Off With Her Skin!

Are you nervous for this blog by the looks of the title?  Don't be, this blog post is going to be skintastic! Are you laughing yet?  Anyways, back to skin, how much do you know about the largest organ on your body?  That's right ladies, your skin is in fact the largest organ on your body.  Organ? SAY WHAT?  When you think of organs you think of your heart, lungs, brain, stomach, intestines and all the things that keep your body together and functioning.  Well hello?  Without your skin those organs wouldn't be doing so well.  Your skin makes up 16% of your body weight, acts as a water proof barrier for your insides, and it exudes antibacterial substances that fight against infection to keep you healthy.  Blah, blah, blah you didn't come here to learn anatomy.  But its fun to learn about something we really do take advantage of on a daily basis.  Your skin is made up of three layers, subcutaneous layer, dermis, and epidermis. The Subcutaneous layer is the bottom layer, this layer is filled with fatty cells that keep you warm when you are cold, protects your body from damage and this is where the hairs begin to grow. We'll refer to this layer as the Grapes. Next up, the Dermis which is the layer where your nerve endings, blood vessels, and oil glands are found.  This layer will be named, Raisins.  And last but not least is your epidermis, the layer you see everyday.  The layer we forget to moisturize, cut, scratch, etc. The layer we like to refer to as the FLAKES.

The picture above is a perfect way to understand what your skin is doing.  Your skin renews itself every 28 days with a new layer of skin.  The Flakes is your epidermis which is constantly shedding itself. The Grapes is your subcutaneous layer pushing its fatty cells to create new skin which makes itself up to the dermis (raisins) and its end destination the Flakes. Lesson over I promise.  But what I'm trying to say is, we need to pay attention to our skin.

Today I looked down at my skin and saw that my Florida vacation tan was fading away and I had obviously been trying to hold on to the tan way too long because my skin was dry and peeling all over in random places.  In my mind I'm thinking "No! no more tan?" but I was more concerned at how dull and lifeless my skin looked and felt.  With summer coming to an end its time to get those sugar scrubs, exfoliating mitts out and get to work.  Exfoliating is so important not only for our face, but for our entire body.  Without exfoliation our skin can look unhealthy and neglected.  You think that moisturizer your putting on every night is helping with that?  Think again lady!  If you think about what I just explained, all you are doing with that delicious shea body butter you have by your night stand is giving your dead skin cells a place to stay.  You moisturizer isn't getting to your grapes because you keep encouraging your flakes to stay.  We need to help our skin out and get rid of those flakes for "new skin".

My sister Rachel, did an amazing DIY sugar scrub for her campers a couple weeks ago.  I thought what a great idea and made some for myself.  I got my jars at Michael's for around 3.50$ each (there's all different sizes and prices but you can make this in a Tupperware too.)  Here is a great video to explain out to make it!

I used a basic white cane sugar, olive oil, a yummy essential oil and some vitamin E oil. :]  If your not sure where to get essential oils, this might shock you.  Target actually has a whole aisle devoted to aromatherapy which has a lot of relaxing essential oils.
If I bored you to death with this post I'm very sorry.  But I felt like before I shared all these tips and tricks for you skin, you should at least know how it works!

Until next time, 

Sugar Scrubbing Sarah :]