More dry skin probs & new products to help

I’m not sure what I have. I thought it was eczema or psoriasis but when I looked that stuff up, what I get wasn’t as severe in appearance.

In a previous post, I believe I spoke of how I get dry [nearly cracking] skin. Whenever I eat too much fast food, sugar, or wheat, which is now coupled with constant heater usage and cold weather. I develop dry, painful patches around my mouth, eye brows, ears and anywhere near the scalp. Drives me insane when it gets bad.

I had been using Cortizone 10® Intensive Healing Lotion for Eczema Itchy and Dry Skin, but I desperately wanted a more natural way of giving my skin relief. It’s enough that my endometriosis is aggressive, I don’t need to feed it more toxins from random products I use. Mind you, being on birth control has stopped the growth of cysts/fibroid but I still am healing from the damage done from letting it reign terror upon my insides for three years in my attempts to get pregnant.

I decided to try a product I found while on a trip to GNC with my husband and his parents who were visiting from Ireland. I found a product for $9.99 called OUT OF AFRICA RAW SHEA BUTTER – VANILLA. It stood out to me for two reasons: it said “Ideal for Dry and Cracked Skin” and the a portion of the proceeds apparently assist in medical care and education for women and children in West Africa. Not sure how much of the proceeds goes to this but in my mind every little bit counts when it comes to giving folks needed medical care and education.

I use it after I get out of the shower. I take a bit and rub it with my fingers until it softens and then I massage it into all the spots on my face and scalp that tend to get crazy dry. I’ve been using it for 3 months now and it has helped a lot. I haven’t used my Cortizone 10 for 2 and a half months. I felt that when I started out I still needed help from the Cortizone 10 but when I got the routine in order, I stopped using the cortizone.

RAW SHEA BUTTER MINI LESSON & SMELL WARNING:

“The typical shelf life of unrefined shea butter is about 24 months (2 years) from the date of manufacture and packaging. This is an approximate shelf life affected by storage and temperature.”
– https://bettersheabutter.com/unrefined-shea-butter-storage-and-shelf-life/

If it’s gone bad it will smell rancid: if it”Makes you gag, reminds you of olive oil gone bad or food gone bad. If your shea butter smells rancid, toss it.”
If your shea butter is the real deal and is still good, it has: “a burnt smell, close to the smell of when you fire up your barbecue or burn wood. Some batches are more nutty/smokey than others, but ALL unrefined shea has a detectable smokey smell.”

Not all folks like the smell of raw shea butter. I got used to it and the hint of vanilla in my product helped. After covering my trouble spots with the shea butter, I take a bit of alba botanica’s hawaiian moisture cream and spread it everywhere else on my face to give extra moisture and vitamin e (I love the smell of it.) I still try to clear my face from acne marks so all the vitamin e I can get is good, lol. Despite my regimens I do still get acne when I eat bad or stress out horribly. Actually I tend to eat bad when I stress out horribly, lol, so I definitely need to start finding ways to stress less.