El Cheapo moisturiser, anyone?

A friend of mine, let's call him Henry; recently told me that good ol' cooking oil ie. palm oil can be a good skin moisturiser. I was quick to discount his claim as Henry is well known as a skinflint, didn't have the heart to call him Mr Scrooge though.

As he spoke on the merits of it, a thought flashed thru my mind that olive oil is widely used to smoothen the skin. So why not palm oil? Seems ol' Henry has learnt that palm oil contains Vitamin E that is supposedly good for the skin. I asked if palm oil isn't rather oily to the touch to which he advised rubbing the oil into the skin.Just a few drops will do, no need to slather yourself until you resemble the proverbial orang minyak (oily man).

I took up his recommendation (not without some misgivings)as I have rather dark forearms as a result of driving around in short sleeves or rolled-up cuffs. Skin on said forearms also seem to be a bit dry, so what the heck. The oil was sitting in my larder not doing a thing. Did it once a day; in the evening. After a week, sure enough the skin didn't seem so dry now. I noticed that the slightly oily touch dissipated after about an hour.

So waddaya know? I did some browsing at a pharmacy and saw that most so called moisturisers use a mineral oil base derived from oil in the ground. Surely a vegetable based oil can do a similar or better job? Well, I am going to continue this little experiment. If it really works, this may be the cheapest moisturiser around. Bottle the oil as a revolutionary organic moisturiser and sell it by the truckload to vain old men (nyuk) if not to little ladies. Wonder if the same palm oil has any sun protection factor (spf) as well; can hawk it as a sun tan lotion too. My bizness instinct has kicked in !

Btw, no ants or roaches snacked on the arms of your friendly neighborhood guinea pig!