3 Summer Skincare Products for Dry, Ashy Skin : Bring on the Glow & Combat the Ash

As I recently announced on my social media, I relocated from the Caribbean to Florida. I was expecting lots of change, but one thing I was not expecting is my skin’s reaction to the new surroundings. I have never experienced visibly dry, ashy skin until I moved here. I could leave the house without thinking twice to forego lotions or moisturizers of any kind. So you could imagine the shock on my face when I glanced down as I was walking around Wal-mart for the first time and saw white,crusty, rolling in volcanic ash-lookin’ legs that I could probably play a game of tic-tac-toe on looking back at me. I was walking around like that in shorts for at least 20 minutes. Clearly my loosey goosey cocoa butter lotion was not cutting it.

Luckily, I was able to find 3 affordable and accessible skincare products over the period of about a month that worked and did not require reapplication throughout the day to avoid this embarrassing situation from happening again.

I found the first product that very same day in Wal-Mart. I specifically was looking for a body butter because I know they’re thicker so they should moisturize well. That’s when I found Cantu Shea Butter’s Softening Body Butter. At first I thought it was a random hair product in the wrong place, because “Cantu does not sell skin products?! Right?” Wrong. Sure enough it was indeed a skin care product. I looked around for cameras and opened it for quick peek and sniff (don’t act like you don’t do it) and was pleasantly surprised. Over a month later and I’m still very happy with it. It has a very light, yummy smell that is not overpowering and the consistency is thick like a legit body butter. It is enriched with pure shea butter, cocoa butter, and vitamin E. True to its claims, it is not greasy and absorbs into your skin versus sitting on it and making you look like you’re ready to fry in a pan. A little goes a long way and that’s great for a product that was under eight dollars. It has no mineral oils, parabens, or sulfates so that’s also a plus. I love to use it during the week when I’m going to work and I want a nice glow, but not the “look at my sexy skin sheen” the next product I love does.

While my skin just started experiencing dryness, babe’s skin has been dry from the jump. So he also picked up something to try and I ended up loving it too! Vaseline Intensive Care Cocoa Radiant body gel oil is great for making your melanin pop more that it already does by bringing on that shine. It gives shine like baby oil but better and less messy . It smells like chocolate and my skin looks like chocolate so they’re a match. I like to use this when I’m poolside being bougie under a cabana with no intentions of swimming or when I’m wearing my shorts and I need everything to glisten like the melanin goddess I am.

I’ve used this last product for years for hot oil treatments and to seal moisture into our hair, but I have recently started using it for quick applications particularly to my feet. My feet tend to get sweaty in this summer heat so I like to use Ginseng Miracle, Wonder 8 Oil for just that. Sweaty feet and heavy products don’t mix and if they do it feels gross. This oil is very light and non-sticky. If you don’t want to have a bunch of skin care products for your body, I would go with this one because it’s great for your hair, scalp, skin, nails, feet, after a bath, massages, and what I originally used it for, hot oil treatments.