News — Aging & skincare

We are skincare chefs at Dulse & Rugosa.  We enjoy food- eating and cooking so making handcrafted skincare is a natural transition.  For nourishing and hydrating your skin we make both butters and oils.  What's the difference?

Butters are whipped and similar to a lovely butter creme frosting on top of a luscious  cake.

Body oils are blended and compare to a well crafted salad dressing.  Especially if your summers are hot and muggy or while traveling botanical oils are perfect. Why?  They don't melt.  You can leave them in the car, pop them in a suitcase and keep you summer skin hydrated, moisturized while looking and feeling great.

Body oils are super easy to use.  As with most natural skincare products they work best on slightly damp skin.  Apply after your shower or bath and give about 5 minutes for the oil to be absorbed.  Our Hydrating Body Oil is a careful blend of oils designed to be quickly absorbed into your skin with the added benefits of botanicals indigenous to the coast of Maine.

Our newest product our Face Serum is a fresh bouquet of flowers for your face. Designed for faces that need extra love by way of moisture it's very beneficial when used before bed.  If water is one of the first ingredients listed on your current face creme you'll be pleasantly surprised by how little of our Face Serum you need to feel wonderful.  

Adding botanical oils to your skincare routine won't just benefit your skin but also your overall well being.  Our Hydrating Body Oil is a walk in Acadia National Park, with hand picked botanicals added to each bottle.   Rose petals, chamomile and Irish Moss are simply lovely.  Take a few extra moments to gently massage oils into your skin and enjoy a few moments of aromatherapy bliss.  Sometimes in our busy, stressful lives we forget how beneficial it can be to our overall mental well being to do a small but significant act for ourselves.  Make body oils a part of your summer skin care routine and enjoy some happy.

At farm markets I talk to a lot of customers about making changing in their skincare routines.  Usually someone is drawn to our products because they have a skin problem and are looking for a solution. Itchy scalp draws people to our Maine Seaweed rich shampoo bars.  Our Seaweed rich Island Face Scrub is appealing to women sick of breaking out way past their teenage years.  There is so much information that making skincare changes can be confusing.  

If you’re wanting to bring nature into your skincare routine here are three tips to follow-

• Listen to your body
• Give it time
• Don’t be afraid to experiment

Be the Boss of Your Body

You need to know and pay attention to your body so you can decide if a product works for you.  Everybody’s different and our bodies don’t react or respond in the same way.  Think about it like this- there can be a wide variety of factors that cause a skin ailment and even if a particular plant is known to have healing properties it might not be for you.  Perhaps you are allergic to an ingredient or you don’t like how it feels.  Then that product is not for you.  You have to be the judge.  It might be a great product but just not the right fit.  Very similar to falling in love with an outfit only to try it on and “Ugh”- great look just not on you.

Also as our bodies change, our skincare routine needs to change too.  As we age we often find we need more moisture to stop our skin from feeling so dry. This mean we need to find lotions and cremes that contain super moisturizing oils.  Seasons can also signal it’s time to alter our routine.  Summer skin needs to be exfoliated and in winter we definitely need to be making sure we are putting on lots of nourishing oils.

Time is on Your Side

Natural products can take awhile to work.  When someone is buying a shampoo bar I always talk about giving their hair time to detox.  It often can take two weeks for a new products nourishing effects to be fully noticed.  This is why you have to “know your body” so you can judge if a products is working for you.

Be Goldilocks to Find What’s Right For You

The great benefit of using natural skin products is how flexible they can be.  If your products are plant and natural oil based- that means no toxic ingredients then you can use them in a variety of different ways.  One example, when traveling I pack our Seaweed Shampoo Bar- it’s my shampoo, soap and I find it’s great to shave my legs with.  Another example, I use our Sweet Island Face Oil as a face cleaner, a friend mixes it with our Rose Petal Face Creme because she wants just a bit more moisture and a customer keeps her face happy by using it as a night creme on her face.  Another way to experiment is to play around with how often you use a product.  Maybe once a day is too much but once a week is just right.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered who that person was?  I know the process of aging takes time but somewhere in our 30’s to 40’s our skin- especially our face starts to change.  Our ability to produce natural oil decreases and our face after cleaning can often feel crackly and dry.  

My nightly ritual involves giving myself a gentle and cleansing facial with our Sweet Island Oil.  There are many benefits of using oil over a mainstream face cleaner.  The first thing I notice is how my face doesn’t have that dry, crackly feeling after washing.  In fact, I don’t exactly wash my face, rather I steam clean.  

Here’s my technique for a clean, fresh ready for bed face.

For a nightly spa treatment (and stress reliever) pour a small amount of oil (about dime sized) onto your palms.  Warm the oil by gently rubbing your hands together.  Massage the oil into your face using upward strokes.  Rinse a washcloth under hot water (as hot as you can stand), ringing out excess water.  Gently lay the cloth over your face.  Close your eyes, breath deeply, think of something wonderful and beautiful as the cloth cools down to room temperature.  For a truly relaxing experience, warm the washcloth again and place over your face.  Sweet dreams!

At Dulse & Rugosa, we begin the process of creating our powerful yet pampering oil by infusing virgin olive oil with hand harvested Maine rose hips.  Rose hips are the fruit of the rose plant and our rose hips begin to ripen in Autumn.  We love rose hips because they nourish and protect our skin and work to tone and soften our face.  We love olive oil because it is rich in antioxidants and doesn't clog up pores.  

 We also use rose hip oil, which is made from the hips.  This is one of the best oils for our skin, especially as we get older.  It’s high in essential fatty acids.  These essential nutrients help rejuvenate, regenerate and reduce inflammation.  Basically helping to keep our skin hydrated and supple.

Finally, we blend in a small  amount of Castor Oil.  This is an essential oil for cleansing the skin.  With Castor, a little goes a long way.  It’s a thick, rich oil that blends beautifully to create a powerful, hydrating botanically rich oil.  

It’s best to give yourself an oil cleansing facial before bed.  There is no need to deep clean in the morning- you want to get rid of the day’s stress and debris as well as begin to relax.  If your skin is feeling especially dry as you start your day, massage a few drops on your face and wait a few minutes before applying sunscreen or makeup.