Have you ever noticed unsightly little red bumps on your skin? If so, they may be a condition called keratosis pilaris. Conventional treatments for the issue can be rather harsh on the skin, but there are natural options. This keratosis pilaris exfoliating cream helps moisturize and exfoliate for clearer skin.
What Is Keratosis Pilaris?
Also nicknamed “chicken skin,” keratosis pilaris is an unsightly skin condition that manifests as red patches and bumps. It resembles goosebumps and appears most often on the back of the arms and thighs. They feel rough like sandpaper and are very small, about the size of a salt grain. Sometimes they occur on the face and can be mistaken for acne. There may also be redness around the bumps that varies from light pink to bright red.
What Causes Keratosis Pilaris?
No one is exactly sure what triggers these little red bumps, but certain groups of people and those with dry skin are more prone to them. Pregnant women, overweight people, and those with eczema or dry skin are more likely to have keratosis pilaris.
Skin naturally contains the protein keratin, and about 50% of us are genetically predisposed to overproducing this protein. When excess keratin becomes trapped inside the hair follicle, it forms a rough, raised plug. These clogged hair follicles then cause inflammation, turning the surrounding skin red.
How to Get Rid of “Chicken Skin”
Since the hair follicles are plugged with excessive keratin, gently exfoliating the area will help clear them out. (Don’t use anything too rough however, as that can just further irritate the skin.) It’s also important to moisturize the skin, as the problem is caused by overly dry skin in the first place. Using anti-inflammatory products will soothe the skin and tame the accompanying redness.
Conventional treatments typically involve steroids, but here we’re using the potent anti-inflammatory benefits of turmeric and lavender essential oil.
Use the Right Ingredients
This recipe for keratosis pilaris cream uses baking soda and several other natural ingredients to exfoliate the skin. All ingredients have a finer particle size that’s gentler and very cleansing for dry skin.
- Baking soda has a very high pH of 9 though, which makes it very alkalizing. Long-term this can cause a problem, as skin is naturally acidic with a pH that ranges between 4 to 5.5.
- Citric acid makes the mixture more skin-friendly, with its pH of 2.2 to help balance the recipe out. (Just make sure to look for non-GMO citric acid, see below.)
- Some Himalayan sea salt provides extra exfoliating power and nourishes the skin with dozens of minerals.
- Turmeric powder also provides some exfoliation but primarily decreases inflammation.
- Lavender essential oil further soothes irritated skin and decreases inflammation.
- Unrefined coconut oil rounds out the recipe to hold it all together and get that creamy consistency. Coconut oil is high in lauric acid, an intense fatty acid that helps break up excess keratin.
Apply Consistently
It’s important to use this cream consistently to improve the appearance of keratosis pilaris, a few times a week or even daily for those prone to frequent outbreaks. Well exfoliated skin will be less likely to accumulate the dead skin cells and keratin that plug hair follicles.
Keratosis Pilaris Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 TBSP baking soda
- 1/8 tsp citric acid (to balance the pH)
- 1 TBSP Himalayan sea salt
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 3 TBSP unrefined coconut oil
- 1 TBSP sweet almond or other liquid carrier oil of choice
- 10 drops lavender essential oil
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine all of the ingredients and stir thoroughly. As you stir, the coconut oil will become creamier in consistency.
- Stir until well combined, then store it in a glass jar.
- To use, thoroughly rub the cream over the affected area, then rinse with warm water.
Tips for Using
- Coconut oil may be too heavy a moisturizer for some facial skin types. Some people seem to do really well with it, while others get bad breakouts when using it on the face. You can follow the cream up with a gentle soap if you find that it doesn’t agree with you. Alternatively, you can omit the coconut oil entirely and use 2 tablespoons of another oil like olive oil.
- Those with very light colored skin may find that the turmeric gives their skin a yellow tinge. If that happens, wash the keratosis pilaris cream off with soap, which should take care of it.
Are you affected by keratosis pilaris? Have you ever found a remedy, and what did you use? I’d love to hear!
Hi, Any gluten may hurt a person for 1 1/2 months or longer. You may have been low in nutrients when pregnant. Cows milk is not alive. When people are hurt by gluten, dairy may also hurt. I got seizures from dairy. I stopped dairy 10 years before I stopped gluten. Gluten is wheat/barley/rye…oats/corn/rice. Some people are grain free. Premade gluten free food/nuts not sold in the shell/meat basting/some spices/food with a label may hurt. Organic pure foods may help. Casein/ certain fat may hurt. Some may handle cheese. Cheese hurt me. Some soft serve ice cream may have wheat in it. Weston Price site may help for kids. You can get chewable vitamins on Amazon. Cheating with gluten may hurt a person for a long time. I can have white rice, but it is very low in nutrients. No Grain No Pain by Peter Osborne is a great book. Best wishes.
Oats, corn & rice are GLUTEN free
Gluten is wheat/barley/rye…oats/corn/rice and more. They are different kinds of gluten. I can’t eat any of these except white rice which has no vitamins hardly. I used to eat them, but got low thyroid/depression/MS/liver didn’t detox well/burned out adrenals etc due to gluten. When I stopped gluten 100% in 2 weeks I had 1000X more energy and felt 20 years younger. Microscopic gluten hurts me now and hidden gluten. LDN/Glutenza help, but I have to avoid them now if I want my brain/body health to be ok. See the book by Peter Osborne No Grain No Pain. You can also see him on Youtube and Facebook talking about these. Best wishes.
I think you may be confusing two things. Other grains, like corn, rice, oats etc. are often cross-contaminated by wheat, because those crops are often grown close together or processed using the same machinery. So if you are gluten-sensitive, you may react to these grains, too. But they do not themselves include gluten. Read labels carefully. At least in the EU, the labels have to state if their is possible cross-contamination.
No… it is not cross contamination. It is a different kind of gluten. Corn hurts me/organic brown rice and oats rips open my stomach. Food with label may be contaminated even if it says certified gluten free which may have 20ppm of gluten. See Peter Osborne book NO grain/No pain…has a chart to show kinds of gluten or see him on Youtube etc where you can talk about it.
Would you agree that food may cause KP? I have it & so does my 14 month old. I don’t know if it’s more persistent because he’s drinking cows milk or having wheat in his diet. We’ve tried every milk alternative & he hates them all. Just curious before I start trying to eliminate things to see if there is an improvement. Overall we’re pretty healthy eaters but do occasionally enjoy a goldfish cracker!
Katie,
Your instructions say to use it on affected areas then rinse. Do you mean rinse the area (you’ve just applied the cream to) or rinse your hands? Thank you!!
Both 🙂
I’ve found that dry brushing if some consistently has some improvement on my KP on my arms, too. I will try your recipe!
I have noticed that every time I swim in the ocean, it clears up. But I’m looking forward to trying this. I also tried cutting out dairy & wheat for 3 months. Not one difference.
Gluten is wheat/barley/rye…oats/corn/rice…can’t just eliminate wheat and there is hidden gluten. Some people are grain free. If the ocean helped with it’s minerals that means your intestines may not be absorbing minerals. If you have ridges on your finger nails it means minerals are low in your body. It took 1 1/2 months to heal my intestines after hidden gluten and may take 6 months for all issues from gluten to stop. Gluten may hurt intestines so vitamins/minerals/good oils/nutrients don’t absorb. All nutrients are needed for the brain/body to work right. Vit D from the sunlight may help heal the intestines/stop autoimmune attacks on the gut lining etc. …then Vit A etc can absorb.
Did you apply the coconut oil to the skin?
Is there a good substitute for turmeric?
Can you recommend a replacement for the Turmeric? I have a sensitivity to it! Thank you.
Natures’ Way- Vit A 10,000IU is from a natural source and works well for me along with Zn. Higher doses were too high for me.
I love all of this. The Natures Way pills have soybean oil, do you have any other brands you recommend that are soy free?
HI, You are right. I didn’t notice that. Nature’s Way 10,000IU is the dose I need and very few others have this dose. I went too high in dose once and it hurt my liver. Zn helps get Vit A out of the liver. I get my vitamins on Amazon recently. Nature’s Way brand has been better than other brands in many vitamins in how it works in me. You can try Cod liver oil which has Vit D and Vit A, but a higher amount of Vit A maybe. You don’t want synthetic Vit A.
Just made a batch. Seems like it would be a good general scrub for addressing a variety of skin irritations.