Nature's Gate Skin Therapy

I've been on the hunt for a natural lotion that is as good as Vaseline Intensive Rescue, my favorite body lotion. After reading about parabens, phthalates and lots of other chemicals that I can't pronounce, I decided that lotion was an easy way to start minimizing the chemicals in my life, especially since I use it all over my body on a daily basis. I tried Desert Essence lotions first, and then moved on to Nature's Gate.

Not all of Nature's Gate products are gluten-free (some contain wheat protein aka gluten) and the products without any gluten ingredients aren't actually labeled gluten-free either, so take it with a grain of salt. I inspected the ingredients thoroughly before giving their Skin Therapy lotion a go.

In case you are curious, this particular lotion touts the following on the bottle:

• Paraben Free
• Phthalate Free
• Mineral Oil Free
• Petrolatum Free 
• PEG Free

Sounds great right? Well all of that good for you marketing talk sold me on the spot so I bought a bottle to try out. The good thing is a bottle runs around $5, so it wasn't a huge investment for me. 

Once I got to try it at home, the first thing I noticed was how thick it was. You have to really work at it to get it to disappear into your skin, which isn't the end of the world, but a little annoying when you're in a rush in the morning. I used the Skin Therapy lotion for a long time, and for the most part it was good, but after a while I noticed that my skin was becoming MORE prone to dryness and was very itchy all the time. I knew it wasn't due to anything else, so I gave up using it.

I really wanted to like it, but a good lotion should not make you feel itchy or dry. So the hunt continues! 

Have a recommendation for a great, natural lotion? Tell me in the comments!