Aloe Vera gel for face care: benefits and use guide

Aloe Vera gel is one of the most used natural remedies to keep the skin of the face always young, hydrated and elastic. In this article you will discover the benefits, such as preparing aloe gel at home, how to use it and where to buy the best Aloe creams.

Aloe Vera: all the benefits for facial skin

Given the wealth of antioxidants and nutrients and medicaments contained in Aloe Vera (Aloe Barbadensis Miller), the cosmetics industry makes extensive use of it to prepare creams, lotions and specific treatments designed to solve an enormous amount of skin problems for face and body.

Aloe gel, applied locally every day, cleanses, refreshes and regenerates the skin, providing the correct vitamin supply and stimulating good blood circulation, thus ensuring better oxygenation and faster expulsion of toxins.

Thanks to Aloe Vera the face skin is smooth, hydrated and more elastic, being equipped with defenses against free radicals and their degenerative activity of epithelial tissues, producing an antioxidant action and an anti-aging effect.

In summary, these are the main properties of Aloe Vera gel, applied to the face and body skin:

Moisturizing action;
Regenerating property;
Antibacterial property;
Refreshing property;
Antioxidant property;
Anti-aging properties;
Anti-inflammatory properties.

Aloe to drink for skin care

In addition to local use, Aloe Vera provides a rejuvenating and antioxidant effect also taken orally, as a juice to drink.

Thanks to its purifying properties, Aloe juice acts from the inside purifying the whole organism, favoring the elimination of impurities and toxins that have accumulated over time in the skin of the face and body.

For this reason, it is advisable to take three tablespoons of Aloe Vera juice or Aloe Arborescens every day for at least a month, to be taken at least half an hour before each meal.

Aloe for acne

Acne is an inflammation of the sebaceous glands, with production of pus, generally located on the face and back.

These glands are placed under the hair bulb and produce an acid, sebum, which covers, protects and softens with a thin film, our whole body. This latter substance is controlled directly by hormones.

Testosterone develops sebum production, while estrogen inhibits it.

Microbes and pathogens can nest at the base of the hair, especially when there is no good skin cleansing, or when hormonal imbalance is present, frequent in young people, giving rise to the inflammatory phenomenon and therefore to acne.

The various anti-fungal properties of lignins, saponins and chrysophanic and cinnamic acids, together with the stimulating and reinforcing properties of the acemannan, make the Aloe Vera gel extremely effective in the treatment of acne.

Its action develops on several levels healing the inflammation, counteracting pathogens (antibacterial action), stimulating tissue production and healing existing scars.

Aloe Vera gel as an anti-wrinkle

Wrinkles are cracks that the skin produces with advancing age, because the epidermis collagen loses its elasticity and thus begins a structural failure.

This phenomenon affects the whole body and especially the face, neck, décolleté and hands, or the areas most exposed to the sun and UV rays damage.

Aloe Vera gel can be very useful even against wrinkles to prolong the health and youthfulness of the skin.

This thanks to the different nutrients with a marked astringent effect and thanks to the acemannan, a polysaccharide present in the Aloe gel, capable of stimulating the production of collagen, work together by limiting and counteracting the onset of wrinkles.

The “anti-aging” effect is even more pronounced if the Aloe gel is combined with other natural substances, such as snail slime, rich in collagen, elastin, glycolic acid and vitamin A and E, all elements that can regenerate and hydrate deep into the skin.

Other uses of Aloe Vera

We talked about Aloe Vera gel as a natural remedy for acne and as an anti-wrinkle, as a matter of fact the topical use of the Aloe gel can be of the most varied.

Below we mention a few:

For dry hands: pure Aloe Vera gel, or Aloe based creams can be very useful for taking care of hands, especially if dry and chapped. This thanks to the ability of the Aloe to hydrate the skin and protect it from external agents, such as intense cold, dust, solvents, etc.
Depilatory and after shave gel: Aloe’s properties are very useful immediately after depilation, or after shaving. Thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties the Aloe soothes the skin irritated by the razor blades.
Inflammatory disorders of the skin: Aloe, due to its recognized anti-inflammatory properties, is extremely effective for the treatment of many inflammatory skin diseases. The gel applied to the skin helps to reduce the symptoms of diseases such as: dermatitis, eczema, herpes zoster, mycosis, urticaria, psoriasis, lichen, etc.
Against dandruff and hair care: Aloe has various benefits on the scalp. Used as a balm on dry or brittle hair, Aloe Vera gel works by deeply nourishing the hair, strengthening it and stimulating proper regrowth. It is also a truly effective natural remedy for dandruff, many shampoos on the market feature Aloe gel as one of the main ingredients.
Burns from heat and radiation: You should know that Aloe Vera gel also has a protective effect against radiation damage on the skin. Properties that have been proven years ago, in the period of the Cold War, the United States government conducted extensive research on Aloe’s properties in the treatment of burns due to heat and radiation, with the aim of introducing the use in the army.

How to prepare Aloe Vera gel at home

We see now how to prepare Aloe Vera gel at home, starting from a simple recipe that will give you the opportunity to fully benefit from the therapeutic properties of this extraordinary plant, with zero cost.

Of course to do this you will need the Aloe Vera plant, organically grown in pots, or even better in the open ground on your garden.

Necessary ingredients:

3-4 aloe vera leaves
10 ml of lemon juice
10 g of organic wheat germ oil

Leaf collection and gel preparation

Collect 3 or 4 Aloe Vera leaves by peeling them off at the base with your hands, or if you can’t help yourself with a knife;
With the help of a knife or scissors, cut the thorns present in the side edges of the leaves;
Clean the two sides of the leaves with a damp cloth, to remove impurities;
With a knife, open all the leaves in half, cutting them on one side;
With the help of a spoon extract all the gel present in the leaf and put it in a glass, terracotta, or porcelain container (not metal);
Add the lemon juice and wheat germ oil and mix thoroughly;
After obtaining the mixture, blend it at medium speed, until a thick and white cream is obtained. You can use both the immersion blender and the traditional one;
Pour the gel into a glass jar with the airtight cap;

This homemade Aloe Vera cream can be stored for 2-3 weeks.

How to use it?

Take a small amount of the gel and apply it on the affected area, massaging gently until completely absorbed.

This application should be repeated at least 3-4 times a week to benefit from the properties of the Aloe gel. Even better if you do it every day.

The best time to apply the gel is early in the morning.

Where to buy the best Aloe Vera face creams

Not everyone has the chance, the time, or the desire to prepare an Aloe Vera cream-gel at home.

Fortunately, the market offers us a large quantity of Aloe-based products, some of which are very good, others less so.

Among the best face creams, I would like to mention two completely natural ones, produced without parabens and without the use of petroleum derivatives (paraffin, Vaseline, petrolatum, etc.). These are Aloe Vera creams with the addition of essential oils and other vegetable substances, designed specifically for facial skin care.

Erbedimauro.it is the manufacturing company and the raw materials are all Aloe Vera plants grown organically in their fields in Italy. These are products of Italian origin, as well as organic and natural.

The products in question are: