A little background on my skin: In high school it was awful. Awful waffle awful. Looking back now I am really lucky that I didn't end up with terrible acne scars. I didn't do much in terms of skin care. No matter how much my mom told me not to, I slept in my make-up every night. I splashed my face with water in the morning (maybe) before I put more make up on. I tried ProActive but couldn't get into it. I tried Clinique and never kept up with the routine. I hated the greasy feeling of moisturizer or sun screen so I never wore it. My skin care plan was simple: Dry it out as much as you can so it won't be oily.
But that's not the craziest part....Wanna hear the craziest part? I know you do. I PURPOSEFULLY SUN BURNED MY FREAKING FACE (Tiffany, my most favoritest (former) Clinique person evar...I am so sorry) BECAUSE THE PINK/REDNESS EVENED OUT MY SKIN TONE. I'll give you moment to let that sink in....
Eeeeyah. So sometime around my senior year of high school I ended up with a pretty long term boyfriend and wanted to be safe and responsible (and without child...) and all that jazz so I got 'the pill'. Hallelujah it wiped out most of my acne in just a couple of months. Finally I was on the path to clearer skin, but still no real skin care routine. Since high school I have probably used every drug store brand out there, along with brands like LUSH and Philosophy all with mediocre results. I'd even been prescribed pills from the dermatologist in combination with the BP cream. Nope.
Fast forward 10 years and I still battle acne but most of the time its just hormonal/stress related stuff. I have been using Cliniques 3 step system - Foaming Acne Wash, #2 Clarifying lotion, and the DD Gel - for close to 3 years and while I'm overall pretty happy with it, its killing my wallet. Side bonus: since I am just about out of all of my 3 Step system, I figured now was a good time to pursue other avenues. Enter...the Oil Cleansing Method.
I did a bit of research on different oils and combinations (Crunchy Betty is a great site to help choose your oils), but essentially decided to just use what I had around the house before I started looking into additional oil blends and stuff. My skin is Normal to Dry (I think) so I went with 1 part Castor Oil to 3 parts EVOO since Castor oil is the drying part of this combination. I tried it out for a few nights on my hands to get a feel for how oily it might be, and to see if I would have any negative reaction to the blend. So far so good. I was pleased that I didn't smell like an Italian restaurant when I was done.
Now seriously, before I post these next pictures I have to stress that this is not an easy thing for me to do. I am not 'proud of my skin', and I am aware of the copious amounts of damage that I've done to it. But this is a necessary evil, and will hopefully kick start some really awesome before/after shots later down the road. (Can you tell I'm psyching myself up to actually post these...*sigh* I'm such a chump)
 |
| Left Jaw/Cheek - Day 1 |
 |
| Right Jaw/Cheek - Day 1 |
I washed my face with oil last night - massaged in a quarter sized amount for about a minute and then put a hot, hot, HOT wash cloth over my face and let it steam until it cooled. Rinsed the wash cloth out and gently rubbed my face to remove the excess oil, and examined my results. My face was definitely soft. It felt a little dry around my chin area but not nearly close to the dryness and tightness that I get with my Clinique system before moisturizing. I skipped moisturizer and went to bed. When I woke up I had 2 teeeeeny tiny little pimples (like..the kind that aren't even worth mentioning but for the sake of the blog topic I figured I should include any and every little weirdness thing). It was extremely difficult to pass up my desire to wash my face this morning (most people recommend only using OCM a couple times a week to start with), and I didn't want to splash it with water and then have to cheat and use some oil free moisturizer so I left it alone. When I got home from work though I really needed to wash it. It just felt...unwashed! LOL! So I did. Again, a little drier than I prefer it to feel but not dry like its going to flake up and fall off. I put just a tiny tiny bit of my DDMGel around my nose (I'm sick so I'm blowing it a lot and it hurts), and on my chin where it felt dry last night. Still, its soft and it looks okay. There is no oily sheen on my face. Meh. I'll keep it up. It should take about 2 weeks for my skin to get totally adjusted to it since I have been using Clinique for so long so we'll take some more pictures later in the week and see how it goes.
If you use the OCM, or used it and went back to store bought skin care, then I wanna know! Leave me a message beloooow! <3
TL;DR
- Oil on mah face! But not an oily face.
- Miss J nails it
- Self conscious skin pics!
I know what you mean about the OCM. I got some of the mini-zits but that goes away. It helps to really tailor your mix to your skin. I started with five oils, then brought it down to two-- sweet almond and castor. I lalalove the sweet almond and the castor-- meh, not so much, but from what I understand castor is like a requirement to the OCM. Sooo I was ok w the two, but keep shifting my sweet almond up and castor down. Then I added in some avocado oil to moisturize my omg dry 28 years young mug. The avocado oil helps a lot for moisture imho (< some of those acronyms just do not look right... I am not a, uhm, well nvm smh). I also think it would be beneficial to make two mixes if your skin is combo. My skin is all dry except for my nose, and I think it would be good to use a less rich mix on the oilier skin areas, instead of trying to think of the blend as one oil mix suits all. It seems like a lot of work, but your face will learn to love it. I have been using the OCM for a few weeks and I do it every day. Just an fyi if you didn't know, make sure to apply an SPF if you are getting sun exposure. Usually your moisturizers have SPF, but since you are just using oil you miss out on the protection factor. My skin has picked up a lot of color since I switched cleansing methods. Think hot oil and a tanning bed-- no bueno for fair skin, but my face is tan now. Haha.
ReplyDeleteWOOHOO! Thank you for the book ;) That is great information. I totally understand what you're saying about the two mixes, makes sense to me! Next time we head to to the store I am going to look for sweet almond oil (someone mentioned it smells really nice), and will look into the avocado oil also. I have a feeling I am going to need a whole different blend for the summer since its so dry here right now. We shall seeee! I was just happy to wake up this morning and not look like I had hives or something (oil is scary still LOL). Thanks for the SPF tip, too. I didn't think of that :) As you know, I am still ridiculously fair skinned.......still. LOL
ReplyDeleteNp! I have heard raves about jojoba, too, but it is pricey. I bought most of my oils at wholesalesuppliesplus.com bc I live in BFE. I also use Josie Maran's argan oil bc I already had it. I looove the sweet almond for this, and I used it as my makeup remover before I tried the OCM and to make solid perfume and lip balm.
DeleteI figured about you having fair skin still. Lol I have read so many blog articles about the OCM and I did not see anything about sunblock. I didn't even think about it til my olive skin started to get pink.
I need to try this. I do not have acne prone skin; never have. But I do have extremely dry skin. Skin dry enough that I wonder if I might have psoriasis--it's that bad. Sure, people might get dry skin in the winter, but I'm talking skin flaking dry skin on my face in the summer. In Texas. When it's over 100-degrees every day. That's pretty dry. I can use a moisturizer and 15 minutes later, my skin feels dry again. I'm going to look for avocado oil next month and try that with the castor oil and see if it helps.
ReplyDeleteI have been pleased at how hydrated my skin feels, specifically my cheeks, and yet it doesn't feel oily. When I got out of the shower yesterday (I did my OCM in the shower) I felt a little dry, but not as dry as I usually am so I put tiny bit of my oil blend into my hands, rubbed it around and then patted it on my face. Seemed to work great! Soaked right in, no oily sheen.
Delete