Skin 101
Skin: Part of your integumentary system
Integumentary…huh?
If you are like most of us we forgot to pay much attention during history class. So, when they talked about your Integumentary system. Ooooh wait… that was Science class!
Anyway, back to your integumentary system. Your skin, together with your hair, nails, sweat and oil glands, all make up your integumentary system. ( in teg’ yoo men’ tuh ree ) Our focus today will be the skin. Your skin is your largest organ, making up approximately 15% of your body weight. That being said, you need to take good care of this organ!
Now, perhaps you’re wondering what makes it an organ, as it’s nothing like a liver or your heart. The simple scientific definition of an organ is simply a group of tissues working together together to carry out specific functions or jobs.
Your skin is a sponge and absorbs up to 70% of everything you put on it. According to some estimates what you put on your skin will reach the blood stream in under a minute. That makes what you use on your skin of primary importance.
Read all ingredients on labels. The corporate skin care industry has our number and they know we want natural ingredients in our skin care. So what we often see will be large splashy labels on the front that say *with Cocoa Butter* or *Shea Butter Lotion*. When you read the actual ingredients the first one will usually be water. This will often be followed by an entire list of ingredients that are chemical additives potentially harmful for you, and a few ingredients that are actually good. Even at “less than 2%” you probably don’t want to put synthetic preservatives on your skin!
However, you can actually nourish your skin with the right ingredients! Start with what you cleanse your hands, body, and face with. Most people find a huge improvement when they switch from liquid “soaps” (often actually synthetic detergents) to high quality natural bar soaps. To be actually good for your skin, your soap must have quality, nourishing oils in it. Just Coconut, Olive and Palm without anything else can still be drying to your body, and especially your hands and face.
Look for skin nourishing oils and butters in all of our soaps. Extra nourishment can also be added by using special ingredients for the water portion of a soap. All soap is made with lye water or liquid of some type. We use Raw Goat Milk, or Raw Yogurt Whey, or strong Herbal Tea for the majority of the water portion of all our soaps. This helps revitalize your skin.
Some of our customers have found that simply switching to our quality bar soaps is enough to change their skin. Others with extra dry skin found the combination of our soaps and lotion alternatives was needed to make that huge jump to great skin! You will find the same care and effort has been put into our body products as our soaps. We never use water in any part of any body product. We also do not use cheap filler oils. 100% of everything we make, whether soap or body product, is beneficial ingredients.
Facial skin is especially sensitive and thus your soap needs oils that cater to your skin like Super Oils and Butters. Our facial soaps are formulated with sensitive facial skin in mind. And we make after wash facial products formulated with dry skin in mind.
INTERESTING SKIN FACTS JUST FOR FUN:
There are 2 layers to your skin, the epidermis and the dermis.
The epidermis is responsible for protecting your bloodstream from pathogens
The dermis contains connective tissue & nerves, as well as blood vessels, hair follicles, oil & sweat glands
The average adult sheds about 2 lbs of skin cells a year! (Yuck!)
The thickness of your skin ranges from <.5mm on your eyelids to >1.5mm on the soles of your feet.
Once for ounce, your skin is stronger than steel!
Your skin makes up approximately 15% of your total body weight. This means if you weigh what the average American weighs, which is about 178 lbs, your skin weighs approximately 27 pounds.
An average square inch of skin holds approximately 600 sweat glands, 20 feet of blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes*, & often more than 1,000 nerve endings.
Your skin contains *melanocytes, which is a melanin producing cell. Melanin is the biological reason behind different skin color. No, it’s NOT evolution, but God’s creativity! Look around you: flowers, trees, grasses and people all display His creativity in different shapes, sizes, and colors! Imagine with me for a moment that all flowers were white with 6, daisy-like petals… ugh, booorring! But, quite simply, The God of creation, Jesus Christ, gave us wonderful variety to enjoy! People, also, are different shapes, sizes, and colors, and melanocytes are the thing behind the color variety in people, while Porphyrin, Carotenoids, and Flavonoids are responsible for the color variety in plants!
Please take good care of this organ, partly by putting as few synthetic chemicals on your skin as possible!
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