Aloe Vera: The Skin Care Herb

Of all of the herbs available on the market today, Aloe Vera is probably the most popular and widely recognized. While a lot of people believe it is a cactus, Aloe Vera is actually a member the succulent plant family. It is highly regarded for it's contact healing properties, and is widely used in various cosmetic products, like lotions, shampoos, and hair conditioning rinses.

In it's pure and natural form, Aloe Vera is a contact healer. It can start to relieve pain on contact, and it starts to promote healing on contact as well. It's a very effective treatment for scrapes, burns, cuts, and minor abrasions, and you will find it most often in over the counter sunburn remedies.

Unfortunately, a lot of over the counter sunburn products also contain various, non herbal ingredients as well. In fact, some of them contain so little pure Aloe Vera, that they're often nearly useless for treating sunburns or other minor skin conditions.

Natural Aloe Vera, however, is extremely effective, due to its ability to penetrate all layers of the skin. This is one of the reasons it is considered to be such an effective contact healer and pain reliever. This ability, however, can also be dangerous, when Aloe Vera is mixed with some of the chemicals found in popular products today.

When hair treatments, sunburn lotions and other beauty or wellness products have perfumes, alcohol, and various chemical ingredients included, along with Aloe Vera, using them carries the risk of the Aloe Vera transporting these toxins beneath the skin. The skin is designed to help protect your body from harmful elements, but if the Aloe Vera enables these ingredients to fully penetrate, it can cause unexpected health problems and illnesses.

The safest method of using Aloe Vera to treat abrasions, burns, cuts and scrapes, is to only use pure Aloe Vera gels or juice. They can generally be purchased in bottles at any local herbal or health food store, and they'll last longer when kept in the refrigerator. You can also simply grow one or more live Aloe Vera plants in your home, then slice a leaf open as needed.

Aloe Vera gel or juice is an excellent remedy for nursing mothers to use for cracked or sore nipples. It helps to stimulate circulation around wounded areas, which speeds up the healing process. It's an excellent remedy for removing dead skin cells also, plus it helps to promote regrowth of new skin cells. This makes it not only useful for cuts and wounds, but it's a superb face wash for acne, or for simply maintaining youthful and healthy facial skin.