Are you a lotion girl?

If you're like me, you're a lotion girl. I love lotions. Give it to me in a tube, jar, bottle, pump, or spray. You name it; I'll try it. I have to admit that my favorites are those that are a bit heavier and creamier. They're just dreamy. If there's one thing I don't like, though, it's the lotions and potions that are overly perfumy (is that a real word?) or that go on beautifuly but leave your skin feeling thirsty again within 10 minutes. In the case of the less than thirst quenching formulas, I'm always left with the thought, "What's the point?"

When it comes to those lotions, butters, and so-called creams that always leave me wanting more, I have to wonder if that is the point. Give me a product that costs an arm and a leg and then somehow coerce me into applying it six times a day so I'll have to buy more in two weeks. Seriously, though, what's the point of a lotion/butter/cream that doesn't actually hydrate? Isn't that why we apply it in the first place? And why is that so many are like that? I'll give it to you in one word...water.

Water? Don't we usually associate water with hydration? Well, yes we do. The problem is that water is really only hydrating when consumed. However, when water is applied externally, what we're left with is something more like a drying agent. Think about it. If your skin is dry, do you apply water? Nope. That would be crazy, right, because what happens when you put water on your skin? It evaporates and, in the process, also strips your skin of its natural oils which leaves it drier than what it was before you applied the water! Like I said, crazy.

So, here's a little test for you. Go find your favorite lotion/butter/cream and check out the ingredient list. What was the very first ingredient (ingredients, by the way, are listed in order from greatest amount to least in a product)? Go on; go check. I'll wait... What did you find? Was it water? If your favorite moisturizer is anything like most of them on the market, it was. Now, go find another lotion somewhere in the house and check its ingredients. Water again? It doesn't surprise me. It's rampant throughout the cosmetic industry. And, here's another little tidbit about water in your cosmetics or moisturizers...if water is an ingredient, there MUST be some kind of preservative, typically a chemically derived one, as one of the ingredients, too, because water is a breeding ground for bacteria. Yuck, right?

I recently did a test of my own. I went to a local variety store and checked out 30 different lotions, butters, creams and moisturizers ranging in price from $4 to $47.50 (and that was for only 1.7 ounces!). Many of them had words like "organic", "natural", "repair", "ultra healing", and "naturally therapeutic" on them. We see those words and assume that they're true but guess what? Every single product I checked had water as the very first ingredient! That super expensive $47.50 moisturizer had some form of water as the first four! Wow. My favorite, though, was the cream that was labeled as "(product name) with cocoa butter and vitamin E". There were a total of 24 ingredients in this little jar, which included sucrose (that's sugar), fragrance, stearic acid, and, my favorite, borax. Borax???? Oh, and there was cocoa butter and vitamin E. They were ingredients #8 and #16 respectively.

It's startling, I'll admit it. It was a startling realization everyone at Eternal Maternal had when we set out to do research and development for our bellybalm. Momma's skin is precious and, especially during pregnancy, it's often in need of some extra pampering. That's why our bellybalm doesn't contain a drop of water; only natural shea butter and oils that are healing and soothing. One would think that it might be greasy, but it's anything but that. We chose ingredients that were light and easily absorbed by the skin, so, unless you really overdue it, it will soak right in and leave your skin feeling wonderful all day long. The other delightful thing about it is that, because it's 100% natural and contains no water that can evaporate, a little bit goes a long way. Good news if you're using it everyday and, like many women, all over!

So, if you're a lotion girl like me, give our bellybalm a try! We've never had an unsatisfied customer when it comes to this product. We even have several dads that like it, too!