Raw Facial Soaps/Creams

[jamesey]

I've found a site seling Raw Facial products like cleansers, soaps, creams etc, but the ones im interested in buying all seem to have cocoa butter in them. Now i don't eat cacao as a food as I don't want to to consume any caffienne. So with this product containing cocoa butter in there soap and cleanser, is there caffienne in the cocoa butter, and if so, would this be absorbed into the body?

[GlimR]

I could be wrong but I don't think there is any caffeine in the butter.

[annavon]

I fount this on the web:

Cocoa powder
Cocoa powder contains caffeine. Depending on the degree of fermentation and the type of cocoa beans, the caffeine content will vary from 0.1-0.5%. In cocoa powders made from well fermented African cocoa beans the caffeine proportion is in general very low: 0.1% or less.

Chocolate
Levels of caffeine range from 2 to 23 milligrams in a typical 40 gram bar of milk chocolate and from 2 to 7 milligrams in a 227 gram glass of chocolate milk; both are the equivalent of that found in cups of decaffeinated coffee. A 28 gram piece of bittersweet (dark) chocolate contains from 5 to 35 milligrams of caffeine, still well under the approximately 75 milligrams of caffeine found in a 227 gram cup of instant coffee or the 140 milligrams found in the same amount of brewed coffee

Cocoa butter
A study by Kiefer & Martin to determine the amounts of caffeine and theobromine in chocolate products found only small amounts of theobromine (0.008%) and caffeine (0.038%) in cocoa butter.

References:
The cocoa manual. Cacao de Zaan, 1993, p 91-92)
Chocolate and health. A scientific overview for the health professional. Chocolate Manufacturers Association of the USA, 1997

In other words, it contains an extremely small amount of caffeine in comparison to chocolate and other substances.

[klomasius]

I now pretty much don't use anything on my facer and body that I can't eat.

The only thing Iuse occasioanlly on my body is Dr Bronner's Liquid soap.

For my face I use a rotation of:

warm water and a face cloth: everyday for cleansing.

biocarb soda: as a facial scrub and cleanser

green clay: for deep cleansing of pores on the face

pawpaw: for removal of dead skin.

Works like a charm! I don't use soap on my face any more. :)

[coco]

caffeine is incredible for your skin, it's an anti-inflamatory (puffy eyes, cellulite), antioxidant free-radical scavenger, and reduces the effects of sun damage. using it topically is not the same as consuming it internally.
coffee grounds make an amazing body scrub. they just throw that stuff away too, you could be bathing in gourmet organic fair trade grounds every day if you wanted to, just gotta ask at any good cafe and they'd hand it right over.

i don't want to put it in my mouth but coffee also makes for a terrific enema.

http://curezone.com/art/read.asp?ID=28&db=5&C0=818

[jamesey]

thanks for the replies.. i am going to order some. i haven't used anything on my face for a few years now but it can still get dry so its time to try something topically!

[Veganelle]

thanks for the replies.. i am going to order some. i haven't used anything on my face for a few years now but it can still get dry so its time to try something topically!

It seems to me like you could probably spend a lot of money ordering raw soaps and moisturizers. Why not try using coconut oil as a moisturizer instead? I use it and I love it.

As far as a cleanser goes, for about 5 months I have been making my own body/face/hair soap out of flax seeds. It's so simple.... just finely grind two tablespoons of flax seeds and put into an old shampoo bottle. Add one cup of water and a few drops of an essential oil (lemon is nice). Shake it up and in about an hour it will thicken up. After one week I throw the remainder away and make a new batch. I have been using this stuff exclusively to wash everything from my hair on down and it works great. It is also excellent for shaving... better than any store bought shaving gel I've ever used.

[klomasius]

Thanks Veganelle, I think I'll give that one a try!

[Veganelle]

Thanks Veganelle, I think I'll give that one a try!

I hope you like it. I got the idea from a book called Uncooking with Raw Rose.

It doesn't lather in the hair, but you just massage it in to the scalp. You really have to rinse like crazy or you will still have flax in your hair when you get out of the shower (but it just falls out when it dries).

[klomasius]

Pssht! I need no lather, I dont use anything except bicarb soda and ACV so I never expect lather anyway.

I only put anything other than warm water on my hair maybe once every two weeks. I just rinsed with bicarb soda (gets rid of grease and increases shine and bounce) a couple of days ago, so in about a week's time I'll try the flax prep on my hair, but will try it on my body sooner. :)

[Tishi]

I love Dr. Bronner's Organic Lavender soap!

[cara4art]

I haven't had experience lately with natural cleansers other than removing some makeup with olive oil(works like a charm)and then cleansing with my regular bland drugstore cleanser, since I do wear a bit of makeup. However, if one is not wearing any makeup at all either by habit, or just want to give the skin a rest from it, simple cleansers like a combo of ground-up oatmeal flakes, flax seeds and powdered milk(not vegan, but a mild source of lactic acid for skin smoothing) work very nicely for cleansing, followed by a simple toner made of half and half raw apple cider vinegar and water. If you have drier more sensitive skin, you could cut that proportion to 1/4 ACV to 3/4 water. Nice masks can be made from the ground-up oatmeal, aloe vera and honey for skin soothing(especially good if you've run into trouble from irritations), or the oatmeal, honey, ACV with a tiny pinch of powdered Vitamin C for a mild peel. Olive oil, honey and finely-ground sugar or baking soda for another nice scrub too. For other stuff, shea butter and coconut oil are fab! I make my own shea butter-coconut oil combo that's all-purpose - I've been using this on my face as a night cream for the last year or so, as well as an occasional intense pre-shampoo treatment(since I have naturally-curly, color-treated hair). My husband has been using this for the last 8 years or so for his dry itchy skin that literally NOTHING else helped. A friend of mine used this on her elderly ailing cat's tummy to soothe and heal dry irritated skin. Seemed to calm the cat too, as my combo has lavender essential oil in it, and vegetable glycerin. I use straight coconut oil on my body - no lotion even comes close, and it is so simple and cheap too, since I get my coconut oil out of the wet bulk bin here at my co-op in SF. Sometimes I'll use the shea-coconut combo on my feet and elbows, or lower legs when they are feeling extra-dry.
Best way to have very clean products, is to first simplify your needs(unless you have some situation going on that really does require seeing the dermatologist), and learn how to use simple natural stuff, either straight, or some simple combos like what I mentioned above. There are tons of natural recipes that you can do at home with common kitchen ingredients - have fun with these - at least a couple of these might be just the ticket! Heck, even applying some pineapple juice to a clean face for a while, and then washing it off helps, or a mashed strawberry mask! That's what I've been doing for a good while now, and you know exactly what's in your product, not to mention you're saving some serious cash over a period of time. Personally, I would feel very uneasy about putting a commercial lotion all over my body, since I work hard at following a clean diet and exercise. It only makes sense to feed the skin good stuff too, and a whole lot less damaging to boot. All this anti-aging stuff they're pushing out there on women, wait until they find out in 10 years or so that these industrial-strength creams and fillers cause bone cancer or something...
Bottom-line, the REAL anti-aging treatment starts with your fork or spoon, whatever, and we know what that is here!

[rawkchicster]

I love Dr. Bronner's Organic Lavender soap!

ditto :) We use Dr. Bronners (lavendar) for almost everything.. my hubbie gets pretty upset when we run out!

[Mikey_H]

I've been really getting into routine "self-meditation" outer cleanses lately, and I'm beginning to feel some improvements in my skin but also the way my muscles feel. I feel more flexible but more importantly a little more calm. I'm taking better to the little frustrations in daily life and am starting to think and run my day towards time for the outdoors and deep thinking.
I think part of it is the time with myself to routinely take a quiet and dark time at night (especially after days with intense physical activity), strech and get all those kinks out, then go through a set of homemade cleansing/healing routines followed by a lot more breathing and streching at the end of the day. It's like I got to know myself better in a sense of awareness of what's going on with my body and mind... and you feel like you had an awesome at home spa experience.

Anyway, that's just my experience lately.
Just to throw it out there, I also like to use exfoliating mixtures with sea salt or organic cane sugar. One I just made and used last night was a mix of plentiful organic cane sugar and "skin sauce(?)" made of cucumber, good amount of coconut/olive oil, some local honey, tad lemon juice, and drop of spearmint oil for aroma - all processed finely into a green cream, mixed with the sugar (or sea salt when preferred).
Exfoliated, massaged and stretched, getting very clean and breathing routinely for a while in the steamed bathroom, then I just wash it right off in hot water and make sure to get all reside off, cause then I do a "body feast" where I take another mixture I made to rub on, sooth and dry onto the body (I just did the face last night)
I make that mask from a perfectly ripe avocado, mash it to a fine cream and squeeze some orange juice along with some local honey.
It's amazing how it just dries and after washing it off it can feel like silk all over and the mind is cleared
Plus I have an Aloe Vera plant on the porch that I just go out and rub in it's gel as an end.

I notice when I'm at the grocers now the back of my head looks for foods that can have some good topical uses as well.