What Is That, Velvet?
I’ve been on a journey to baby soft skin since…I was no longer a baby. I moved past my insecurities about having dark skin and the belief that if I scrubbed hard enough I might not be so Black. I’m now at the point in my life where I love my dark skin and wouldn’t trade it for the world. Now I want to make my deep skin as luxe and supple as possible and I’ve finally found my regimen. Note: this regimen is not for the face, but for the body.
In Shower
I LOVE a good shower and this is where I begin my routine. You may remember this product from my What’s In the Box? post from last year. It is the DERMIS 8 Exfoliating Carrot Soap. I received a small sample, that surprisingly lasted quite a long time, and I’ve been hooked ever since. When searching for it online I saw that it is also referred to as a “brightening” soap. Usually, this turns me off to a product because a lot of brands use the word brightening in place of whitening but that isn’t the case with this soap. Since using it I’ve noticed that my skin has more of a glow, and even in the winter I still looked like I had spent some time in the sun. I wasn’t necessarily tanner, but the usual winter dullness that happens to my skin was reduced after using this. It creates an amazing, soft, rich lather that doesn’t leave a residue on the skin.
I alternate between Dermis 8, Yadain Cultural Solutions Shea Butter Soap, and Nubian Heritage Mango Butter Soap or African Black Soap if I feel particularly icky. To be honest, I’m still exploring the Yadain Cultural Solutions and Nubian Heritage soaps so I bring a lot of different ones into the rotation, but those are my favorites so far. The Nubian Heritage Mango Butter Soap and Yadain Cultural Solutions Shea Butter soap are extremely moisturizing and a winter staple. The African Black Soap has been in my arsenal for a few years now and I would compare it to a clarifying shampoo, but for the body. I use ALL of the butters, especially in the winter, because having dry skin is uncomfortable and gives me anxiety. But with layering so many moisturizers on my skin, just like I layer products on my hair, they start to build up. Showering with another moisturizing soap isn’t going to break down those layers, so that is when I employ the African Black Soap. That same squeaky clean feeling you get after lather, rinse, and repeating with a clarifying shampoo on your hair is that same feeling I get after washing with African Black Soap.
Besides the soaps, I am no stranger to exfoliation. I think I probably exfoliate more than the average bear. I have KP ( keratosis pilaris) on my lower legs, back and sides of my thighs, and on the back sides of my upper arms. I do not enjoy feeling like a book written in braille so I’ve tried everything to prevent the dead skin that clogs my follicles from accumulating. I’ve tried sugar and salt scrubs (the best being the Blue Dream Scrub from Butter Me Up Goods, but they no longer carry it), exfoliating gloves, Hammam exfoliating mitts, and every other manner of scratchy, scratchy, rub, rub stuff. But I have finally found my holy grail. The Salux washcloth. It’s a nylon washcloth made by a Japanese company and it is the bee’s knees. It’s not too rough or too soft, it’s long so I can wrap it around to scrub my back, and it’s machine washable. Depending on how my skin feels, I use it once per day to every other day.
I also shave my legs, which really isn’t a big key in my quest for smooth skin. However, I will only use one razor for the remainder of my leg shaving days. The Gillette Venus Razor. It has to be the disposable kind and it can’t be the one for sensitive skin because that doesn’t give as close of a shave. As well as giving me the closest shave ever, these razors have never so much as nicked me. I love them so much that I stocked up about 2 years ago using every coupon I could find and I still haven’t gone through my whole supply yet.
Post Shower
Because using African Black Soap is like hitting the factory reset button on your skin I have to follow up with a deep penetrating moisturizer. This has been my biggest hurdle. I feel like I’ve tried everything there is to try. Prescription lotions, over the counter lotions with AHA, all natural moisturizers, and every iteration of a shea, cocoa, coconut, and mango butter. As of right now the best products I’ve found for both moisturizing and keeping my skin smooth in different seasons are as follows. For the winter time, I like using Johnson & Johnson Shea and Cocoa Butter Baby Oil Gel (this LOCKS in moisture) and Yadain Cultural Solutions Green Drink Recovery Body Melt. In the summer I like Yadain Cultural Solutions Mango Sorbet Body Spread at night and Vaseline Intensive Care Cocoa Radiant Lotion during the day. If I feel like pampering myself a bit more in the evening or my skin is drier than normal, I will mix my creams and lotions with Black Orchid Argan and Jojoba Body Oil.
My journey to softer, smoother skin has been a long one. Full of wasted money and disappointment but after a long series of trial and error I’ve found what works for me. I still have a lot of scars and while I would like to see them disappear I’m very happy with where my skin is and they don’t bother me nearly as much. While not every product I’ve mentioned will work the same for everyone I still wanted to share my regimen with my readers.
What skin products or companies do you swear by?
