Avralise Shea Butter

I thought I just needed to find the right one. CeraVe. Vanicream. A $90 jar from the department store. They all worked for about twenty minutes. I kept thinking I hadn't found the right formula yet. It never occurred to me that what I used in the shower was undoing everything before the lotion even touched me. Three weeks on Avralise and I haven't reapplied once by noon. Two years of buying the wrong thing.

I'd been dealing with dry, itchy skin for three years. I'd tried the serums, the body oils, the overnight masks. My sister said "just try a different soap." I thought that was the most useless advice I'd ever heard. I used it for a week before I admitted she was right. I stepped out of the shower on day four and just stood there. No tightness. No itching by lunch. No 2 AM scratching. It was the soap the whole time.

My hot flashes stopped. My sleep got better. But my skin was still rough. Still tight after every shower. Still flaking on the inside of my black leggings. My doctor said it was normal, give it more time. A friend in my menopause group mentioned Avralise. She explained that HRT works from the inside and the soap works at the wash, and they solve different parts of the same problem. That clicked for me. Two weeks in and my shins finally feel like skin again.

I've been let down by too many products to get my hopes up. I used Avralise the first morning and told myself to give it a month before deciding anything. Four days later I was getting dressed and caught my forearm in the mirror. The texture was different. Less grey. Less crinkled. I ran my hand down it and it felt soft. I sat on the edge of the bed and cried. I didn't expect four days. I'd accepted this was just my skin now.

I thought I'd already tried this. I bought every bar that said moisturizing or shea butter on the front. Two weeks each. Still tight. Still flaking. I almost didn't order Avralise because of that. Then someone told me to flip the drugstore ones over and look where shea sits on the ingredient list. It was near the bottom every time, after the stripping detergents. Avralise is actually built on the oils. That's the difference. My shins have not looked or felt like this in three years.

My routine was already too long. Lotion in the shower. Lotion after the shower. Lotion at my desk. Lotion before bed. The last thing I needed was another product. What I didn't realize was that Avralise replaces the soap I was already using. Same shower. Same five minutes. Just a different bar. I haven't touched the lotion on my desk in six weeks. My routine is actually shorter now. I don't know why it took me this long to try it.