Tag Archives: carleys skin care

Irritant-Free Shaving Tips

January 11, 2014 Stephen Wills

Many men are too proud to admit when their shaving cream irritates their face. While we are instilled that shaving with cream is an absolute must to avoid cuts there are other alternatives that are both healthier for the skin and more comfortable. Just released from Carley’s, is a new concept to shaving: Shaving Butter!

Using a shaving butter with silicone-free ingredients that naturally lubricate (including exotic ingredients from such places India’s Butter Tree), the skin can get a closer shave that doesn’t irritate later.

Do a Clear & Smooth treatment to the skin with special attention to the beard and mustache area. A hot shower with exfoliation will open the pores nicely.
Apply a thin layer of the shaving butter to the areas to be shaved. a Finger full of the shaving cream should be enough.
Lather with the Natural Soap and apply to the areas to be shaved.
Shave with fresh razor, re-applying more butter as needed.
Rinse with warm water, extracting excess water with fingers. Don’t towel dry, leave face wet!
Apply moisturizer to wet face, rub into skin until fully absorbed (Kukui Nut and Regeneration are my favorites for this step).

This method never fails to give me my closest, smoothest shave ever. The extra lubrication of the moisturizer makes the blade glide smoothly, and greatly reduces the irritation that normally accompanies shaving.

*For the ultimate in smoothness, I’ll use the mask in between steps 5 and 6, give your face one more light wash with the Natural Soap to remove the mask and then moisturize. The Elder Flower Mask feels amazing post-shave, like it’s healing the micro-trauma from the razor.

Women
While we are plainly directing the use of facial shaving, women shouldn’t hesitate to the use the very same treatments. The special nature of the ingredients that go onto your skin create a smoothness in your shaving that you won’t see anywhere else.

Many use the Shaving Cream as an actual substitute for the regular moisturizer products. What kind of shaving cream can do that?

Sharpening the Blades
Another key is a sharp blade. Here’s a trick that will help you get a closer shave and save you a lot of money: Buy a razor strop.This is a strip of leather barbers use to sharpen a straight razor. Believe it or not it will also sharpen regular safety razor blades. I’m getting well over 2 months out of a blade and the blade stays very sharp.

Products Mentioned:
Carley’s Shaving Butter
Carley’s Acne Treatment
Natural Soap

Informational, Tips and Tricks

A Natural Solution to Dandruff? Warts? Rashes? Alternative Uses for Carley’s Products

August 5, 2013 Stephen Wills 1 Comment

Despite what the label says, Carley’s products tend to be very dynamic. The reason why is that the product lines are consistent with similar base ingredients and the same quality control processed throughout. Even the pH is kept about the same!

Due to the moisturizing nature of many of the products, we’ve seen people have success with a wide range of products they’ve tried. Some consider these products universal in their uses – Especially the soap. What are some cool “off-label” uses we’re talking about?

Rashes – Customers come to use everyday telling us that their pesky skin rashes went away after applying the Eczema Cream w/ Black Seed Oil.
Burns and chapped lips – The Kukui Nut Body Lotion and Exotic Butter Night Time Moisturizer worked amazingly on my 2nd degree burns, cooling the skin better than any store-bought Aloe Vera cream ever could. I even use it on my lips when chapped if the Lip Balm isn’t nearby.
Makeup base – Hair and Makeup Artist Jenny Karl swears by the Virgin Coconut Moisturizer. She uses it as a base before applying makeup for her clients. And yes that includes some pretty famous actors, models and fitness clients!
Wart remover – The Clear & Smooth exfoliant worked wonders on a pesky skin wart I had. Apply a small amount and cover with duct tape (duct tape seals the skin better for warts). Here’s a full write-up I did on wart removal.
Dandruff – I’ve found that the new Tea Tree Oil Cream will actually ward off dandruff from forming. Apply to the scalp, rub down for 15-30 seconds and then let sit on the scalp for 3-5 minutes.
Male pattern baldness – This one may be a stretch but I use the Clear & Smooth exfoliant in my scalp every day. Studies show that stimulating the scalp increases oxygen to the blood under the skin and nothing is better than an exfoliant. Factor in the good ingredients in the Clear & Smooth and you have something that has miraculously prevented me from seeing the same balding effects that every other male (and female) in my family has seen. Full write-up here.
Sunblocker, burn cover-up – The Mineral Makeup Foundation is a great sunblocker for your face. Even better, it’s the perfect cover-up for burns. The worse thing you can do for a large burn is to expose it to sunburns. Avoid scarification by blocking the sun over the burn. It doesn’t hurt your appearance to block a bad burn anyways.
Facial shaving – The Daytime Moisturizer works as a great facial shaver. Even better than Daytime is now the Hair (yes, hair) Conditioner.

It’s not just us that have found amazing uses for Carley’s products. Our customers were asked what “off-label” uses they found for these products:

Shampoo, shaving cream, piercing/tattoo cleaner, dandruff – “I use the soap as shampoo, shaving cream, piercing and tattoo cleaners. The moisturizer in my hairline and eyebrows to prevent dandruff flakes, and it works! I brag about how universal the soap is to all my friends, hahah.” – Samantha
Facial Shaving – “I’ll start out this topic by saying my guilty pleasure is shaving with our hair conditioner. I know this sounds weird, but it works really well. I get a pepperminty smooth shave. The same properties that help the hair and scalp seem to help the blade cut the beard more easily. I used to use our body wash to shave with, but the hair conditioner works even better. I’m pretty sure it would work well shaving legs too.”
Severe diaper rashes – “The Kukui Nut Body Lotion does wonders for severe diaper rashes. Leave it on overnight and its healed in the morning!!” – Kasey
Shampoo, body wash, face wash, shaving and cleaning your puppy – “I use the natural soap, as shampoo, body wash, face wash, to shave and to suds up my pup. It is the best product out there!” – Doreen
Preventing fluffy hair – “I used your moisturizer on my hair to prevent puffy hair.” – Kate
Washing false teeth and getting rid of laundry stains – “My mother washes her false teeth with the soap. She also said it’s better than Shout for laundry stains.” – Albert
Rashes – “A few months ago, our three-year-old started breaking out in a light rash on his back. We used this [Eczema] cream on it a couple of nights and it went away, after months of having applied other creams every single night just to keep it from getting inflamed. So that’s great, but then we really got to see what it can do. Two days ago, he woke up from his nap with a horrible heat rash covering his entire right leg. He said it was itchy, and it looked bad enough that I thought I was going to have to take him to the doctor on Monday. We applied this cream probably five times over the next 18 hours, and this morning the rash was about 90% better.”

So what about you? Are you finding any new uses for Carley’s products that we don’t know about? Send them here.

Informational

Eczema and Skin Rash Solutions with Black Seed Oil

July 30, 2013 Stephen Wills

When it comes to skin issues, the most frustrating ones are usually the most persistent:

How did I get this skin rash?
What am I allergic to now?
Why won’t those bumps on my arms go away?

At least with breakouts you know what you’re dealing with. That rash on your neck can be caused by a thousand things you come in contact with everyday. Most supposed dermatologists and skincare experts couldn’t even name the exact cause or solution to your skin irritation problems (at least not on the first try).

That’s why we took a look at some essential ingredients and found one in particular that caught our eye – Black Seed Oil.

Used all the way back in ancient Egypt, this oil came from something called the “seed of blessing” for a reason. They even found this oil in the Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb! The famous Greek physician Dioscorides used Black Seeds to treat headaches and toothaches. There’s a common saying that Black (Cumin) Seed cures every disease but death itself. Over 40 health conditions are said to benefit from the use of this herb.

If over 40 conditions can benefit from this oil then why not use this ingredient to crack the mystery of that persistent rash? Or those annoying bumps on your arms?

We think we found a pretty good solution that seems to be working for customers. Carley’s Eczema Cream has helped countless customer’s psoriasis, itchy bumps, red areas, rashes and more. It’s the “Wildcard” of the Carley’s pack and really one of our favorite products out there.

Products mentioned:
Carley’s Soothing Eczema Cream w/ Black Seed Oil

Reviews
“My 12 yr old son has really dry skin, sandpaper like, on his arms and legs. We started using the eczema creme and what a difference! I don’t even have to remind him anymore to “put lotion on” because it works and he knows it. Because it doesn’t have a strong smell it is also ok for a boy. LOVE LOVE LOVE this product and many of your others. My skin is also very dry and it is great to have a lotion that makes it feel better.” -Betsy

“of all the free samples you sent (and I did try them all) was the item I just ordered (Black Seed ointment?) My skin improved ALOT until I ran out of the sample, Now I am beginning to get eruptions on my lower arms and lower legs and on the side of my face. This is not just acne. I have been fighting this buger for 13 months!. Have spent a fortune on doctors, and tests. NONE of them know what to do. They really don’t know what it is, so they’re calling it stress! WHAT IS STRESSFUL IS LOOKING LIKE A LEPER & ITCHING SO BAD AT NIGHT YOU HAVE TO SLEEP IN THE DAYTIME — OH AND LETS NOT FORGET, SPENDING MONEY & MILES & TIME TO SEE PHYSICIANS WHO DON’T EVEN ACKNOWLEGE YOU HAVE ANY CAUSE BUT FREAKING STRESS! But….I digress. I look forward to receiving my cream, and maybe it will begin clearing this mess up again! Thank you for taking time to listen and to care enough to actually HELP. More later!”

Informational

Why You Should go pH Neutral for Your Skin

July 9, 2013 Stephen Wills 1 Comment

Natural Yin Yang — The Yin Yang is an important symbol of balance – http://freedigitalphotos.net

All your life you’ve been taught the importance of balance. Everything in moderation, having a balance is generally considered healthy. So why does practice of balance never seem to apply to our skin? With what is known as pH, many people may be putting skin products low in pH right on the skin for the worse.

It’s important to know the basics of what pH is and how the pH may be causing all of those skin irritations you’ve had.

Can we always trust the experts?
Let me warn you about something when it comes to skin care. If you put a 100 “experts” in a room, likely you are going to get a dozen different opinions. The science of our skin is so complex, it may be a long time before anyone truly understands completely what is going on. That’s why trial-and-error is so much more important for determining what skin products work best for each person.

The Measure of pH
You probably remember fooling with colored strips of paper to determine the pH of a solution. Today, we use very precise meters. To put it simply, pH is the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution. Don’t look too much into what that is. Just know that the concentration vastly affects the shape of proteins. What does your skin consist of? Protein and lots of it!

The pH scale goes from 0 to 14. Zero is acidic and 14 is alkaline. 7 is a perfect balance, such as pure water.

How does pH affect the skin?
Healthy blood averages around 7.2 to 7.4 – Slightly alkaline. Every live cell in your body is fed constantly with blood. Virtually all major skin care companies stress that our skin has a tiny acidic layer on our skin called the acid mantle. This acid mantle is the excuse that these companies use to create a highly acidic (low pH product).

They tell you that an acidic compound will kill the “bad” bacteria on the skin. Some dermatologists go as far as recommending chemical peels that destroy the top layers of the skin with strong acids. A peel produces the same side effects of a bad sunburn and can take months to recover. Many of these same dermatologists have even convinced the public that going pH neutral (the pH of pure water!) is bad for your skin.

Seawater and the mysterious effects of the ocean
For years people have used ocean water as a therapeutic treatment and to heal skin wounds. Take a dip in the ocean and your skin feels great. Some report minor cuts that heal faster in ocean water. Even acne seems to get a bit better.

How does that work? Ocean water has a pH slightly higher than that of your blood. By every other measure, ocean water should be terrible for your skin:

The water is salty and drying
Popular beach waters are notoriously polluted
You’re more likely to be sunburned at the beach

So what is happening to the skin when we’re at the beach that makes our skin feel great? We believe it’s the alkaline (high pH) nature of ocean water that cleanses the skin and helps heal wounds.

I’ve had people tell me how bad alkaline is for the skin and remark to me at the same time how much they love our natural soap. When I tell them our natural soap has a pH of about 9 they become confused. How can such a high pH product feel so great on their skin?

Bacteria’s hidden importance
Our skin carries more than 1 billion microbes per square centimeter. Mostly good but some bad. Without healthy bacteria to counteract the bad bacteria, our lives would be very short.

Experts say that the P. Acnes bacteria is responsible for the majority of acne cases – hence the name. Despite this, all healthy pores contain this same bacteria. If antibiotics and strong acids that destroy P. Acnes are the answer then what happens to the healthy pores that contain P. Acnes? Antibiotics are not specific enough to only kill the bad bacteria.

We just don’t know what the effect of killing bacteria on our skin with low pH/high acid products do. Molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler explains in this TED video the complex relationships involved in bacteria on our skin (watch this video if you get a chance as she explains a complex science in layman’s terms) and how bacterial communication can be disrupted by killing off large areas of good and bad bacteria.

If most bacteria are good why are antibacterial/acidic products so prevalent?
Preservatives – Most products use paraben as a preservative. This is a cheap and relatively effective way to preserve cosmetic products. Paraben only works in an acidic environment. We don’t use parabens!

Robustness – A small effort brings quick improvement. The bacteria blocking your pores quickly die out with the help of these acidic treatments. The skin slowly adapts to these acid washes. Eventually a quick fix turns into a “no-fix” and you’re stuck with the bad results.

We don’t want to promise anyone quick improvement. The time it takes people to adapt to a less acidic treatment varies. It may take well over a month and sometimes an initial breakout before the skin adjusts to a healthier product. What you will notice is how great your skin feels using a pH neutral product over the long-term.

Informational, Ingredient

Is All Argan Oil the Same?

June 28, 2013 Stephen Wills 2 Comments

Take a look at any commercial today about hair and you’ll see the words “Moroccan Oil” or Argan Oil plastered on your screen. You’ve heard from us about the benefits of Argan Oil. You’ve also heard the commercials but is there really a difference between what you find in the stores and what you’ll find naturally from those strange, goat-filled trees in the deserts of Morocco?

Grown naturally from the Argania Spinosa tree in Morocco, Argan Oil is incredibly beneficial for your hair and skin (known to repair damaged hair and skin), has an unique and exotic feel about it and is the “latest craze” in skin care. This means a lot of oil is being imported from these small local farmers in Morocco. What you’re also seeing is the dilution of the actual Argan oils once they make it in the products you adore.

Major companies and over the counter hair products are throwing in a few drops of the oil and calling it a “Miracle Moroccan Oil” treatment for your hair. This is absurd!

What’s even more absurd is the quality of the oil they are using. Let’s not touch on the low quality of oil they throw in from other sources and just focus on Argan Oil. The Argan Oil being “thrown” in is sub-par at best.

Freshness
Argan oil is unstable and needs a cool environment where the oil can maintain freshness. For major companies that means the oil is thrown into a vat of chemicals during the production process to maintain this “freshness”. From there they will sit on shelves for months and years at a time before use.

Price
The price and quality of Argan Oil is important. The more affordable versions (often used in culinary) won’t work on the skin as well as the slightly more expensive versions. Most companies try and throw in the cheapest possible oil they can get away with to preserve their margins. When you’re just using a few drops, who’s going to notice the difference?

Our Argan Oil
We’re proud to be working with some great partners directly from Morocco for the best Argan Oil there is. This means we pay a slightly higher price for a better overall product. Not only is the oil better but it’s fresh so you won’t be putting a stale, unstable oil right on your skin. Oh, and there’s more Argan Oil in some of our products (like the Conditioner) than probably any product out there in the world. Win win!

Informational

Frizzy, curly, or out of control hair? Carley’s has a new product for that!

June 23, 2013 Stephen Wills

Keratin controls frizzy hair and makes straight hair feel more alive – But what exactly separates Carley’s Keratin Treatment with any other? Other Keratin Treatments use all sorts of unpronounceable ingredients and an uncertain amount of keratin. Why be uncertain about what you’re leaving in your hair.

This makes no sense – How can a keratin product not disclose how much keratin they use? We use 10% (the max recommended amount) with a high quality mix of ingredients that treat the hair. Due to the high cost of keratin, we’re willing to bet that other products don’t use anything close to 10%! Combine that with the fresh ingredients used and you have one of the best treatments on the market for your hair.

For more info about Carley’s Hair Keratin Treatment click here…

Informational, Ingredient

What’s Different in Store Bought Hair Conditioners and Carley’s?

May 23, 2013 Stephen Wills

I do our formulating. That means I am pretty familiar with ingredients used in the industry. Since we just released our new Argan Oil Hair conditioner, I wanted to take a few moments and look at a hair conditioner from a company that has the word organic in their name.

I can’t tell you who they are because they might sue us.

When I look at most of these ‘natural’ conditioners I see lot of extracts – horsetail and coltsfoot among many other extracts. I’m not a big believer in extracts. I know of no study that proves horsetail can even be absorbed or adsorbed by the hair. We don’t like to use most extracts unless we extract them ourselves (such as the broccoli sprout extract we put in most products). Because there are no standards for strength of extracts you’ll find the qualities vary – usually from useless to almost useless.

Picked at random, I’ll take a look at the ingredient labels (keep in mind, ingredients are listed in order of prominence. highest percentage first):

Aqua – That is water; is it just purified? Or reverse osmosis like we use?

Cetyl alcohol (coconut fatty alcohol) – This is actually good; but at #2, seems too high

Aloe barbadensis (aloe) leaf juice* – This is good, but the juice can be pretty watery

Alcohol denat – (denat. is short for denatured alcohol, wonder why they abbreviate it?); Whoa, what’s this doing here at #4?

Helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil – It’s good, but about the cheapest oil you can buy; and this is their first oil – no comparison to Argan! I can buy a gallon of sunflower oil at the grocery store for around $20. The Virgin Argan oil we use is from a specialty importer at $150 a gallon; and Argan is about a million times better for the hair.

Milk protein – What this does, I don’t know; we wouldn’t use it because it is animal derived. Hmmm!

Glycerin – I don’t know if it is vegetable, it should say vegetable. if it’s not vegetable, it is animal derived. You do not want to know how animal derived glycerin is made. I’m guessing it is vegetable.

The next ingredients we call ‘Label Candy’. They look good on the label. They are found to be effective at selling the product.

Equisetum hyemale (horsetail) extract – No actual proof it does anything. Sounds great though. Horses have got long tails. and we all want long hair. Oh sorry, horsetail is a plant. I shouldn’t make fun.

Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot) leaf extract – Again, looks good. But how can the hair absorb it? Again what’s with all the horse references?

Tanacetum annum (Moroccan blue camomile) oil* – This might be good. It is an essential oil. Mostly used for scent. Although it does have some astringent properties. I know right at this point we are dealing with a tiny amount. At $120 an ounce, I am 100% certain there is very little in this product.

So the rest of these ingredients are in tiny proportions… A few drops, maybe, with each use. Maybe a few drops in the whole bottle. I’m not bothering even mentioning them.

Brassica campestris (turnip) oil, aleurites fordi (chinawood) oil, citrus grandis (grapefruit) extract, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) extract, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), glycine soja (soybean) oil, daucus carota sativa (carrot) root extract, beta-carotene.

*Organic

I’d also want to know what the pH is
Since they don’t use a traditional preservative, very acidic I’m guessing. I don’t see anything that will condition the hair except cetyl alcohol. Maybe that’s why it is #2? And the aloe vera juice (which is good) and sunflower oil.

Some of the ingredients are Organic. So what? Wouldn’t they have to be all Organic to make it worth even mentioning? Besides who can believe what is and isn’t organic today?

I’m trying to figure out why denatured alcohol is the fourth item on the list. Essentially rubbing alcohol. I have no clue why they are using this? If it was way down the list, it wouldn’t matter. but 4th???

This could be an exercise in futility. Only detail junkies like me would even care. I just find it real interesting.

Tips and Tricks

Body Acne Instructions

January 22, 2013 Stephen Wills 2 Comments

Even though you may be suffering from facial acne just as much as back acne, you may be surprised how much thicker the skin on your body is. The thicker skin on your body requires slightly more effort in ridding spots on your body of acne and skin irritations. This method is most likely is too strong for your face where the skin is much thinner. This will help you save money when treating large areas.

Instructions for Body Acne:

Take two clean, dry wash cloths into the shower
Wash lightly using your hands with the natural soap and rinse. This conditions the skin for the acne treatment
If you are doing both your face and body, scrub your face first with your hands and rinse
Turn off the shower head and apply the Clear & Smooth to a dry wash cloth
Scrub for 30 seconds with the dry wash cloth and treatment. This will remove more dead skin cells and allow the treatment to get deeper into the skin. Don’t scrub so hard as to make the skin raw. After a few treatments you will get a feel for how hard to scrub. After your skin becomes healthy you will find the extra exfoliation is exhilarating. This method also helps you cover more area with less of the treatment, to save money.
Turn the shower back on, rinse, and then lather up the second clean wash cloth with the natural soap and wash thoroughly all treated areas. Rinse

Any other time you wash just use our natural soap and a clean wash cloth.

If you are experiencing skin irritations on your outer arms and thighs then you are likely suffering from keratosis pilaris. Here are instructions for clearing your skin of keratosis pilaris.