Dermatologists will tell you you’re using your moisturizers wrong, you’re using them too often, and you’re using products that dry out your skin.

Environmental Working Group will tell you you’re putting toxic crap and carcinogens on your skin.

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Too many so-called moisturizers simply plug up your pores and make you think your skin is moist because sweat is trapped beneath the cream and your skin can’t breathe.

There are two reasons I’m going to tell you all about moisturizers and how to use them:

1. You need to know the best moisturizers to use (that are non-toxic).
2. You need to know how to use them (to let your skin breathe and heal so it can moisten itself).
3. Three. There are THREE reasons I’m going to tell you all about moisturizers and how to use them: I want you to go out and treat yourself to the best damn moisturizer available and support my friend, Ron Salley.

I want everyone to know these things because billion$ each year are wasted on this stuff, and Americans still have dry skin.

And I also wanted to use a loose reference to Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition sketch.

Toxicity

If you ever need to know anything about what you are putting on your body, you need to know about the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep® database.

Let us first take a look at an ultra-exclusive facial moisturizer called Le Mer.

Here is their advertising blurb:

This luxuriously rich cream deeply soothes, moisturizes and heals away dryness. Skin looks naturally vibrant, restored to its healthiest center. Miracle Broth™ – the legendary healing elixir that flows through all of La Mer – infuses skin with sea-sourced renewing energies. Ideal for drier skin.

You can find it only at the most exclusive stores and it sells for “only” $170 per ounce.

At EWG, they found three very toxic chemicals in this product.

Their ranking system has the most hazardous ingredients/products at 7 – 10. In addition to each ingredient being ranked, they give each product an overall ranking.

La Mer’s overall “grade” looks like this:

You will be shocked at first at this site, because all those things we’ve been putting on ourselves, and our children, and even our babies have dangers. That we all don’t have cancer is a tribute to overall resilience of the human body.

The point here is that, well, there is a limit to how much abuse our bodies can take, and you don’t want to surpass that. The results are unforgiving.

For years women have trusted the name Johnson & Johnson for their baby powder. Just recently (April 2018), they got hit with a $37 million lawsuit over asbestos in their baby powder that caused one parent to get mesothelioma, a deadly form of lung cancer that is caused by asbestos. They ended up paying out $80 million.

Another trusted name is Olay by Proctor & Gamble. But even they have problems. Sure the problems aren’t as big as La Mer’s or Johnson & Johnsons, but take a look at the overall score for Olay Active Hydrating Beauty Fluid Lotion:

Proctor & Gamble’s Olay Regenerist Advanced Anti-Aging Regenerating Lotion with Sunscreen, SPF 15 is even worse (but we should suspect this since we all know that sunscreens are toxic as hell):

Friends tell me that I have to try Aveeno. They use natural ingredients . . . like oatmeal.

I checked out Aveeno’s Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion, Sheer Hydration and found four “moderately” toxic ingredients.

Before we go (I’m sure you’re starting to get the picture here), we’d be remiss in not tipping our hats to the most famous name in moisturizers found in homes everywhere: Jergens.

Take a look at Jergens Ultra Healing Extra Dry Skin Moisturizer:

Since I’ve met Ron Salley, I’ve learned a hell of a lot about moisturizers, creams, and lotions. But the EWG database doesn’t have any of his products listed. So I took his ingredient list and looked up each individual ingredient and found bupkis (Jewish for “nothing”).

That is until I got to Vegetable Stearic Acid. The warning was very simple. It told me that Stearic Acid is a fatty acid that comes mainly from animals and PETA doesn’t like it being used in household products. Vegans and vegetarians too are up in arms over it.

But the thing is, Ron’s ingredient comes from a vegetable source and it isn’t even listed in the EWG database. Additionally, they give the stearic acid from animal fats a ranking of  ONE, or not toxic.

Vegetable stearic acid is used as an emulsifier and surfactant, but this needs explaining. An emulsifier is also a surfactant. It’s used to stabilize an emulsion. An emulsion is droplets of one liquid (water) within an oil which is not water-soluble. In other words, it fixes moisture inside of an oil to keep them from separating, because we all know that oil and water don’t mix.

A surfactant reduces the surface tension of a liquid. This means that it goes into your skin faster.

The rest of the ingredients in his Ultra Créme also get a ONE, and to put it in terms anyone can understand, the product is edible.

Not tasty, but edible. And why would you apply something to your skin, that will be absorbed by the skin that you wouldn’t put in your mouth?

Whether you drink them or put them on your skin, most creams and lotions are going into your body.

Quality

Not only are most moisturizers toxic, they’re made from crappy ingredients. It’s very simple: buy cheap sell high. Everyone who’s’ ever taken a business course knows that phrase.

Everyone also knows that the cheaper the ingredient the greater the profits.

As I’ve stated previously and will state one more time, you can take Ron’s recipes and duplicate them and they won’t work as well as his products, mainly because many of his ingredients are made especially for him according to his instructions, and in small batches.

For example, because I ship for Simply the Best, we have suppliers. We can buy in bulk. I can get a gallon of organic virgin apricot kernel oil for 66 cents per ounce (that’s about $84.00 per gallon).

Ron pays well over double that for his. His is extra, extra virgin and it’s extracted exactly according to his instructions. In fact, his suppliers all buy his products.

Our Minnesota Twins (baseball team) all use his products for cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Their trainer, Matt Biancuzzo, wrote that, “One player said he felt like the Heal-on was like epoxy and helped fill in the gaps of the cracks/blisters on his fingers.”

Let’s take a look at one more ingredient in some of his products: Tea Tree oil.

Tea tree used to come exclusively from Australia. But China got in the game by planting thousands of acres of the Melaleuca alternifolia tall shrub/tree. By the way, in Australia the tree is often called Snow in Summer because of the white flowers that burst forth.

From one of my distributors, I can get it from Australia for $1.50/oz if I buy a gallon. I can get that same gallon from China for about 13 cents/oz.

Ron gets his from Australia. The suppliers there follow his instructions, extracting the oil at a low temperature in small batches. He pays much more than I would through our distributors. He pays top-dollar. But it’s the best tea tree oil in the world and you cannot buy it anywhere. It’s exclusively his. (Because he invented the extraction method.)

So there you have it. You get what you pay for. Right? And Ron would fail a business class because he refuses to buy cheap and sell high. He buys the best and sells for what they’re worth to the people who use them.

Before You Moisturize

As always, your author/editor/raconteur has been scouring the web for advice from professionals and as always he’s found genuinely contradictory opinions everywhere. Interestingly enough, Harvard was the flakiest of all of them, recommending things that dermatologists at other sites were telling people not to do. Even Reader’s Digest had better suggestions.

So let’s start right at the beginning, where an holistic dermatologist would begin (is there such a thing as an holistic dermatologist?).

Your skin naturally moisturizes itself.

Normal, well-functioning skin keeps itself moist by producing ‘natural moisturizing factors’ (NMFs).  [Ref]

If your skin is too oily, you might be washing it too much because washing your skin with soap dries it out. So the skin rebels by making more oil. It was Reader’s Digest that told me to use an electronic brush (the type that Proactiv® offers in their package). The brush makes your “cleanser” work better and the brushing stimulates the skin.

Reader’s Digest also told me (I cannot believe I’m quoting Reader’s Digest) all about people who complain that their skin is always dry and moisturizers don’t work for them. Well, there are two answers to this one, but Reader’s Digest found a dermatologist for the first response:

“Sometimes moisturizers can’t do their job well because aging and/or sun-damaged skin has too many layers of dead cells built up, so the moisturizers can’t penetrate. A little gentle exfoliation should do the trick, then you moisturize.” —Ashley Magovern, MD [Readers Digest]

But there is a second response that is very important: You’re using your moisturizer too much.

And this can be for two different reasons. First, if the moisturizer is effective, the skin forgets how to soften itself. And if the creams contain waxy substances known as “occlusives,” (mostly petroleum products such as paraffin, mineral oil, or Vaseline), these keep your skin moist by locking in the water/perspiration. But the skin cannot breath. This clogs pores, builds wax, and in the end dries out your skin.

And as always, avoid hot showers. They dry your skin out. In the shower, using a soap with a moisturizer is also very smart because soap alone can dry your skin.

Care for Your Skin from the Inside Out

Yes, our skin is made from what we eat and drink. You cannot have moist skin if you’re dehydrated. So, hydrate. Eight or so glasses of water per day. And add something to the water to help hydration.

You can add Willard Water, Ionyte (colloidal minerals) or even Fred Kaufman’s latest product, pH-FX. These treat your water and make them more hydrating.

Make sure you get your Omega-3s. These are important to skin.

And finally, get your amino acids by consuming foods with collagen. These are good for skin, hair, and nails.

Vital Proteins have two products for hair, skin, and nails.

I’ve just received their Unflavored Collagen Peptides for joints, skin, hair, and nails (on the left). Why? I’m having knee problems, a torn meniscus (again) so I went to a session with a sports physician. We talked about my options, but he also showed me on my x-ray that I had a touch of arthritis. He was surprised I didn’t have more given how active I’ve been on the tennis courts, and I was surprised that I’d had any arthritis at all, but he explained that no matter what precautions I take, it comes with age. He said that luckily I have good genes.

Again, there are two Collagen Peptide products I’ve been looking at, which are great for hair, skin, and nails, but I figured I’d get the one also good for the joints.

I should also mention that our “happy” chemicals (dopamine, for example) are made up of amino acids, and one specific amino acid (Glycine) that controls and regulates dopamine levels is both of these products. There are 3, 719 mgs of Glycine in a single serving of both of these products. (See also: Nutrition and Depression (and Overall Mental Health)).

The other, a vanilla flavored one that aids digestion (which I just ordered the day after I started writing this) is a leap better for your skin because it contains hyaluronic acid and probiotics. It’s also quite pricey. It’s called Vanilla Collagen Peptides.

No matter what you put on the outside of your skin, it cannot help if your skin is undernourished from the inside.

How to Use a Moisturizer

So, you found one that’s safe and high-quality. Don’t worry about the price, because you’re not going to use it as much as you have previously. We are not going to take over the job of maintaining your skin so that your skin forgets how to do its job.

We need to mention humectants.

Humectants supposedly “pull” water from the air to keep you moist, at least in theory. Apply a humectant in the desert and it will pull water from your skin because there’s no water to be found in the air. Almost every good moisturizer comes with at least one humectant.

If you put your moisturizer on dry skin, the humectant will pull moisture from your skin and dry it out even further. In theory, it will slowly give you back that moisture as the day goes on and the humectant starts to vanish. This is the theory. But you’ve got evaporation and wind and all sorts of other factors in this equation. So the rule is this: You need to apply your moisturizer to damp skin. It’s that simple. The humectant will absorb the moisture and slowly return that to you as the day goes on, or at least for the next few hours.

I spray BACO on my skin before applying a moisturizer. If you don’t know what BACO is, simply it’s a germ-killing silver/oxygen product that has no equal. Period.

So, apply your moisturizer to moist skin, like right after your shower.

Ingredients

After reading the EWG reviews above on ingredients, I’m pretty sure you’re going to be a little more careful in choosing your next moisturizer.

Make sure your moisturizer contains only the best ingredients and the best oils. You don’t want any petroleum products or occlusives at the top of the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed in the order of from the most used in the product to the least used. If an occlusive is listed at the top, your moisturizer is mainly clogging your pores. They should be listed further on down, after some good, quality oils and nutrients. You want the quality oils and nutrients to penetrate your skin.

Occlusives block the evaporation of sweat. They keep you moist by holding in water. But your body was meant to sweat and believe it or not, sweating is just one natural method of moisturizing your skin. The problem is evaporation. However, the humectant will grab some of that moisture and pass it back as it starts to degrade and fade.

One huge solution to this is when you sweat, replace that liquid by drinking water. Just blanketing the skin and holding in water, in the long run, is not moisturizing your skin, nor is it keeping skin healthy enough to maintain itself. You must hydrate.

Here is a list of occlusives (from the most powerful on down): Petrolatum, lanolin, paraffin, mineral oil; and then, the silicones, such as Dimethicone and cyclomethicone.  Then you have the weakest ones,  cetyl alcohol (a fatty alcohol), lecithin, and stearic acid.

You want your skin to breathe, so again, make sure it’s not at the top of the ingredient list and find one that’s not as strong as those listed first.

And finally, don’t use too much. Because you’re moist, that moisture should thin your moisturizer allowing you to spread it out. You want to do this, at first, every other or every third day, and then taper off slowly so that you need to moisturize just once a week or once every two weeks.

And yes, if you’ve been out in the sun and swimming in salt water, go ahead and moisturize after you shower. Do it as needed and you’ll need it less.

Nourish Your Skin

What you put on your skin will go into your skin (except those heavy waxes), and so you want what you put on your skin to nourish your skin.

If you don’t have much money, you can purchase a single bottle of a single oil.

You could use coconut oil, or macadamia nut oil, or hemp oil. Anything that isn’t over-processed with lots of additives. Something that nourishes your skin. Spray your skin, then apply.

How to Apply a Moisturizer

Again, it’s simple. After a shower, with your skin moist, and even a bit wet (use a spray bottle). This way it will spread out your moisturizer.

Use just enough for a thin layer, spread evenly about.

If just starting, you can do this every other day for a bit, then do it a bit less frequently, and less frequently until you need it once a week or once every two weeks. Only you will know how much you need it, but not every day.

Ron Salley’s Miracle Skin™ Ultra Créme

If you’ve been with us a long time, you know that I think Ron’s stuff is just the best and I’ve not found better. You also know that I support Ron for very selfish reasons: I don’t want to lose access to his stuff. I take it with me on road trips. His stuff is in my bathroom, my bedroom and a bottle of Healon is right here on my desk. I love the stuff. And because I support him, I get FREEBIES!

Yes. It’s so damn good and I get freebies.

I think Lamborghini makes a hell of a car. But I’ll never get a freebie.

So, let me tell you about the Ultra Créme that Ron quit making till I told him, hey, Ron! Don’t stop making that stuff. I’ll find people who want it.

Here are the ingredients: Distilled Water, Apricot Kernel Oil, Kosher Vegetable Glycerin (the humectant), Vegetable Stearic Acid (emulsifier, surfactant, and light occlusive), Melaleuca Alternifolia (tea tree oil), Kosher d-Alpha Tocopherol  (Vitamin E), Unbleached Natural Beeswax, Avocado Oil, and Vitamin C.

Most of these ingredients nourish your skin. The Vitamin C really isn’t for you, although it is a sunscreen. It’s used as a preservative. Did you know that most preservatives are anti-oxidants? BHT and BHA, are both very powerful antioxidants. And Vitamin C helps preserve the cream. Once in the sun, the vitamin C will quickly dissipate. The unbleached natural beeswax also does what many companies use cheap chemicals to do and that’s just hold everything together and keep it from separating.

I’ve given away bottles of this for Christmas. I know that used properly, an eight-ounce bottle will last longer than six months.

And the company I ship for is the only company on the planet selling it.

But before I go, here’s a little story:

Every time I want a bottle of this I send Ron these 8-oz squeeze bottles. But when I told him we need to market this, he called me complaining that it was just too hard filling these damn little bottles with the product. It was too thick. One solution was to add more water and make it more of a lotion than a cream.

I suggested putting it into a ketchup squeezer, those red tubular things in restaurants, and then cutting the top off a bit to make the hole wider. They’ve even got wide mouths for easy filling. I told him I’d do a little research.

I found something on Amazon I thought would work, and for some reason I decided to look at the spot where they say; People who bought the crap you’re buying also bought this crap…and there it was.

A cake decorator. Really easy to fill and I could just squeeze the cream out into bottles.

So, as I write this, Ron is sending me a half-gallon of his Ultra, and it’s MY job to fill the little 8-ounce bottles.

Just what I needed. Another job.

Oh, and here’s a link where you can get some with FREE shipping until May 16, 2018: Ultra.

This Just In

Ron decided to modify the way he makes his Ultra, and la viola, he solved the problem of filling the bottles. All he did was modify the temperature at which he mixed a few different ingredients and it came out less thick and more liquidy. It’s almost like a lotion, yet it has the same ingredients, and the formula hasn’t been modified at all. He was so elated he woke me up with a phone call. Now I can “pour” it into the bottles. And it will be easier to apply a thin layer after a shower.

Reader’s Responses

Apparently I’m terrible at marketing. I just like to read and write take pretty pictures. But friends and readers are responding with some pretty good suggestions.

One wrote, “Hey, David, why don’t you tell them about the Body Wash you make with Ron’s moisturizer in it?”

Duh.

Okay, I start with an organic castile soap (if you’re a good shopper, you can find it online for about 40 cents per ounce), but then I infuse it with dehydrated aloe vera powder so that each ounce of soap is infused with an ounce of aloe vera, and then I blend in one ounce of Ron’s Ultra, which retailed for $16.00 per ounce, when he sold it. And of course, now he’s making it available to our readers only in an 8 oz bottle.

You can find the Body Wash here: Simply the Best’s Body Wash. And here is a newsletter that shows how we make it up: Newsletter.

Another friend wrote, “Hey, why not show that wonderful testimonial? The lady from Belgium who had the eczema.”

Okay, why not. Here it is in full.

“David hooked me up with Lam cream. I had been suffering terribly from eczema on my right hand. I couldn’t even use my hand for months. It was cracked and bleeding continuously despite several visits to the best dermatologist in the area and pricey cortisone creams. Absolutely nothing worked that I tried or that was prescribed. David told me about Lam cream and sent it all the way over to Belgium for me. After TWO days there was a HUGE improvement. After two weeks, you could only see tiny traces of dry skin. So after nearly a full year of terrible suffering, LAM cream had me on the mend after two days! I’m SO grateful for this recommendation and with conviction ask everyone to try it.” ~ Lisa Troch  (see images below)