Oatmeal: good for cookies *and* good for your skin.
Side note, here is a recipe for oatmeal cookies. Make them ASAP. You’re welcome! ?
Colloidal oatmeal is a common moisturizing ingredient in skin care products, and my dry skin and I are definitely fans (hence my obsession with all things Aveeno). Its main jobs are to protect and soothe skin and to prevent water loss. It’s the active ingredient in a couple of things I love from this new-to-me line I’m trying called SkinFix.
This “clean” (airquotes) brand burst onto the beauty scene in 2019, and they’re known for uber-moisturizing products that focus on protecting and hydrating the skin barrier. You might recognize their Triple Lipid-Peptide Cream; it won an Allure Best Of Beauty Award in 2019.
If you continually fight the good fight against dry skin, firstly, welcome to my world. Secondly, I’ve found a couple things from the line you might like.
Yup, they both have colloidal oatmeal!
I’ve been LIVING for the Eczema+ Dermatitis Face Balm, which has 5% colloidal oatmeal as its active ingredient.
It’s a rich, soothing balm that you can use all over your face, even around your eyes and lids, to protect and relieve irritated skin, rashes and eczema. I don’t suffer from eczema; however, sometimes I do get dry, red patches at the corners of my eyes and on my lids, and this is the only balm that doesn’t cause me to break out in those areas. LOVE IT.
My hands love the Eczema+ Hand Repair Cream, which has 1% colloidal oatmeal as its active ingredient. This thick, non-greasy hand cream relieves eczema and soothes irritated, dry skin. A little dab goes a long way! Like most of us nowadays, I’m washing my hands a lot — all the time — and they get uncomfortably dry, and this cream really helps.
OK, raise your hand if taming flyaway baby hairs takes up an inordinate amount of time in your day!
*RAISES HANDS* ?♀️
Mine are BANANAS! They stick up wildly every which way, and when I let them run amuck, I walk around lookin’ like I’ve been electrocuted.
A friend of mine has the same issue and recently clued me into this Amazon find called the Samnyte Hair Finishing Stick.
It’s a clear, super strong hair gel in a tube with what looks like a curved mascara wand, and, allegedly, when you brush it onto your flyaways, it smooths them down and keeps them in place without looking greasy.
The marketing kinda makes me laugh…
What does dating have to do with “flyaway hair troubles”? LOL.
I just ordered a two-pack for seven bucks. DAGNABBIT, just when I think I’m done with Amazon (too many sketchy sellers and not enough protection for buyers, among other things), I get roped back in with this nonsense. My baby hairs and I are waiting with baited breath!
Last night Dinner Rage was averted thanks to a channel I recently found on YouTube called Yeung Man Cooking. The star of the show is Wil Yeung, and he cooks vegan and plant-based recipes that are simple and easy to follow. Our family eats everything under the sun, but I do like to cook plant-based meals whenever I can because I feel great when I eat a lot of veggies.
For dinner last night I made Wil’s 15-Minute Weeknight Noodle Stir Fry…
He has the recipe pasted in the description box, but here it is again in case you’re curious…
Yeung Man Cooking’s 15-Minute Weeknight Noodle Stir Fry
Ingredients:
- 60g broccolini
- 1/4lb thin rice noodles
- 150g mixed fresh mushrooms (cremini, shiitake, shimeji)
- 2 sticks green onion
- 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp white sesame seeds
Directions:
- Boil some water in a kettle for the noodles
- Chop down the broccolini into bite sized pieces
- Place the noodles in a pan or bowl and soak in the hot water for 3-4min
- Slice the cremini mushrooms and roughly chop the shiitake
- Chop the green onion into bite sized pieces
- Make the sauce and have it ready by combining the hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and both soy sauces
- Give the noodles a stir to get rid of some excess starch. Then, strain out the water
- Heat up a nonstick pan to medium heat. Drizzle in some olive oil
- Sauté the broccolini and green onions for 2-3min. Add in and sauté the mushrooms for another 2-3min. Then, add in the noodles and sauce. Sauté until the noodles are cooked (about 2min)
- Plate and sprinkle over some white sesame seeds
This was really good, and the reason I didn’t snap any pics of it is because we ate it all, and we ate it fast! Next time I make it, I’ll try to remember to take a quick snap…
The beauty of this recipe is that you can tweak it with whatever you have on hand. I subbed the flat rice noodles for ramen rice noodles, and I only used shitake mushrooms rather than a mix. I also didn’t have any dark soy sauce on hand, so I added more hoisin sauce and regular soy sauce to taste. I also left out the sesame seeds because El Hub isn’t a fan.
If you don’t have hoisin sauce readily available, you could probably substitute it with barbeque sauce in a pinch.
Another plus is that you can also customize each person’s noodles, too! El Hub usually likes a little extra protein in his meals, so I added smoked salmon slices and an egg over easy to his bowl. I made a sunny side up egg for mine, because you know that runny egg yolks are life, man! I kept Connor’s noodles as-is, and I let her shake some pre-grated parmesan on top. I know it sounds crazy to put parm on top of an Asian-style noodle dish, but it works, and if it motivates the Coywolf to eat a few more bites, I’m 100% for it.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Do you know Diana Kuan? She wrote the Red Hot Kitchen cookbook and some others? She’s a really good source for reliable dinner recipes as is Nagi at Recipe Tin Eats, however Nagi I don’t to be a little more meat-centric.
Meant to say Nagi’s dishes are a little more meat-centric
I love Recipe Tin Eats! I’ve tried a quite few of Nagi’s recipes and some of them have worked out for me and some of them haven’t. I feel like she’s so talented that the things she does automatically don’t always occur to people like me (someone who needs everything spelled out in a recipe). I do enjoy her website!
I started using the Hand Repair Cream last year, and it’s so good. I didn’t get any itching or eczema on my thumbs this last winter, which is unheard of for me.
It’s SO GOOD. Have you tried the body cream version? I want to give it a go!
Not yet, but I want to. I have some other body lotions/creams I need to use up first.
Karen, you mentioned you get redness in the corner of your eyes and on your lids. I have been suffering with this for a couple of years now and I don’t have ecxema. Can you put the cream right on the lids?
Hi Nicole,
Yes, that’s what I wanted to try it! The packaging says it’s for use on the lids and around the eyes. I’ve used it on both places and haven’t had any breakouts so far.
That is good news. I haven’t worn eyeshadow for ages as I am concerned that it could aggravate the redness. As I live in Australia I will have to see if I can obtain this cream and give it a try. I enjoy reading your blog every day as you provide a wide variety of information – you are great! Nicole x
Thank you for the sweet compliment, Nicole! 🙂 You made my day!
I’ll have to try the Skinfix hand cream. My hands are so dry that the skin on my thumb tips is cracking, despite all the cuticle oiling and hand cream application going on.
Thanks for the posting Yeung Man Cooking. There are so many YouTube channels it’s hard to find the good ones. I might try some of his ideas even though I tend to cook without recipes half the time.
It’s really good! I like it so much I want to try the body cream version (maybe I’ll snag one during the Sephora sale).
I’m so jealous that you can cook on the fly. I don’t know why but I short circuit when I don’t have a recipe, LOL! He has a video that I watched the other night that looked good with coconut rice and chickpeas. *drools*
OMG! I LOVE coconut rice!
Ok, I can cook on the fly. What I can’t do is what you do so easily. Look at a palette and figure out which colors to put together and where to put them on my eyes. I used to love those face sheets that Tom Ford and MAC used to do where the MU artist would put the colors used and where they places them on the paper. I would follow those things like recipes for my face. Lol.
Wait, this stuff is available at Sephora? I was just there today. Dear Daughter came by after riding and to use my garage gym. I didn’t want to go out, but she said she’d come with me to get me out of the house. (Pandemic has totally turned me into a hermit.) Since we were at Sephora I asked if she wanted anything, so I bought her some UD and Laura Mercier. Got to spoil her while I still can.
After Sephora I went to the market while Dear Daughter stood in line at the new Taiwanese boba shop. I totally changed dinner on the fly when I saw fresh gai lan (Chinese broccoli). They don’t have it often and I never feel like driving the 30 minutes to 99 Ranch.
That recipe sounds yummy. I’m so sick of all my tried and true recipes; maybe trying something new will motivate me to cook more.
I just started hearing about SkinFix. I picked up the face lotion in my Sephora sale order. Can’t wait to try it for the warmer months. If it’s a winner, I’ll try the cream when it starts to get cold again.
I blame the retinol because I have the same “around the eyes” issue. 🙁 Your dinner looks delicious!! Imagine how that model would look if she actual had fly-aways? HAHA!
I’m officially calling the “around the eyes” issues out as completely lame. LOL! I watched a video recently that talked about “priming” the delicate areas like the corners of the eyes and the nostrils with a balm like this before putting on retinol. I’m going to try it and hope that it works!
Agreed! Let me know if the balm trick works out. 🙂
I am a huge fan of colloidal oat meal in my skin products as well, and Aveeno is the best when your kids inherited your dry body skin issues (and preference for long hot showers)