Happy June Skin Actives Family!

Memorial Day has come and gone (and all the packages from this year’s Memorial Day Sale have been shipped out as well), and the unofficial start of summer is officially here. 

Taking Care of Stretch Marks

Rachel returns with another new DIY recipe that you can do at home, this week we’re looking at stretch marks. 

Stretch marks are a challenge that can affect anyone, but that can have a particularly heavy impact on self esteem for women after pregnancy. That said, after the last two years of weight loss and weight gain in extremely anxious conditions, there are probably a lot of people from every gender who might be feeling like they would want less stretch marks than more.

Stretch marks occur when the mass beneath the skin changes rapidly causing distortion. This stretching of the skin can happen for a number of reasons, but pregnancy and weight gain due to overeating are probably the most common. 

New stretch marks present as uneven red bands in the areas where the weight gain is most obvious. This is usually on the sides of the waist and where the shoulder meets the breast, but are not uncommon on the stomach, upper arms, or legs.

As stretch marks age, they will lose their red coloration, returning to the color of the skin around them, but will maintain an uneven texture. Stretch marks are potentially unsightly but don’t come with other risks or concerns. It is possible that they will fade away over time, but also possible that they will simply be there indefinitely.

Two Part DIY Stretch Mark Relief 

For today’s DIY project, you are going to be dissolving some actives in heated oil. We suggest you read our DIY Ceramide Cream for Advanced Users blog beforehand.

To address stretch marks Rachel recommends a two-step process that contains a Soothing Night Cream and a Skin Repair Oil.

To make these two great products, you will need:

Soothing Night Cream

Skin Repair Oil

Preparing Your Soothing Night Cream

This one is very easy!

1. Empty the contents of the European Base Cream into a clean mixing bowl
2. Empty the entirety of your 1.2gm Retinyl Acetate powder into the mixing bowl and mix thoroughly with the European Cream.
3. Empty the entirety of the Centella Asiatica Extract Powder into the mix you have going. Mix it together.
4. Add all the contents of the EGF vial into your mix. Mix together very gently so as not to break apart the protein strands. 
5. When your cream is a nice consistency, replace into the 4oz European Cream jar. Your Soothing Night Cream is ready to use!

Preparing Your Skin Repair Oil

This one is a little more advanced, but shouldn’t be too difficult. Make sure you have read and understand our previous blog DIY Ceramide Cream for Advanced Users before you get started.

1. Pour a small amount of Rosehip Seed Oil from its bottle into a shallow pan and warm it on your range. You will need about 10ml rosehip, but the exact amount is not important. You can pour straight from your bottle, or remove it from the bottle to the pan with a glass dropper. 3-4 dropper-fulls of rosehip should do.
2. When the rosehip seed oil is warm, empty about 1/4th of the tube of ceramides into the oil. Stir gently while warm until the ceramides dissolve into the oil.
3. Repeat step 2 only this time add 1/4th of the tetrahydrocurcuminoids in the tube to your mixture. Mix gently until dissolved.
4. Empty half the contents of the coenzyme Q10 into the oil mixture in the pan. Stir gently until it is dissolved. 
5. When the mixture is consistent, remove from heat source and allow to cool.
6. Empty this mixture from the pan back into the original rosehip seed oil bottle using a funnel. Once all the oil has drained into the bottle, replace the cap and give it a good shake. Now your Skin Repair Oil is ready!

Instructions for Use

You’ll be able to get a lot of great use out of these two projects. Remember, especially with oil, a little bit goes a long way. Apply your Skin Repair Oil in the morning and evening, or as needed.

At night, before you go to bed, apply Soothing Night Cream to the affected area to lock in the oil and get those EGF proteins in there to encourage skin cell turnover.

Be patient and kind with yourself; healthy, meaningful change takes time. You should see improvement in your stretch marks in 60 - 90 days.

Thanks for joining us for another Skin Actives Scientific blog! If you enjoy Skin Actives content, we are proud to announce that we can now be found on social media platform TikTok! Stop by and subscribe to get all our latest videos.

Meanwhile, it’s time for the weekend. See you next week for more content everyone, stay safe and have fun!