Aloe Vera: The Plant of Immortality
By now you have most likely heard that aloe vera is good for sunburns, right? While that is most certainly true, aloe vera is also known to alleviate a multitude of skin concerns from acne to moisturizing dry skin.
Also known as “the plant of immortality,” aloe vera is a green succulent with triangle shaped leaves with spikes on the sides. It has “an inner clear gel that contains 99% water and rest is made of glucomannans, amino acids, lipids, sterols and vitamins” (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). It is the inner gel that is harvested and used on the skin. The gel has anti-inflammatory properties and locks in moisture. “Aloe stimulates fibroblast which produces the collagen and elastin fibers making the skin more elastic and less wrinkled” which makes for the perfect ingredient in skin care (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
Why I use aloe vera
When I first heard about how aloe vera is beneficial for beautiful skin I went out and purchased my first one. It’s not a hard plant to grow & like most succulents does not need to be watered often. After time it will start to grow “pups” or what I call “babies.” You can then replant the pups and grow another aloe vera plant. It really is a present that keeps on giving.
It’s also really easy to harvest aloe vera. Simply cut the leaf off from towards the base of the plant vertically, slice off the sides where the spikes are, cut down the middle horizontally, then scoop out the clear gel from the middle. You can use the gel topically straight from the leaf, blend it in a processor, strain it or dry & powder it.
I started using my aloe vera plants for acne a few years back and boy did I see a difference in my skin after just a short amount of time most likely because aloe vera contains salicylic acid (known to help eliminate acne). Incorporating aloe vera into my skin care routine helped to clear my acne.
Here are the ways I’ve used aloe vera topically:
Hair deep conditioning treatment (used alone, mixed with conditioner/coconut oil/coconut milk)
Healed large carpet burn (I bit it at the comedy club and it left a large carpet burn on my knee. I stuck the gel from the leaf on my skin directly)
Acne spot treatment (store blended aloe vera gel in a container in the fridge & smooth small amount onto skin & let dry)
Face mask (added to bentonite clay mask)
Facial moisturizer (used the same way as acne spot treatment)
Added to soap (helps soaps moisturizing & cleansing properties)
Added to body cream (helps body cream lock in moisture)
Luckily my acne has cleared, but I still use aloe vera in all of the above ways. I’ve added aloe vera to our soaps and body cream for others to enjoy the moisturizing benefits.
Let me know how you use aloe vera in the comments below and check out our aloe vera infused soap here and our aloe vera based body cream here.
Xoxo Sharice