Aloe vera, a 100% natural summer ally

Temps de lecture : 5 minutes

Ready to draw your summer ally?

Aloe vera is a concentrate of hydration all year round, but even more so in the summer months. An essential natural substance to be used without moderation.

Aloe vera, or aloe vera, is an oily plant of the Aloeaceae family that grows in dry, desert areas, including not far from here in the Mediterranean. It has been cultivated since ancient times for its medicinal virtues and its ability to heal and repair the skin. Composed of 99% water, the remaining 1% concentrates a rich cocktail of minerals, vitamins and amino acids that are invaluable for the skin, hair and body in general.

What’s more, when used externally*, it is suitable for everyone, thanks to its very light texture and rapid penetration: infants as well as adults, oily skin as well as dry skin.

Its main virtues:

Moisturize

Unlike vegetable oils, which are also full of benefits, aloe vera will nourish the skin by delivering a dose of lipids to the cells, while moisturizing aloe vera will deliver water molecules deep into the epidermis.

In fact, you can combine the two, vegetable oil and aloe, to benefit from their combined properties, and thus both nourish and moisturize.

Our “green beauty” tip: if you use a vegetable oil or serum as part of your daily skincare routine, don’t hesitate to add a drop of aloe vera gel to accelerate the penetration of the oil into the skin, while moisturizing it at the same time. Particularly useful in the morning, before applying make-up.

Soothe

When you’re sunburned, use aloe vera gel! Not only for its instant cooling effect, but also for its soothing and repairing action.

Use even on insect bites or as an aftershave gel to soothe inflamed areas.

Purify

Aloe vera is also used to purify the skin. Its astringent active ingredients will tighten the skin’s pores and regulate excess sebum.

Healing

We take advantage healing properties on a pimple, a slight cut or scrape, or even eczema.

What about hair?

It is therefore used to moisturize the skin, but also the hair!

• Use pure as a detangling treatment on the lengths, without rinsing, after washing the hair.
• Or just apply to the ends, as aloe vera will also revitalize hair and prevent split ends.
• You can add a little vegetable oil to nourish hair damaged by sun, chlorine and sea salt. For a repairing treatment, mix 30g of pure aloe gel with 5g of vegetable oil (avocado, sweet almond, jojoba or argan, for example).
• For itchy scalps, pure gel can be applied to the roots for a soothing effect.

Making your own aloe vera gel

Of course, aloe vera gel is available commercially, and even in bulk in many local grocery stores. However, it comes in a wide range of qualities.

If you’re buying ready-to-use gel, make sure you read the ingredients carefully:“aloe barbadensis” or“aloe barbadensis leaf juice” should appear at the top of the list of ingredients. This will attest to its aloe gel content and therefore its quality.

If possible, choose an organic, fragrance- and dye-free product, to be as natural as possible, and at a high percentage (>90%). Take a look at the Yuka App to be sure of your choice 🙂

But if you have a plant nearby, at home or on vacation, you can also take your own gel! Fresh and pure, it will be all the more effective.

Precautions:

Processing requires a few precautions, as it is first necessary to extract the aloin, an irritating yellow substance found just under the skin of the aloe plant.

In fact, the plant produces two very different substances in terms of appearance and therapeutic properties. It is important not to confuse them.

• Latex, the bitter yellow sap found in the bark’s tiny canals, contains 20% to 40% anthranoids (mainly aloin), molecules with powerful laxative effects. Latex can be irritating to the skin and mucous membranes.
• Aloe vera gel, composed of a clear mucilage found at the heart of the large aloe leaves, has highly emollient properties (it softens and smoothes tissues). It is this mucilage that is widely used in cosmetology and dermatology.

Avoid squeezing or scraping the leaf to avoid mixing the aloin with your gel.

Implementation:

• Cut a nice, green, fleshy leaf, not too close to the base so that it can grow back.
• Cut off the tip, which is highly concentrated in sap and contains little gel.
• Place vertically on the sink or in a bowl, and leave in this position for around 15 minutes to drain off most of the liquid containing the aloin.
• Cut off the leaf’s spiny lateral edges
• Open the leaf by lifting the top of the green skin, and scoop out only the gel inside with a spoon.
• Rinse gel for immediate application
• Put the gel in a jar of water for later application and store in a cool place.

Conservation:

Always use disinfected containers and utensils to prepare and store your aloe vera gel.

Aloe likes it cool! Always leave your gel at home, in the bathroom or, better still, in the fridge. Avoid exposing it to heat at all costs, and don’t take it out in the sun with you!

The gel keeps for 10-15 days in the fridge. You can also freeze it in portions, in small ice cube moulds. This way, you’ll have a fresh cube you can use for every occasion!

A cut aloe vera leaf will keep for a few days in the fridge, and for months in the freezer.

Commercial gel can be kept for months, but if it starts to look dark yellow to brown, it’s old and has lost its active ingredients. In this case, it’s best to stop using it.

Take advantage of all these benefits and treat yourself to a 100% natural, highly effective treatment all summer long!

* We do not cover the use of Aloe vera orally, as this is a very specific application. We leave it to you to consult a specialist. Please note, however, that aloe vera juice or any other form of aloe vera should not be used by children under 6, or by pregnant or breast-feeding women.