3 Things to consider when buying Magnesium Creams

It can seem truly challenging to find your way through hyped up marketing when buying natural products. 

Following on from our blog on Why there is no such thing as Magnesium Oil, let’s give you some tips to help you buy the best Magnesium Cream for your purpose. Let’s look at 3 amazingly simple little things, that help you stay clear of green washed Magnesium Creams.

1. Check concentration levels

Why Magnesium Creams can never hold as much Magnesium as a Spray

In our last video, we spoke about why there is no such thing as Magnesium “Oil”, and how Magnesium Chloride attracts water molecules from the atmosphere and dissolves in water (rather than in fat/oil).

Knowing that Magnesium Chloride is water soluble, explains why it is exceptionally difficult to make a Magnesium Cream containing a very high concentration of Magnesium – it simply doesn’t naturally want to live in a cream base. 

What concentration levels are possible in a Magnesium Cream

Here at spajar skincare we have to do a lot of ‘convincing’ to make the Magnesium adapt to living in a fatty medium. Only with a lot of effort we achieve a staggering concentration of 26-28% available Magnesium in our creams. Normal is something around 5, 10% or sometimes up to 15%. 

Obviously, the more Magnesium you can get, the better. So the first thing to check is how much Magnesium is in the product you are intending to buy. 

2. Check the cream base

Why is it important to look at what the cream itself is made of? 

For Magnesium to be properly absorbed, there need to be a certain proportion of lipids present on the skin, either naturally, or via the cream base. Lipids are natural fats, or fatty acids, insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents including natural oils, butters and waxes. Lipids play many important roles in your body,  from providing energy to producing hormones. You wouldn’t even be able to digest and absorb food properly without lipids.

If your skin is on the drier side, it will have less lipids available on the surface, making Magnesium absorption problematic. Practically that could lead to your Magnesium remaining more on top of your skin, rather than being properly absorbed.

Which cream base is best?

To ensure that you get the best ‘gateway’, it is hence always best to look for a Magnesium Cream based on 100% natural ingredients, ideally based on rich natural butters. That not only ensures that you are avoiding exposure to mineral oil based petrochemical ingredients, but also really helps your Magnesium absorption: Natural butters are similar to the skins’ own lipids. That in turn allows the Magnesium to be absorbed very easily – in a natural way. 

3. Consider the goal you want to achieve

The third and final thing to take into account is what you want the Magnesium Cream to do for you.

Are you looking mainly at skin rejuvenating outcomes, eg hydration? Do you want to soothe irritated skin? Are you looking at relieving discomfort? Or were you actually hoping to achieve your daily Magnesium supplementation via a cream, because you like better how that feels?  

The latter will be very costly to achieve! To absorb your entire daily Magnesium requirement via a cream alone would see you having to buy quite a lot of cream. Do the Math:

• Average daily requirement of Magnesium for female adults: 350mg
• Size of your cream, eg 50g (=50,000mg) 
• Multiply with the % of Magnesium in your cream (= concentration level), eg 10% to get how much magnesium is in your 50gr jar: 50,000 x 10% = 5000mg
• mg of Magnesium contained in each gram of your cream: 5000/50= 100mg
• This is how many grams of cream you’d need to apply each day to get your minimum intake: 3.5gr (350mg needed / 100mg available per gr of your cream)

Your 50g jar would therefore only last around 2 weeks. 50gr / 3.5gr = 14.2. Two weeks!! Not a very efficient or cost effective wat to look after your supplementation.

If supplementation is your main goal, I recommend you consider a highly concentrated Magnesium Spray instead. These days, ther better ones do not sting at all, and can have a much higher concentration of Magnesium than even the best cream ever will.

Consider a cream to give you added benefit when you have other, skin related concerns, or are experiencing a higher level of discomfort. 

Let’s recap the 3 main tips to get the most out of a Magnesium Cream

1. look for concentration levels of at least 15% or even more

2. look for a natural cream base, containing rich natural butters

3. ditch the idea of using a cream for supplementation. Do that via a Magnesium Spray, and use a Magnesium Cream for other skin goals.

Three amazingly simple little considerations, that will empower your choices – naturally!