make less at a time. This recipe will be in a more liquid form if outside the fridge, can solidify by refrigerating