Petroleum Jelly Alternatives

As has been said before, I have wicked dry hands. I don’t post many nail pictures because my cuticles are down right frightening (doesn’t help that I pick at them when I get nervous.  Ick).  My go-to cure for this used to be rubbing petroleum jelly (e.g. Vasoline) on them at night.  Worked like a charm! I woke up the next morning with soft hands and moisturized cuticles (also worked on the tootsies).

But lately I have become suspect of the petroleum jelly, mainly because it’s made from petroleum, and no way that can be good, right?  It’s made from petroleum by-products that are then highly refined and chemicalized.  The European Union actually regulates this stuff (scientifically named petrolatum) like crazy!!  (And we all know they are better at lookin’ out for the masses than we are).

Luckily, I have found some wonderful alternatives that do just as great a job as the petro jelly (PJ)!

kind of paste-y

First up is all-natural Waxelene.  This sounds like a waxing product, but it’s not, and do not try it as such because that just won’t work.  The name comes from the main ingredient, natural bees wax (makes me wonder what unnatural bees wax is), which along with soybean oil, vitamin E oil and organic rosemary oil form the Waxelene.  The bees wax also gives it a nice honey smell (but it doesn’t taste like honey.  Doesn’t taste like much of anything.).  This goes on more like a thick cream or paste, so the texture is different from the PJ.  Once you get paste, er, past that, this product is quite nice.  It absorbs fairly quickly and is very moisturizing.

very PJ-like

Next we have Alba Botanica Un-petroleum Multi-purpose Jelly.  This is most like classic PJ in the feel of it, which makes it a logical stand-in choice.  It features castor seed oil, coconut oil, and beeswax, but then goes on to some chemically things like tocopheryl acetate which makes me a little nervous.  It does a really good job of moisturizing though.

I am obviously not a chemist, scientist, or oil refinery worker and the assumptions about the safety of petroleum jelly are all my own and are founded solely on internet searches, so, like, don’t sue me or anything.  I’m just posting this to tell you all about some alternatives to petrolatum products.  Do you have any others?