All posts in Maja is a Lady

I try to remind myself that the dyeing, upkeep and inevitable stripping process for when I want to remove the color again would cost about the same put together as a small holiday.  But hey, a girl can dream, right?

As you may or may not remember I started a little skin care experiment back in January. I had read and heard great things about the oil cleansing method (or OCM for short), which is a skin care routine based completely around cleansing the skin with natural oils, and decided to give it a try. You can read my summary of the method here. I promised to keep you updated on how the method worked for me, and seeing as it has now been two months since I begun my experiment I feel like sufficient time has passed to make some conclusions.

Long story short: It didn’t work for me. Sad trombone.

I know that you can read countless of reviews and blog posts written by girls who have nothing but praise for the oil cleansing method, and I wanted it to work for me, I really did. I bought the supplies I used from iHerb.com, and all the oils that I bought cost me less combined than one jar of my favorite moisturizer. If the OCM had worked for me I would have saved a small fortune in cleansers and makeup removers. So, what was it that didn’t work for me exactly? Well, for starters, I have allergies. A ton of them. And what I am the most allergic to are things that are natural – animals, pollen, vegetables, fruit, they’re all out to get me. And really, my skin is like a teenage primadonna of the MTV super-sweet 16 variety – if she doesn’t get her way she will rage and flail and stomp her feet and cause seven varieties of hell. My skin is also very dry, and in addition to this I have a few other issues that make my skin really sensitive. So, problem number 1 summarized:

1. I might have allergies towards the carrier oil, seeing as it is,well.. natural. (And if I should add essential oils to the mix, I might be allergic towards them as well.)

Another important thing to be aware of is that the oil cleansing method requires you to clean the oils off with very warm water. And if there’s one thing sensitive skin does not like, it is very warm water. So:

2. Very warm water = very bad for my skin. In fact, it is probably bad for all skin types.

So there are my problems with the oil cleansing method. Of course, I wouldn’t know beforehand whether my skin would have issues with the oils or not and I wanted to give it a shot, so I dove in head first. For science!

The first week went very well, and I did see signs of improved skin. I have never really had problems with acne, but my skin is very dry and I have black spots on my nose, and I did see some improvement. After about a week however, the first spots started showing up. They were of the deep-set, vicious kind that I had only gotten about once in a blue moon before, but all my OCM sources had written about how this was completely normal and that the skin would need a period of time to adjust to the new cleansing routine. Trouble is, it never adjusted, and after about 8 weeks of routinely seeing new and unsightly blemishes pop up I decided to call it quits. My skin clearly didn’t like the oil cleansing method, and I was left with a good handful of nasty little scars after the blemishes that had popped up along the way.

I do of course have no way of knowing the exact reason why the OCM didn’t work for me, but my gut tells me that the combination of oils and very warm water was just too irritating on my skin. I have now used ordinary, store-bought cleansers for a week, and the blemishes have stopped popping up altogether – we’re talking almost overnight – so all I need now is for the scars to fade and I will be one happy camper. Now, I do not at all think that the oil cleansing method is horrible and should be avoided, but one should keep in mind that everyone’s skin is different and that it might just not be for you. I for one have realized that I will have to suck it up and go back to my ordinary and boring store-bought cleansers.

I have been getting a bit experimental skin care lately. I have worn moisturizer since I was just a little girl and I have always made sure to cleanse my skin properly, but I have never really found The Perfect Products. They´re always a little itchy, a little drying, a little too greasy or just not doing what they are supposed to do. I was converted to the Clarisonic face brush in September last year and have fallen completely head over heels for it, which made me wonder – what other amazing products are there out there that I just haven´t discovered yet?

After frequenting a certain number of skin care websites you will after a while come across something called the Oil Cleansing Method, or OCM for short. I think first heard about it about a year ago, and thought it sounded waaay to Granola for me. Cooking oils? ..For your face? I have always thought that oils = acne, and acne I did not want. My skin has always been dry and sensitive so acne has never been my biggest worry, but there are areas that have a few too many black spots for my liking, and no store-bought cleanser that I have tried so far has made them budge. However, over the last year I have been hearing more and more rave reviews about the oil cleansing method, and one evening a few weeks ago I found myself browsing iHerb.com and thought, well, what the hell. So I ordered the products you can see in the photo, and a week later they arrived to my post office.

Now, the basic summary of the method goes like this – cleanse your face with a mix of castor oil and a carrier oil. The carrier oil could be olive, jojoba, avocado, sunflower or a few others. The ratio depends on your skin type – less castor oil for dry skin types, more for oily skin types. Rinse your face with water, massage your face with your oil mix for a few minutes, then let it sit for half a minute. Then you soak a wash cloth in hot water, let it sit on your face for 10-15 seconds, and slowly wipe of the oils. Rinse your washcloth and repeat until you’ve wiped all the oil off your skin. Simple enough – probably a little more time-consuming than your usual cleansing routine – but I´m curious enough to give it a try.

Now, my face wasn´t completely unaccustomed to oils, because I´ve been mixing extra virgin olive oil into my moisturizer for a while already to combat winter dryness. However, the oil cleansing method requires you to abandon all other kinds of cleansers completely so that your skin can adjust itself to your oily new regime, so all I´m keeping is my trusted Vichy Neutrologie 2 moisturizer. I´ve been on the oil cleansing method for about a week now, and so far it is going well. It is definitely is not as scary as it sounds, my makeup is removed just as thoroughly as with my old cleansers, and it feels good to know that I am steering clear of a lot of scary chemicals. But will it have a dramatic effect on my skin at all? That will remain to be seen.

If you want to read more about the oil cleansing method you could start by visiting theoilcleansingmethod.com or Crunchy Betty.

Have any of you tried anything like this before? Do you have any secret skin care weapons? Please share! :)

UPDATE: I wrote a new post after doing this for 2 months, which can be found here.

When it comes to my hair, I am both lazy and demanding. I don´t want to spend more than 5 minutes on it in the morning, but also I want it to look really really good. You´d think this would lead me on an eternal quest for the perfect hair grooming technique, but alas, this is where the lazy sets in. I can spend hours watching makeup tutorials on YouTube, but I just can´t with the hair guides. I tried curling my hair with a straightening iron a few times but got angry and gave up. Which also leads me to my second flaw – I just can´t deal with hair gadgets in the morning.

Luckily, Maria has taken it upon herself to educate me in all things hair. She forced me to get rid of my old hair dryer and buy a proper one (I got my old one for free when I bought a box of hair dye about 7 years ago, oops). She also taught me about mousse, and I can proudly say that I now mousse, heat-protect and blow-dry upside down. First hot air, then cold. Oh yeah. The difference is staggering.

However, my hair still felt a bit… blah. I have long and very straight hair, and it tends to look a bit heavy and boring if I don´t do anything with it. Cue a link Maria emailed me 5 days ago…

Everything about this is perfection, from the girl´s cute Austrian accent to how simple the curling method actually is. 5 minutes tops in the evening, 5 minutes tops in the morning, done. I had to try it out for myself right away, because honestly, I wasn´t totally convinced. If the Sock Bun Catastrophe of 2011 (expected lovely luscious curls, ended up with a frizzy mess and a hurt pride after everyone going on and on about how awesomely easy sock bun curls were) taught me anything it was that I´m way below averagely competent when it comes to hair. I´m not quite the old dog that can´t learn new tricks though – more like a lazy Pug. Keep it simple and make the treats tasty enough and I might sit. Maybe.

Well, I gave it a shot…

Aaaand I´m hooked. This is honestly so quick and simple,  and I can see myself doing this at least a few times a week, if not more. Finally an easy, no-heat curling method for those of us that would rather sleep an extra ten minutes in the morning.

As I wrote in my Shopping ban: Redux post I am not allowed to do any more unnecessary shopping this year. None, zip, nada. You probably know by now that I am such a fan of bright, shiny, pretty and sparkly nail polishes, and this obsession put them right at the top of my own personal no-shopping list. Simply put: No more nail polishes for me until 2012. Sad trombone.

Really though, I was determined to keep my promise, so imagine my surprise when nail polishes started popping up out of nowhere!

First of all, the lovely Annabella of Skin Scrubs posted a comment and asked me if I would like her to send me some Barry M nail polishes. How incredibly nice of her! I jumped at the chance, and a little over a week later four beautiful polishes arrived in my mail box.

How pretty are they? I have no metallics in my collection so the silver and gold were very welcome, the raspberry red is a classic, and I have never tried brown before so that will be a fun first. Of course I had to try one of them out right away, and the first one down was the silver nail paint.

It is so shiny, it almost looks like it could be a metallic foil – so pretty. I can’t wait to try the other polishes that Annabella sent me.

But wait, there’s more! Another mystery polish popped up and ended up on my fingers a week or two ago:

Oh yes, it is my holy grail of sparkly polishes: Deborah Lippmann’s Bad Romance. I got my grabby paws on Across The Universe this summer and fell completely in love with it (yes, I am aware of how unhealthy this love for polish must sound to a normal human being), and now it has a sister!

This polish ended up in my collection thanks to my boyfriend. He bought it from parfymeri.no if you should feel a little grabby yourself. Don’t worry, I will take the blame if it will make you feel better ;)

Aaand that’s what it looks like on, over O.P.I’s Black Onyx! Tons of thanks to Annabella and my lovely boyfriend <3