Vitamins for Your Skin

When picking the right skin product it is a good idea to check the ingredients to see if it has the right skin nourishing combination. Good product should contain most if not all of following vitamins to keep skin supple and healthy:

a) Vitamin A

Vitamin A is in charge of maintenance and repair of vital skin tissue, and is the key to healthy skin. Lack of vitamin A can cause skin dryness and wrinkles.

b) Vitamin B Complex

Vitamin B complex contains the nutrient, biotin, which forms the basis of nails, skin, and hair cells. It is anti-inflammatory, it hydrates the skin cells and gives a healthy glow to skin.

c) Vitamin C

In skin, vitamin C can help collagen production. This in turn reduces wrinkles, improves skin texture, and reduces photo damage.

d) Vitamin E

The trick to getting soft touchable skin is vitamin E. It regenerates skin and can improve appearance of acne scars.

e) Vitamin K

Vitamin K is your secret weapon to fighting dark circles and bruises. This vitamin helps fade discolorations on the skin, reducing puffiness and dark circles that so many of us suffer from.

While off the shelf cosmetic product can come packed with artificially synthesized vitamin groups, you really want to go as organic as possible. Organically sourced vitamins absorb into skin better and are more potent bringing better overall skin benefits.  Whenever possible choose the facial products that source vitamins from organic ingredients.

When it comes down to your skin, healthier is better. Please check out our  great selection of organic products at Nina Bella Organic Collection.

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Olive Oil for Beautiful Hair

For centuries, olive oil has been Mediterranean women beauty secret. Tanned supple skin, glowing faces, and voluptuous silky hair all have one thing in common – olive oil.  Good for you not just inside but for the outside, olive oil is one of the best ways to make anyone into a bronzed healthy looking stunner. It is without a doubt one of nature most important sources of natural beauty.

If you have brittle, dull, lifeless hair you want to consider adding olive oil in your weekly hair care regiment. Olive oil is rich with vitamins and minerals that nourish your scalp and it has naturally occurring waxes that soften and moisturize skin and hair. Waxes make olive oil similar to skin and hair natural oil so it is easy to absorb and great for moisturizing skin, hair and scalp.

Here is one of our favorite easy to make olive oil hair treatments:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup mineral water
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Add lemon juice to honey and mix well. Add mineral water and mi well. Mix in olive oil.  Massage ready mix into hair starting with hair ends to roots, massage into scalp, cover with stretch film and leave for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, rinse well, shampoo and wash per need. Discards left over treatment. Always prepare and use fresh. For longer hair double the ingredients measurements.

Nina Bella Collection thanks you for visiting our blog – stop by often for more great tips, great products and new solutions in organic and natural skin and hair care.

Olive Oil in Beauty Care

Olive oil, not just a great salad topping is actually good for your skin. Succulent little plant of mixed origin, olive oil has been known in Asia Minor in the 6th millennium, Turkey in the 4th millennium and Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium. It is one of nature’s little treasures that has earned and kept its reputation for being simply a great product of great quality with great benefits.

Olive oil is extracted from ripe fruits of olive trees, by mechanical or chemical means. What makes olive oil so great is unique combination of fatty acids (oleic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid, stearic acid and triacylglycerols) , esters(oleocanthal and oleuropein), polyphenols (tyrosol,hydroxytyrosol, oleuropein, ligstroside, apigenin,  luteolin, coumaric acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid,cinnamic acid and many more), hydrocarbons (squalene, carotenoids, lycopene, phenanthrene, anthracene and pyrene), sterols (phytosterol and tocosterols) and vitamins (vitamin E, vitamin K). Which basically boils down to fats, carbs, waxes, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, antibacterials and vitamins. And voila – easy to understand formula for easy to use ingredient equally popular in kitchen and beauty care.

In beauty care, olive oil can be used in great many ways. It is rich in antioxidants which prevents skin damage, smooths out and prevent wrinkles. High vitamin content means olive oil makes skin nourished supple and toned, making it a logical if not always obvious choice for creams and body mists. Because it has natural waxes, olive oil is easily absorbed and is a great moisturizer and often used in nail care products and lotions. Olive oil is anti-inflammatory so it is safe to use even for irritated and acne prone skin and it helps skin remain hydrated while keeping pores debris free and open. Want a cheap antibacterial makeup remover? Try some olive oil on a clean cotton pad – you will love the results!

Weak nails, dry skin, wrinkles, irritations, brittle hair, chapped lips, makeup gunk, bad cuticles, dead cell build up – olive oils solves it all. And more!

Ask us about our new and upcoming organic olive oil products and our organic olive oil – Nina Bella Collection is always there for you!

How to Pick Good Carrier Oils: Look at the Label

Carrier oil, popular organic bath and beauty product additive, is plant oil derived from the fatty portion of a plants, usually seeds, kernels or the nuts. Great way to make sure your bath and beauty products have an edge is to use high quality carrier oils. There are few things to watch out for when choosing good carrier oil. Viscosity, color and aroma are obvious things to look for but they do not tell the whole story. Content, stability and extraction process is what really reflects carrier oil quality.

High quality carrier oil is very stable and does not go rancid easily. Tendency of carrier oil to go rancid is determined by its antioxidants, minerals and fatty acids content. The more antioxidants carrier oil has, the more it is protected from oxidation and less likely to go bad. The more fatty acids carrier oil has the more stable it is and less likely to spoil. So you really want to look at that label and pick carrier oils with good antioxidant, mineral and fatty acid content. Another thing that is important is how carrier oil was extracted. Extraction method directly reflects carrier oil quality as it affects percentage of fatty acids and antioxidants lost during production. The more stress carrier oil is put under during extraction, such as heat, chemicals and over-processing, the greater antioxidants, mineral and fatty acid loss, the lower the stability and the lower the quality.

Carrier oils are extracted by one of three common extractions:

a)       Cold extraction

b)       Hot extraction

c)       Solvent extraction

Each yields vastly different quality of carrier oils.

Cold extraction yields carrier oil by ‘cold pressing’ of plant’s seeds, kernels or nuts. While individual industrial setup may vary, most commonly plant seeds, kernels and nuts are placed in a horizontal press with a rotating screw known as an ‘expeller’ and pressed around until carrier oil is squeezed out. Heat generated due to pressing friction is negligible, so loss of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals is minimal. After cold extraction, carrier oil is filtered and sold as a finished product. Because it takes time an effort to extract carrier oil while preserving ingredients that give it high quality, cold extraction is restricted to relatively small scale production. Consequently carrier oil extracted though this process is costly but has the highest quality.

Hot extraction is one of the most wide spread and widely used large scale industrial carrier oil processes. As the name implies it uses heat to get carrier oil from plant’s seeds, kernels or the nuts. Along with friction pressing of seeds, kernels or the nuts hot extraction uses high heat to increase the ease, the speed of the yield of extracted carrier oil. The temperatures used can reach up to 200° C which destroys and decreases the concentration of important antioxidants, minerals and fatty acids in carrier oil. This in turn decreases the quality of carrier oil. The final product is cooled off, bottled, often adjusted with industrial preservatives. Because of high yield and record time to produce carrier oil, hot extraction process is very affordable, fast and popular and therefore widely used. The carrier oil it generates is of lower quality as it has a low concentration of benefit giving antioxidants, minerals and fatty acids.

The third carrier oil production method is solvent extraction. Instead of using plant’s seeds, kernels and nuts, this method uses waste products, ‘cakes’ of compressed plant material, left over from cold and hot extraction. There cakes are re-processed and treated with solvents to extract that left over carrier. The solvents used further destroy and decrease the concentration of important antioxidants, minerals and fatty acids. This means the end product is carrier oil of the lowest quality. To enhance shelf life, appearance and aroma, carrier oil extracted by this method is re-heated again, refined, deodorized, bleached, and preservatives and vitamins added, then bottled off and shipped to market. By far the cheapest way to produce carrier oil, solvent extraction is as affordable and as popular as hot extraction. These highly refined, solvent extracted oils usually end up on supermarket shelves for use in cooking and totally unsuitable to use in organic and natural beauty care and aromatherapy.

Your best bet is to go for cold extracted carrier oils as they have highest quality due to minimal antioxidants and fatty acid loss. As much as possible, avoid carrier oils extracted by chemical and heat processing. They have low quality due to moderate to significant antioxidants and fatty acids loss. For the most nourishing, highest quality, carrier oils your best bet is go to retailers and suppliers that specialize in natural skin care ingredients and products.

For more great tips, ideas and great variety of products made with high quality carrier oils feel free check Nina Bella Collection organic and natural products. Ask us about our high quality organic carrier oils – we will be more than happy to share!

Carrier Oils in Organic and Natural Bath and Beauty Products

Carrier oils are plant oils derived from the fatty portion of a plants and vegetables, usually seeds, kernels or the nuts. In appearance, they differ in color, aroma and viscosity. In viscosity carrier oil can be thin to thick, with thin oils often used in massage treatments and thick in creams, body butters and lotions. In color, they range from clear to dark green or brown. Scent can be odorless or have a mild sweet or gentle nutty aroma. Carrier oils with a strong, bitter aroma, however, are to be avoided – strong bitter aroma means carrier oil has gone rancid.

Rich in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, carrier oils have a wide range of characteristics and benefits and are known to soften and improve skin condition, soothe irritated, sensitive skin, ease skin rashes, eczema and psoriasis and reduce wrinkles and scar tissue. Great for blending, diluting and suspending ingredients, carrier oils are commonly used in organic and natural beauty products. Natural and organic concentrates, actives and essential oils are very potent and if applied to the skin undiluted can cause skin irritation. To be used safely, essential oils, actives and other concentrated aromatics must be diluted in carrier oils. Carrier oils do not change beneficial properties of organic concentrates, actives and essential oils and make their absorption into skin and body easier and faster.

Carrier oils are great moisturizers and very popular in organic and natural bath products. Many organic and natural hair treatments, shampoos and conditioners have carrier oils. Mixing carrier oils with essential oils and botanicals are a great way to come up with a custom mix that suits the needs of any hair type.

Lastly carrier oils are often added to organic and natural soap formulas to maximize moisturizing properties of soap. By process called superfatting, extra carrier oil is added either at the beginning or at the end of soap making process. Extra oil results remains unsaponified, and when soap is used, it glides, sticks to and moisturizes the skin, making it supple and hydrated. A nice trick and yet another great application of carrier oil in organic and natural bath and beauty care.

All that is the reason you will often find carrier oils in and organic and natural bath and beauty products such as lotions, creams, body butters, lip balms, lotions, soaps, shampoos, massage oils and many more.  From a simple essential oil/carrier massage oil blends to more complex body butters, creams, lotion and bath products, careful choice of carrier oil can make a difference in the product properties, color, aroma and shelf life.

Most popular carrier oils in organic and skin care industry are:

• Sweet Almond Oil
• Apricot Kernel Oil
• Avocado Oil
• Borage Seed Oil
• Camellia Seed Oil
• Cranberry Seed Oil
• Evening Primrose Oil
• Fractionated Coconut Oil
• Grapeseed Oil
• Hazelnut Oil
• Hemp Seed Oil
• Jojoba Oil
• Kukui Nut Oil
• Macadamia Nut Oil
• Meadowfoam Oil
• Olive Oil
• Peanut Oil
• Pecan Oil
• Pomegranate Seed Oil
• Rose Hip Oil
• Seabuckthorn Berry Oil
• Sesame Oil
• Sunflower Oil
• Watermelon Seed Oil

 To read about specific benefits of each of wonderful carrier oils, check back with Nina Bella Collection weekly.

Dry Skin Formula

Dry skin comes with its own unique set of challenges. Flakiness, dry patches, wrinkles and irritation are just tip of the iceberg, and dermatitis, itchy rashes and eczema are real issues. The fact is dry skin care requires advanced moisturizing care. There are plenty of choices out there. There are also plenty of chemicals you will be exposed to when using industrial moisturizing creams. In the long run that may bring more damage then good. This is why more and more people turn to natural dry skin care.

Once again, by a rule of thumb, turn to natural plant and essential oils. Plant oils are a perfect mix of antioxidants that protect skin, vitamins and minerals that nourish skin and natural moisturizers that keep skin well hydrated. And you do not have to worry about chemicals or harmful additives. Plus creating your own dry skin formula can be fun and will not break the bank.

When coming up with your own dry skin formula, do your research. You want to select oils based on benefits suited to your particular dry skin issue, that being patchiness, flakiness or – yes – eczema. This way you can customize your formula by aroma, consistency and particular concern you might have. Sweet orange oil, a powerful moisturizing agent is the best place to start. Add a mix of two or more plant oils and some essential oils and voila – you are there. It is that easy.

Here is an easy starter dry skin formula to try:

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup grape seed oil

¼ cup jojoba oil

1 tablespoon sweet orange essential oil

Mix olive, grape seed and jojoba oil together. Add sweet orange essential oil and mi well. Apply a small quantity of ready formula over dry skin and massage in until absorbed. Repeat three to four times a week or best results. Store formula in dry place, away from sun.

Compliments of Nina Bella Collection – your Canadian organic bath and beauty care manufacturer.

Beauty with Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender is a perennial aromatic evergreen shrub with violet-blue spike-like flowers. It is often found and therefore believed to have been adapted to dry climate. It is commonly found in western half of Mediterranean. Historically there is evidence that its existence is recorded as far back as Roman times and that Roman and Benedictine monks might have introduced it to the rest of the Europe. Its name is derived from Latin Lavare, which means “to wash”, due to its aroma and natural cleansing properties. Lavender essential oils scent is floral, fresh, sweet, herbaceous and sometimes slightly fruity.

There are several varieties of Lavender which can cause confusion over the names of the various species. The favorite and most widely used is Lavandula officinalis, also called Lavandula angustifolia, or Lavandula vera. Lavender essential oil potency varies with terrain altitude and dryness. Higher altitudes produce sharper and fresher oil while lower produce sweeter and softer oils. The finest quality lavender oils are grown in dry conditions at altitude between 700 and 1400 meters.

Lavender essential oil is obtained by distillation from the flower spikes of certain species of lavender. Two forms are distinguished, lavender flower oil, colorless oil, insoluble in water, and lavender spike oil, a distillate from the herb Lavandula latifolia, each with its distinct benefits and applications. Each is a variable mix of linalool (51%), linalyl acetate (35%), α-pinene, limonene, 1,8-cineole, cis- and trans-ocimene, 3-octanone, camphor, caryophyllene, terpinen-4-ol and lavendulyl acetate, which give lavender its natural benefits and heady scent.

The benefits of lavender essential oil include its ability to relieve nervous tension, pain, disinfect scalp and skin, enhance blood circulation and treat respiratory problems, which is why it is used in the production of perfumes and in aromatherapy. As strong antiseptic and antifungal agent lavender essential oil is also used to treat various skin disorders such as acne, wrinkles, psoriasis, and other inflammations. It heals wounds, cuts, burns, and sunburns, reduces scar tissue formation and is very effective in treating eczema. All this is the reason why lavender essential oil has followed its natural evolution to favorite bath and beauty product additive.

As with many other essential oils, moderation is the key and pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid using lavender essential oil. It may also cause allergic reactions to people having sensitive skin.

And did you know that lavender essential also repels mosquitoes? It does! Next time you feel like taking a nice leisurely walk, dab on some lavender scented product, relax and enjoy your walk and forget heavy expensive chemical based insect repellents.

To hear more about beneficial properties of natural essential oils, read Nina Bella Collection weekly updates and try our very own lavender products, today.