Gluten-Free Skincare

When I was diagnosed with Celiac I was vigilant about removing every possible source of gluten from my diet. I was aware of risks of cross-contamination in restaurants, in stores, even in my own kitchen. After months of careful work and examination of everything I consumed my antibodies did not return to normal. I was making progress, but not the kind of decrease that should have resulted from all of my work.I had heard that wheat products could be found in hair and skincare products. Luckily I had checked all of mine and they were “clean.” When shopping for a refill of a face cream I was using, I looked at the ingredients listed online and was shocked to see “Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein.” How could I have missed it? What else might I have missed? I started looking at every hair product and skin cream that I used. I couldn’t believe it – THREE hair products plus the skin cream all had wheat as one of the ingredients.

I obviously hadn’t checked all of my products. In all of the confusion of my diagnosis and dealing with a completely new set of diet restrictions I simply had let this slip through the cracks. After I threw all of these products away (another financial OUCH) I started feeling better immediately. The next time I had my antibodies tested they were almost undetectable. The amazing thing about living gluten free is how vigilant you have to be with everything.

I now have all gluten free toiletries – but one of the best discoveries I made was homemade body scrub. You know those $30-50 brown sugar scrubs they sell at various skin care shops? Well you can make one for much less that is all natural and works like a dream.

Gluten Free Brown Sugar Body Scrub

Choose a container – I refill a scrub container I had from before or use a gladware container. It just needs to be something that you can seal and leave in the shower.

Fill the container half-way with “Sugar in the Raw” (I prefer the large granules, but you can substitute another sugar if you prefer the texture)
Then cover the sugar with olive oil until the container is ¾ of the way full. I use a less expensive olive oil without much scent. Stir the mixture and add more sugar or olive oil as you see fit. Then add a 20-30 drops of essential oils for scent. I use lavender and eucalyptus.

I made this when I went home to visit my family this summer and now my Mom is hooked. It will exfoliate your skin and leave is super soft. Just make sure that you rinse all of the oil off after you use it and don’t slip in the shower!

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