You may have heard of “superfoods” – unprocessed, organic foods that are reported to be absolutely packed with vitamins and nutrients essential to healthy living (such as blueberries.) But, did you know there are also superfoods for skin? Here are six of the best organic skin care ingredients to look for in your natural bath and body products, and how each can help you achieve long-lasting beautiful skin.
Avocado Oil for Best Eye Cream Care
Avocado oil is extremely soothing, especially to sensitive skin, which is one of the many reasons we use it as our key ingredient in our Avocado Eyes Eye Cream. It is a known bactericide, and helps mobilize and increase collagen production in your connective tissue. Collagen, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is one of the primary substances responsible for keeping your skin firm and youthful. Avocado Oil is also a natural sunscreen with one of the highest rankings in the Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, and possesses high concentrations of the vitamins A, D, and E. It has one of the highest penetration ratios (meaning it can reach into the deep layers of your skin easily) and helps intensify the effectiveness of other skin care ingredients and nutrients when used as a carrier oil.
Hazelnut Oil for Firming Skin
Hazelnut oil is beneficial as a moisturizer to all skin types, but especially so for dry skin or sensitive skin. It is also the key ingredient in our Hazelnut Cream. Like Avocado Oil, Hazelnut Oil also works as a natural sunscreen and is even superior to Avocado in the UV protection it offers. It also possesses super-astringent properties, meaning it firms and tightens skin for a more youthful appearance, but does so without clogging pores. Hazelnut Oil is also fast absorbing and antiseptic.
Green Tea Extract for Anti Aging Skin Care
Green Tea Extract possesses antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and stimulant properties, making it a wonderful key ingredient for our Daily Renewal Face Cream. It goes beyond penetration of the skin to be absorbed at the cellular level, thereby protecting cells from the damage associated with free radicals (which accumulate via sun overexposure, pollution, etc.) This makes Green Tea excellent for anti-aging purposes, as cellular degradation due to free radicals is one of the leading causes of premature aging. Green Tea can also help reduce skin swelling and extend the SPF of other skin care ingredients, making them better natural sunscreens.
Shea Butter for Improving Skin Appearance
Shea Butter is another natural sunscreen, and also protects skin from dehydration. It can improve the appearance of irritated, dry skin and help lighten stretch marks or scarring. Try pure shea body butter or our shea-butter-based hand and body lotions.
Coffee for Tightening Fine Lines
Coffee is a vasodilator, meaning it constricts blood cells to reduce redness. This has the effect of tightening and firming the surface of your skin, and is also why we use it in our cellu coffee soap to help reduce the appearance of cellulite. Additionally, coffee dehydrates fatty cells to give your skin a smoother glow, tightens fine lines, and smoothes puffy surfaces. Like Green Tea, coffee is also possesses an extremely high concentration of antioxidants, making it ideal for anti-aging purposes and adding to your overall flawless appearance.
Hemp Seed Oil for Repairing Damaged Skin
Hemp contains high amounts of essential fatty acids, to include Omega 3, 6, and 9. It also increases collagen production, thereby reducing the aging process. Hemp Seed Oil penetrates even deeper into your skin than other oils listed here, giving it outstanding regenerative properties and making it an excellent carrier oil to deliver other nutrients and skin care ingredients.
See for yourself how these superfoods for skin can work synergistically to improve your complexion when you try Castle Baths’ Tre’Yours Anti Aging Eye and Face Creams. Once you’ve experienced the silky softness of these natural superfoods for skin, chances are, you’ll never want to go back to synthetic cosmetics ever again!
Next Monday marks the 43rd Earth Day since its creation as a national holiday on April 22, 1970, and we at Castle Baths are very excited to do our part in contributing to the cause of environmental sustainability by continuing to offer spa-quality natural bath and body products!
The concept of Earth Day, as you may or may not be aware, was created by former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in September 1969 and came to fruition less than one year later. Nelson , inspired by the anti-war campus activism of the day, intended Earth Day to be a grass-roots anti-pollution activism movement. He believed the best solution to generating awareness and concern over the depletion of our planet’s natural resources was for ordinary citizens to teach others about environmental issues and how each person could contribute to environmental sustainability in his or her own unique way.
If you’ve been looking for a unique way in which you can show your concern for the environment this Earth Day – something more than just throwing plastic bottles and aluminum cans into your recycling bin, we have a few suggestions for you:
Educate yourself and your friends and family about the issue of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), and learn why Castle Baths has had to discontinue using Canola Oil and Soy-based ingredients in order to ensure the safety and eco-friendliness of our products.
Check the ingredients in your body lotion and other cosmetics against the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep® Cosmetics Database, and find out what you’re really rubbing into your skin. Then go throw half of them away once you’ve recovered from your shock.
Switch out one or more of your synthetic bath and spa products for one of our natural equivalents and experience the difference in your skin’s softness, as well as your overall health and mood. Even something as simple as using natural soap instead of commercial bar soap will make a difference!
If you have a blog or website related to environmental sustainability issues, you may also wish to consider becoming an affiliate of Castle Baths, and sharing the health and environmental benefits of our natural spa products with your readers.
Of course, you can try any or all of the staple Earth Day activities too if you wish. Plant a tree, make crafts out of recycled household materials, or simply spend time outdoors enjoying nature – but if you do, be sure to bring along some shea butter to help protect your skin while outside! Happy Earth Day!
Though Spring has officially started, many may still have dry winter skin from the various snowstorms this past winter. Dry scaly skin can also occur indoors from heating your home, which, unless you live in the deep south or tropics, you’re not likely to stop doing any time soon. So what can you do while you wait for the weather to catch up with the calendar?
You may have been told you need to find a good moisturizer, but where do you start? Do you need an oil-based moisturizer, a water-based moisturizer? A natural moisturizer? An over-the-counter drug-infused moisturizer? The choices are nearly endless, and the longer you wait, the worse your dry scaly skin will become. But how do you choose the best moisturizer if you don’t understand the underlying causes of dry winter skin, and what skin care ingredients will help address each cause?
What causes dry skin?
Cold temperatures cause outside air to lose humidity, and forced air heating systems do the same to indoor air. Your skin breathes air just like your lungs, so when the air is dry, your skin is also dry. The red patches you may see when you have winter dry skin are typically the result of inflammation. Inflammation can cause and/or exacerbate dry skin, so when looking for a moisturizer to re-hydrate your dry winter skin, it is very important you choose one that will not only moisturize but help reduce your skin’s inflammation as well.
Moisturizing Natural Skin Care Ingredients Helpful for Dry Scaly Skin
Coffee – the caffeine content in coffee makes it a natural anti-inflammatory skin care ingredient. Try our coffee cocoa bath scrub to experience the anti-inflammatory properties of coffee combined with the powerful moisturizing abilities of unrefined cocoa butter. Coffee’s natural anti-inflammatory abilities are also the reasoning behind our including it in our Cellu Coffee Soap to help reduce the appearance of cellulite.
Evening Primrose Oil – Certified Organic Evening Primrose Oil is both moisturizing and anti-inflammatory, and thus, addresses both causes of dry winter skin at once. We use Certified Organic Evening Primrose Oil as one of the primary ingredients in our Tre’Yours BeRestored Face Cream, making it an excellent choice of moisturizer for those with a genetic predisposition towards dry skin.
Keep in mind when using these skin care ingredients and products that they are not intended to treat or cure any disease associated with dry scaly skin such as eczema, psoriasis, or rosacea, though they are all excellent moisturizers to use if you have these conditions. But be sure to reapply them often to keep dry winter skin at bay.
When you sign into your Facebook account, chances are you did so in order to interact with your friends rather than find new business pages to “like.” If you’re new to Castle Baths and haven’t “liked” us already, we realize that you may need slightly more motivation to do so than the sparseness of your profile’s “liked pages” category. So, here are five additional incentives:
Get live customer service. We are available for real-time customer service chats Monday through Saturday every week. If you have a question, comment, or concern regarding our products or your shopping experience and you need a quick answer, our Facebook page is the way to go.
Get access to exclusive deals, discounts, and giveaways. From time to time, we will offer a special deal or discount exclusively to our Facebook fans. The only people who will be able to see and participate in these offers are those who have “liked” us. When one of our bloggers or affiliates hosts a product giveaway, we also post links to submit yourself as a potential winner on our Facebook page.
Learn what our products actually do for your skin. Read comments and reviews by those who have posted their Castle Baths experiences on our page and see how our products were able to help them live healthier, happier lives. Additionally, whenever we publish an informational skin care article, we will post a link to it on Facebook so all our fans can view and learn from it. For example, did you know that Dead Sea Foot Salts can help a diabetic person’s feet from becoming swollen? Find the link to our recently published hubpages article from our Facebook page.
Keep informed on beauty trends. We’re constantly researching new ingredients and methods of making our products so that they will have the most benefit for your skin and lifestyle. For instance, we just recently began incorporating the patented anti-aging Coffeeberry® into our Coffee Cocoa Body Scrub after learning about its youth-preserving properties at HAPPI Magazine’s Anti-Aging Conference this past September. We also like to keep all our fans informed on what NOT to do or buy for your skin. Want to know about the latest corporate synthetic skin care product manufacturer to get caught red-handed by the FDA for using known toxins in their product ingredients? Find out on Castle Baths’ Facebook page.
Support a small American business. While big multinational corporations are outsourcing jobs and getting themselves in trouble with the FDA and other regulatory agencies, small businesses are and have long been one of the building blocks of the American Dream: growing our economy by producing quality products made by people like you, for people like you. Small businesses like ours need your help to spread the word about our products, so if you enjoy using them, please “like” us and tell someone about us.
Castle Baths will be closed December 31 2012 through January 1, 2013 for the New Years Holiday. We hope you have an enjoyable holiday and wish you well in the coming year. If you still have yet to think of a New Years resolution, you may wish to consider something related to a health and skin care goal. Check back with us next week and feel free to share your resolutions with us!
When looking for ways to detoxify skin or perhaps hide some of those annoying cellulite deposits around the legs, few people would likely turn to their coffee maker for a solution. But perhaps they should. Far from simply being the primary ingredient in the energy-boosting beverage we all know and love (most of us, anyway), coffee possesses numerous skin care and anti-aging benefits to include:
Great for sensitive skin – In addition to helping you stay awake during the late hours of the night, the natural caffeine found in coffee has been shown to be very soothing to the skin. This makes it an excellent skin care ingredient to use in soaps designed to be gentle on sunburned skin, winter-reddened skin, or other skin sensitivities. Bathing with natural soaps and other bath products that contain coffee can also provide an alternate means of experiencing coffee’s well-known energizing sensations. Since skin is naturally porous, it can absorb coffee via your bath water the same as if you had taken a sip of brewed coffee from a mug. So, try a coffee bar soap with your next bath.
Antioxidants – Coffee is a great natural source of these age-fighting nutrients. Try using a coffee body scrub the next time you need to exfoliate or deep-cleanse, and let coffee’s natural antioxidants cleanse your pores and the deep layers of your skin of any lingering dead skin cells and environmental pollutants. If your feet are feeling a little rough, you may also be interested in trying a Coffee Bon Bon Soap Cookie to massage and exfoliate your heels and ankles.
Masking of Cellulite – Coffee-based skin care products such as Castle Baths’ Cellu Coffee Bar act as a mild astringent, and temporarily firm up the skin around the arms and legs so that cellulite deposits are hidden. It won’t make your cellulite go away forever, but it will help make it less noticeable for a few hours.
Skin care products do not necessarily have to contain actual coffee grounds in order to give you the benefits of coffee (although the ones that do give great scrubbing action.) Many coffee-based skin care products contain the essential oil of coffee, coffee butter, or the coffeeberry®.
For more Castle Baths updates and skin care information, be sure to check back with us next week. In the meantime, go and enjoy a soak with some coffee bath products.
Are you tired of all your soaps coming in a standard rectangle that can easily slip out of your hand during a bath or shower? If so, you may be interested to know that Castle Baths has begun transitioning its Classic line natural soaps to unique, decorative flower molds. We currently have three patterned soaps available for purchase. They are the Bathsheba Rose Soap, the Prayer Sunflower Soap, and the Passion Daisy Soap.
Each of these new soap forms is designed to fit comfortably in your hand, and hopefully will reduce the likelihood of slips while in use.
Eventually, Castle Baths will transition its four remaining Classic scents, Sweet Communion, Sweet Dreams, Restoration, and Jubilee, to decorative shapes as well, though the shape each will take is not definitive yet.
Though the shape of our soaps is in transition, our scents are and always shall remain the same. Our Bathsheba Rose Soap is still made with the essential oil of Rosewood and pure rose absolute. Likewise, our Prayer and Passion patterned soaps still contain their original scents.
The Bathsheba aromatherapy blend is designed to inspire a romantic mood. Prayer is intended to help people reach a meditative, reflective state of mind, and Passion is said to have an aphrodisiac effect on mood, bringing out feelings of confidence and sexuality.
Questions or comments may be posted in the comment section below, or you can contact Castle Baths directly by e-mailing castlebaths@gmail.com.
Body Butter is an all natural, Vitamin A rich, skin moisturizer. It is generally made with different butter types; including, Shea, Cocoa, and Mango butter. Sometimes other natural oils, such as coconut, are also included to lock in the deep moisturizing benefits.
How is it different from Lotion?
Body butter is thicker than most lotions and is used for more severe cases of dry, sun damaged, or wind chapped skin. Lotion is a thinner mixture, made of oil and water, used mostly to moisturize the skin on a daily basis rather than for a specific skin problem.
Castle Baths Body Butter Variety
We have four body butter choices for you to choose from. They are each made with Natural Mango Butter, Certified Organic Shea Butter and Certified Organic and Certified Fair Trade Cocoa Butter for intense moisture. As always, these Castle Baths products are chemical free with no preservatives added.
You’ve been to the beauty products section of the store, you know that there are dozens of choices for your skin care. Most of these have harsh chemicals that can actually reduce your skin’s beauty and elasticity, making you look older, rather than younger. We use only natural ingredients to detoxify your skin, lock in moisture, and rejuvenate your face and body in the process.
Why pay almost $15.00 for each of these soaps, when you can save on all 3 with the Tre’Yours Natural Soap Trio?
Natural Spa Soap- Beauty in a Box!
Enjoy three of our Spa favorites in one box! Tre’Yours Natural Spa Soaps for beautiful skin!
Daily Renewal Face & Body Bar is for dry, damaged, and mature skin; it is low lather and has extra moisturizing properties.
Mango Butter for repair and reconditioning of the face
Certified Organic Shea Butter reduces blemishes and scars while moisturizing
Certified Organic Hemp Seed Oil and Hemp Seed Butter are natural emollients and rich in Vitamin E
Essential oil of Rose nourishes and hydrates the skin while balancing pH
This Face Soap Bar can be used to cleanse your face, and moisturize it all in one step! Our Face Soap is 80% Moisturizing Oils from Cream. Dry, damaged, and aging skin that has been the result of exposure to extreme temperatures and UV radiation can be repaired with daily use. Click here to learn more!
Dead Sea Black Mineral Mud Facial Bar – with EO of Ginger
Dead Sea Black Mineral Mud Facial Bar- with EO of Ginger is great for daily use for oily and sensitive skin- It’s also wonderful for once a week dry, damaged, aged skin that could benefit from the minerals of the Dead Sea. Please only wash face weekly with this bar if you have aged, damaged, and or dry skin.
The Perfect Face Bar! Our NATURAL Dead Sea Mud Soap Contains:
Lasts the average buyer a full year
Formulated to detox, de-grease and feed skin for youthful glowing results.
Largest percentage of actual Dead Sea Mud you’ll probably ever find in a mud bar!
Removes even the toughest oil based cream make-ups (even clown make-up) in one application.
Pink Grapefruit: Astringent for oily skin and hair.
Ginger: Reduces inflammation and increases circulation
Bergamot: Relaxing and refreshing, uplifting, and reduces tension.
Clove: Antibacterial and anti fungal to give your face a true clean
Detoxifies pores for deep cleansing and helps acne prone skin!
Helps even out the complexion for oily skin, acne sensitive and/or redness
Even though this bar is made to detox pores from oil and is wonderful for acne, it’s made with just the right percent of Certified Organic Macadamia Nut Oil to soften and mositurize even the driest skin to include cracked skin! Click here to learn more!
Cellu Body Bar – with Coffee for circulation
Cellu Body Bar – with Coffee for circulation is an all time favorite natural soap bar of both men and woman- made with cocoa butter and coffee butter- to really help skin and senses.
Enhance the appearance of your legs
Helps with the appearance of cellulite, reduces swelling and increases circulation, especially in the legs.
Delicately scrubs away dirt and environmental pollutants
Rich in Coffee Butter, Certified Organic and Certified Fair Trade Cocoa Butter, Mango Butter, and Hemp Butter
Contains fresh ground Java Coffee Bean for a natural exfoliation
Avocado oil is extremely soothing, especially to sensitive skin, which is one of the many reasons we use it as our key ingredient in our Avocado Eyes Eye Cream. It is a known bactericide, and helps mobilize and increase collagen production in your connective tissue. Collagen, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is one of the primary substances responsible for keeping your skin firm and youthful. Avocado Oil is also a natural sunscreen with one of the highest rankings in the Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, and possesses high concentrations of the vitamins A, D, and E. It has one of the highest penetration ratios (meaning it can reach into the deep layers of your skin easily) and helps intensify the effectiveness of other skin care ingredients and nutrients when used as a carrier oil.
Hazelnut oil is beneficial as a moisturizer to all skin types, but especially so for dry skin or sensitive skin. It is also the key ingredient in our Hazelnut Cream. Like Avocado Oil, Hazelnut Oil also works as a natural sunscreen and is even superior to Avocado in the UV protection it offers. It also possesses super-astringent properties, meaning it firms and tightens skin for a more youthful appearance, but does so without clogging pores. Hazelnut Oil is also fast absorbing and antiseptic.
Green Tea Extract possesses antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and stimulant properties, making it a wonderful key ingredient for our Daily Renewal Face Cream. It goes beyond penetration of the skin to be absorbed at the cellular level, thereby protecting cells from the damage associated with free radicals (which accumulate via sun overexposure, pollution, etc.) This makes Green Tea excellent for anti-aging purposes, as cellular degradation due to free radicals is one of the leading causes of premature aging. Green Tea can also help reduce skin swelling and extend the SPF of other skin care ingredients, making them better natural sunscreens.
Shea Butter is another natural sunscreen, and also protects skin from dehydration. It can improve the appearance of irritated, dry skin and help lighten stretch marks or scarring. Try pure shea body butter or our shea-butter-based hand and body lotions.
Coffee is a vasodilator, meaning it constricts blood cells to reduce redness. This has the effect of tightening and firming the surface of your skin, and is also why we use it in our cellu coffee soap to help reduce the appearance of cellulite. Additionally, coffee dehydrates fatty cells to give your skin a smoother glow, tightens fine lines, and smoothes puffy surfaces. Like Green Tea, coffee is also possesses an extremely high concentration of antioxidants, making it ideal for anti-aging purposes and adding to your overall flawless appearance.
Hemp contains high amounts of essential fatty acids, to include Omega 3, 6, and 9. It also increases collagen production, thereby reducing the aging process. Hemp Seed Oil penetrates even deeper into your skin than other oils listed here, giving it outstanding regenerative properties and making it an excellent carrier oil to deliver other nutrients and skin care ingredients.
