Chubby Mommy

As much as I love winter since everyone looks a bit Chubby under multiple layers of clothing, I absolutely hate winter skin. The dryness, the flaking, the itch.

It’s not for lack of drinking water. I easily gulp 10 8-oz. glasses of liquids a day.

It’s not for lack of moisturizing either: for years I’ve been in the habit of slathering on lotion the instant I towel off after a shower. I’ve been using Dove or St. Ives (whichever is priced lowest at the drug or grocery store), and wondered for a while if maybe I ought to try one of the fancier product lines like Jane Iredale.

Yesterday I remembered hearing an interview with Sophia Lauren, a legendary beauty, who praised the virtues of olive oil as a moisturizer. Hey, if if it’s good enough for the woman considered by many to be the world’s greatest natural beauty, who am I to doubt its success?

Of course, it felt a bit strange slathering a cooking oil all over my body after my shower, particularly since my last memory of using EVOO involved slathering it on our Thanksgiving turkey (whose skin, incidentally, was just as white and riddled with goosebumps as mine was while standing there in my chilly bathroom). Then again, that turkey turned out quite lovely and moist, and my husband and son absolutely adored its skin.

Know what? It worked! I spent an itch-free night and woke up this morning to find my skin still soft and supple. Granted, I’ve got a craving for pasta carbonara going on right now, but I don’t have dry, flaky skin.