comments:
Lanolin is a common emollient, it’s the skin oils from sheep that makes wool outerwear waterproof. Maybe look for that? Emollients are a category of ingredients, sometimes referred to as skin softeners. They’re usually fatty and are used to seal moisture into the skin, as opposed to hydrating ingredients that put water back into the skin. For skin cleaning, you might want to try the oil cleansing method, but be warned that it can be labor-intensive. Most of the tutorials you’ll find will call for a plant-based oil, but basically any oil you can eat safely can also be used on the skin, so work within your tolerances and feel free to use animal fats if that’s what’s safe. (I hear tallow balms are popular right now, so you’d hardly be the only one. And I had a friend from high school that used a product based in duck fat.) Since you struggle with laundry, I’d look for a strigil to scrape the oil off so you don’t have to use as many washcloths. I have this one: https://a.co/d/00M1SN4j Classically, you would also add castor oil to pull things out of the skin, but again, work within your tolerances. (Don’t try castor oil straight on the skin, it’s extremely drying and isn’t comfortable undiluted on any skin. Start with roughly a 5-10% dilution in your carrier oil and add a little bit up to about 25% until your skin feels the best. Wet and warm the skin, coat it with a thin layer of oil and let it sit for a few minutes. Scrape the oil and skin crud off with the blade of the strigil, wiping the blade off after every few passes. (The one I linked has a more exfoliating side with microserrations, do not use that side on dry skin. Use whichever side of the blade feels best, light to moderate pressure is fine.) You might need help for your back, depending on your mobility. When you’re done, use hot water and a washcloth to clean the leftover oil off your skin - wet the cloth, press it to the skin until it noticeably cools, rinse and repeat; a little scrubbing can help. I had a period where my skin would turn to paper with any soap or detergent, so this is what I did to bathe. It’s absolutely not something you can manage daily (although I’ve spot cleaned like this for pits and such, especially for stress sweat), but I did this about once or twice a week at the time and it was mostly fine. On the flip side, if you’re good with animal fats, you might look to see if you can find someone who’s making soap traditionally from tallow instead of Castille soaps from plants.