After braving the cold (Chicago Lake Side Campus COLD & Wind) one of the things I look forward to most is washing my face. Weird, I know-- but this past week I began oil cleansing and it has been a relaxing and feel good part of my day.
I have consistently battled with breakouts since high school. When I was in high school I thought, "thank god that in college pimples stop" then in college I thought, "by the time I am in my mid-twenties breakouts should stop" and here I am at almost thirty and I still struggle with hormone and stress related breakouts-- and I know they aren't going to stop unless my hormones change or my stress is eliminated.
BUT
This oil cleansing has really improved the overall look and feel of my skin and it hasn't suffered a breakout-- I actually think it helped one mammoth pimple heal quicker. I have noticed scars are less visable and my pores look smaller. So how does this work???
Oil is not synonymous with greasy...Oil can actually remove (read clean) oil. So while typical store bought facial cleansers strip the skin of oil and leave it depleted and trying to rebalanced the oil, oil cleansing works with skin's natural oils to leave skin with a healthy oil balance.
Oils also contain no fragrance, many facial cleansers have fragrance in them and it is one of skin's top irritants by causing inflammation. Next time you are in the grocery look at the labels and see how many you can find that have no fragrance in them. Not So Easy!
There are different categories of oils- for example, castor oil is astringent and works to shrink pores and is great for combination to oily skin. It is an oil that cleans, softens, and shrinks your pores.
I have been mixing it with olive oil and want to try sunflower seed oil or jojoba oil after my next grocery store trip. These are the moisturizing oils and are used to thin out the thinker castor oil. Castor oil alone can over dry your skin--you can play with ratios and after a week of a ratio you can alter it based on your skin's reaction.
For my combination skin I am using 2 part castor oil to 8 parts olive oil
dryer skin increase the olive oil to 9 parts and decrease the castor oil to 1 part
for oily skin increase the castor oil to 3 parts and the olive oil to 7 parts.
Below are the steps to follow:
Gather your oil and a wash cloth-- I had used most of the castor oil in this bottle for castor oil packs and so I was able to mix the two oils in this bottle. Use a wash cloth that you don't care if it gets a little messed up.
2. Gently massage the oil mixture onto your face (upward circular strokes are best).
3. I then let the oil sit for a minute while I do something else like brush my teeth, q-tip, wipe down the counter--whatever.
4. Wet the washcloth with hot water, some people lay the wash cloth over their face for a moment, I haven't done this yet. Using the wash cloth gently wipe upwards, periodically re-wet the wash cloth.
5. After I have wiped my face I splash it with some cooler water to close up the pores.
6. During the day I leave just like this-- the skin is moisturized and soft, at night I have continued to add my moisturizer and eye cream. I am a glossy thing when I climb into bed.
After a week of doing this my skin feels great--if I suddenly breakout I will add a comment to this post, but overall I have been really pleased with oil cleansing. It is natural, affordable, and effective.
My one concern is castor oil-- I was unaware, before doing some research, that Castor Oil, from the castor bean, when being processed exposes the workers to ricin which causes grave health issues. There is work being done to eliminate this harmful process. I am looking further into NOW Castor Oil and it's processing. In the future I might try to find a substitute for castor oil in the cleansing until a less harmful version is made.
If you have tried oil cleansing or are going to try it let me hear your thoughts on it!
Enjoy!
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