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Chances are you’ve picked up a product (of any kind), looked at the ingredients, and thought, “What the heck is this?!” If that sounds vaguely familiar to you, we get it! Not knowing what half the ingredients in your products can be like playing Russian roulette with your health—will this harm me, or am I safe to use it?
For us, we’re not here to gamble—and we’re definitely not here to gamble with your healthandrecovery. So, what did we do?
We created a recovery product that’sas safe as it is effective: Revive Balm. We don’t want you just to revive your muscles; we want to revive your entire body by creating a beneficial product for youand the planet. It’s clean, pure, and contains no nasty ingredients you can’t pronounce.
But one of the common misconceptions about all-natural products is that they don’t work. So, let’s dive into some of the details of the ingredients in Revive Balm so you can see for yourself! Don’t worry, we’ll try to keep the science simple.
Our ingredients:
Chances are you’ve heard of shea butter before—it’s a super popular natural ingredient in many skincare products. Shea butter is a fat extracted from the nuts of the shea tree native to West Africa; it’s solid at room temperature, making it an excellent option for soothing and smoothing, and yep, you guessed it, it’s in Revive Balm.
Shea butter contains various fatty acids—some include linoleic, oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids—that are important to support the skin’s natural barrier and protect it against environmental pollutants. It;’s also a potent anti-inflammatory thanks to its high concentration of the unsaponifiable fraction (triterpenes, tocopherol, phenols, and sterols) that caninhibit various inflammatory molecules, including iNOS, COX-2, and cytokines via the NF-κB pathway. If that’s not enough, research also shows it may accelerate the healing of cuts and scrapes due to its rich fatty acid concentration. It’s especially beneficial forpreventing keloid scars—the raised, red, and rubbery keloid scars. This may be due to its emollient (skin moisturizing and softening) properties.
The other popular ingredient you’ve likely heard about is cocoa butter! It’s a major moisturizer that heals dry and chapped skin. It’s derived from the cacao bean (yes, the same place as chocolate!), which is found inside the cacao pod—a large, gourd-shaped fruit that contains about 30-40 cocoa seeds per pod. The seeds are dried, roasted, and pressed to extract the vegetable fat, known as cocoa butter. It’s also solid at room temperature, making it great for soothing and smoothing.
Cocoa butter is rife with fatty acids, making it a fantastic healer for the skin. But why do we use cocoa butter in Revive Balm? Here are four reasons:
When it comes to an ingredient that does everything, coconut oil ranks pretty high. It’s a saturated fat extracted from coconuts that contain high amounts of medium-chain fatty acids, especially lauric acid. Lauric acid is found to have powerful antimicrobial properties that can help kill bacteria on the skin andreduce inflammation. It also contains high concentrations of the unsaturated omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid, which is used as an emollient and skin soother.
If you’re planning to slather coconut oil all over your body, there’s a fair bit of research touting its roles in overall health and well-being, especially healing. Here’s why:
Most people aren’t familiar with the power of beeswax. It forms the foundation of beehives and is secreted from eight special wax glands on the underside of worker bees’ abdomens. The wax is released as a liquid but quickly cools and solidifies. Beeswax is a compound used for thousands of years and is known to reduce cholesterol, mitigate swelling and inflammation, and relieve pain.
As with the other ingredients we’ve mentioned, beeswax is a unique natural moisturizer that can help repair and protect rough, dry, or chapped skin thanks to its ability to lock in moisture. It’s rich in vitamin A and has powerful emollient properties, which help to soften and rehydrate the skin and support the healthy development of cellular reconstruction. It’s also been found to relieve pain and inflammation and may have mild anti-swelling effects. A2014 study found that using beeswax helps to alleviate inflammation caused by osteoarthritis—patients saw a reduction in pain and joint stiffness.
And then we have magnesium—one of the best natural nutrients for supporting recovery. Magnesium is an essential mineral that functions as a co-factor forover 600 enzymatic reactions in the body involved in energy metabolism, protein formation, gene maintenance, muscle function, and nervous system regulation.
Whether you’re dealing with extra stress or muscle tension, magnesium is a must. It plays an especially important role in muscle contraction and relaxation by acting as a natural calcium blocker. In muscles, calcium binds to proteins liketroponin C and myosin, which alters the shape of proteins to generate muscle contraction. Because magnesium competes with calcium for binding spots, it inhibits your muscles from contracting and stimulates relaxation. Because of this, it can help relieve tight muscles and treat muscle cramps.
Sore muscles are one of the most common side effects of a hard workout, but you don’t have to let them derail the rest of your day (or week). Foam rolling and recovery techniques can only go so far, but if you want an easy (and natural) way to accelerate healing, it’s time to consider essential oils. Whether it be muscle pain, tension, or swelling, certain essential oils help tackle every issue!
When applied topically, peppermint oil can elicit a cool sensation thanks to the presence of menthol; Menthol (29%) and menthone (20-30%) are thetwo major components of peppermint essential oil and have a cooling effect on sore, achy muscles. It also has been shown to haveanalgesic,antispasmodic, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Forpain and inflammation, rosemary essential oil is another great option. Studies also show that rosemary hasantispasmodic, analgesic, and antirheumatic properties, which may benefit athletes. It also boosts circulation, which improves the delivery of oxygen and nutrients needed to facilitate muscle repair and recovery.
Orange oil also boasts powerful benefits for healing and recovery. Limonene, a monocyclic monoterpene found in orange peel oil, has potentantioxidant properties that fight against oxidative stress that can negatively affect immune function. It also possesses powerfulanti-inflammatory effects that help to combat pain, infection, and other inflammatory conditions. And we can’t forget that orange oil may also supportbetter sleep, which is hugely important for recovery!
Last but not least, we get to eucalyptus. Like peppermint, eucalyptus is great for reducingmuscle pain/soreness and inflammation thanks to its ability to exert a cooling effect on muscles. Traditionally, it’s been used as an analgesic and is valued for its potent anti-inflammatory and circulation-enhancing properties.
There you have it—the no-nasty ingredient list (and why we use them) of our latest release, Revive Balm. If you’re looking to enhance your recovery beyond just recovery tools and techniques, Revive Balm is a must in your recovery routine—just try it and see.
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