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.
Can’t wait to hear how it goes! I’m granola myself but I’m having trouble finding (facial) skincare (I have combination skin with some black spots that just won’t budge but I also have extremely sensitive hyper allergic skin so I usually don’t even buy my makeup or skincare in Norway because I’ve hardly found anything good enough). Makeup and body-care is so much easier!
I hear you on the allergies – my skin acts up if my boyfriend eats an orange way over in the other end of the living room, no lie. I am allergic to pretty much anything and everything! Luckily enough I have never had big issues with makeup, but I do make sure to buy quality brands, MAC being my favorite :)
Hm, maybe I should so some kind of before and after post when I have been doing this for a while? I did take “before” photos when I first got my Clarisonic, but I never got around to doing anything with them :)
Yeah I’m just like you – allergic to just about everything. So if it works for you I’ll make sure to check it out myself!
That’d be great! I’d at least be very interested in seeing that :)
Cooking oils? On the face?? O_O That’s not granola. That’s CRUNCHY granola… but it does sound interesting :D Please continue the updates on how it works for you!
I use a single bar of facial soap. And sunblock. And that’s about it. (Unless you want to hear about my acne treatment medication…Now, THAT’S a fierce mix of chemicals there…*muahaha*)
My secret skincare method is to do a home-grown aloe vera facial. It’s a slimy, pulpy, messy job. But it works. (Wait…does that count as granola?? I always thought of it as “free facial” rather than “organic living”…-_-)
I will definitely do an update once I have been doing this for a while :)
Sun screen, I´m good at that in the summer months. Unfortunately, there´s hardly ever enough summer to even get through the tiniest bottle of sun screen – pout!
Jeg bruker jojobaolje som ansiktskrem, og noen ganger tilføyer jeg litt tea tree eller neem olje, jeg plages nemlig veldig med kviser. For første gang i en alder av 27 år. Dritgøy. :P
Jeg får dem på haka fordi jeg har begynt å hvile haka i hånda mi når jeg jobber foran PCen. Ikke særlig lurt! Men nå står tetre-oljen parat, så jeg skal nok få tatt knekken på dem :)
Jeg har aldri prøvd, men nå ble jeg litt nysgjerrig ;)
Det var nysgjerrigheten som drev meg også ;)
Så langt går det helt strålende!