My New Skincare Routine

I have been searching for an all natural facial cleanser and moisturizer for a while now. Some of you may know that I used to be a consultant for a popular cosmetics company and I really loved their skincare and used it pretty religiously. It felt really good to wash my face and put on that moisturizer and feel all the tightness and dry skin disappear....but I was never quite comfortable with all of the chemicals I was letting my skin absorb an my skin was still a little rough feeling, I always had these tiny rough bumps I could never get rid of.

So for the last couple years I have been trying various all natural & organic products, from etsy and other websites, but nothing felt as good as what I had been using and most of them made me break out, or didn't quite clean well enough, etc, etc. And they still had a lot of ingredients. I thought there had to be SOMETHING simple out there I could use!

My sister had mentioned using various oils on her skin, like tea tree oil and olive oil, and I thought she was nuts and that it would just clog my pores. YUCK! My skin is oily enough, why would I want to add MORE?? Well, she again mentioned it just last week when her family was visiting us after the holidays. Again I just sort of shrugged her off, thinking how gross it sounded and that it could never help MY skin.

Well.... (you get where I am going with this now I am sure ;-) a few days after my sis went home, I came across the Oil Cleansing Method online. Needless to say, I had to read it. And what I read actually made sense! It sounded way to good to be true, but I knew I had to try it. I searched for more information and came across quite a few blogs and posts about this gross sounding skincare. And the best part of the research is that there are a ton of replies to the posts where people talk about how the method works for them! I read through so many and it was so encouraging.

The castor oil, which is the cleansing oil, and a carrier oil. A cold pressed, pure vegetable oil is what you want. Extra Virgin Olive Oil seemed to be the most common one used, but I read great things about Sunflower oil and that is the one mentioned on the OCM site, so I ordered some sunflower oil right away. And yes, I did find an American company, will post about it when it arrives and I can try it out. If you are wondering why I say that, check out my post here about buying American made products this year.

I wanted to try OCM right NOW though, so I used some Extra Virgin Olive oil from the kitchen and some Castor oil (not made in America, boo) from the store.

Yesterday was my first day using the OCM and I have to say, I am loving it! My skin just feels better. It does feel a little tight and dry right afterward, and I did have a small breakout on my jaw line, but I am still tweaking amounts of oil. And those tiny little bumps are already gone! Not even kidding. My skin feels smoother and softer than it has in a really long time. My face is a little splotchy, but I am hoping my skin will get used to this new routine and adjust soon, I know it takes time.

Here is a pic of my face right after my first try at the OCM (eeek, scary face!) ;-)

My face doesn't look too red, but my cheeks and across my nose are what get bad. I am really hoping this will help even out my skin tone. I will try to take a pic of when my face is splotchy, if I can.

I will post an update next week to let you know how its going and to post another pic, see if we can see any differences (good ones hopefully!).

Please let me know if you try this out and what you think! If you would like more info, here are the sites I found most helpful:

Already mentioned, The Oil Cleansing Method
Simple Mom
Aisha Wood's blog
Crunchy Betty - awesome site by the way!!! I am going to try honey cleansing as well, for mornings or in between OCM! I also want to make some lotion bars and solid perfume. I will post about them when I do. =)