Oil cleans oil?

Why yes, yes it does!

I'm going to jump right in to one of the "crazier" crunchy things I do. My hope is for one of two things: you either understand the idea better and think maybe I'm not that crazy (I know I'm not completely sane, I have 2 children) OR you're intrigued and want to give it a go for yourself.

Simply put, I wash my face with oil. Yes, I said oil. I've gotten rid of ALL of my other skin care items, thus saving me major bucks and I'm no longer putting things on my skin that are potentially harmful or I can't pronounce. I've estimated it costs me maybe $50/year vs. $50/month like it used to.

Let me start at the beginning. I have always battled with my skin care. As a 3rd grader I started seeing a dermatologist. I started wearing makeup in the 5th grade to hide the embarassment that was my face. I tried every medication that was offered and experimented with all the usual suspects from the store.

After all that stuff ripped up my skin, made me miserable and my skin looked worse than ever, my Mom and I decided it was time to cave in to the ProActiv infomercial. I was a soon to be sophomore in high school by this time. I used it religiously and my skin looked amazing. It was a miracle! I continued using it through high school and then into college. Of course, as a broke college student that $40/mo wasn't doable so my run with ProActiv ended. It was at this time that I found Nutrogena which worked great and was more affordable. However, after awhile it stopped working and I returned to ProActiv after graduating and getting a "real job". Once again, I was clear and confident.

Fast forward 3 years to the year I got married. I'd been using ProActiv for 3 years and I noticed I had added an additional 2 products to my skin care routine, a mask and a moisturizer. I was using 5 different bottles of stuff on my face every single day. I was pretty clear but it was a lot to keep up with and it got me thinking.

When I got pregnant with Ally my skin freaked out with the hormones and the chemicals in my skin care routine were not safe for pregnancy (benxzoyle peroxide, salycilic acid, sulur). They had been known to cause early contractions which can in turn result in miscarriage. I found one over the counter cleanser that was free of all those chemicals to use while I hunted for a more permanent answer.

I'd gotten close to several mamas during pregnancy that used something called the Oil Cleanse Method (OCM) and it sounded ridiculous but they swore by it and I figured it couldn't make things worse, and I was out of options. I researched it and the metod behind the madness made sense.

The website I used for my information and routing: The Oil Cleansing Method

The basics. When you cleanse/wash your face, the idea is to remove dirty oils. Doing this with traditional cleansers strips the bad oils as well as the good oils from your skin which in turn causes dryness and then your body creates additional oil to compensate. Breakout. With the OCM you're essentially replacing the dirty oils with clean, nourishing ones so your skin remains in balance.

This is done using 2 oils: one carrier oil and one cleansing oil. You can use any food grade oil, preferrably organic cold pressed. Extra virgin olive oil and sunflower seed oil are common ones. I chose sunflower seed oil because I prefer the smell. That is your carrier oil...the oil that delivers the cleansing oil and acts as a moisurizer. The cleansing oil is always castor oil. It cleans but can also be very drying so it's used in a very small amount. For acne prone skin, an 80/20 split of carrier/cleanser works well. Dry or aging skin tends to prefer closer to 90/10. It's not an exact science, just trial and error. If your skin feels tight after washing then you know you've used too much castor oil; greasy and it's too much carrier oil. The beauty of using this system is you only need this one product. You can also use just a small drop as an additional moisurizer following cleansing if you need it.

My personal routine is a little more simple than what I read about. I just wet my face with water hot enough to open the poors, massage the oil blend into my face, and gently wipe off with hot washcloth, pat dry. Do not scrub. The heat from the water melts the oil off and leaves my skin naturally moisturized. I also have added a few drops of tea tree oil to my little bottle of oil cleanser. It's a natural anti-bacterial and a great addition for those with acne.

That's pretty much it. I've been using this for 3 years now and haven't had a breakout since!

Sorry for the boring format of today's post with no pictures. If you've made it this far you deserve a cute consolation picture so here you go:

Apparently Mommy's workout today was incredibly boring...