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. =)

My Hopes for 2012

This year our family has decided to make it a serious point to buy only American made products. We have been consciously paying attention to where things are made up until now, but we are really going to try and ONLY buy things that are American made this year. I know this is going to be hard to do and we will probably fail many times, but if there is a product that is made in the good old United States of America, then I am going to try my hardest to find it before buying a foreign made item. We also decided that we can buy second hand items from thrift stores, flea markets, Craigslist or Ebay, even if the item is not made in the USA, which could also help keep things out of landfills. The item must be from a private seller and not someone trying to market new foreign made items.

As we travel on this journey, I will try to post updates about items we have purchased and give sources of American made products we have found in an effort to help others with similar goals.

I see a whole lotta etsy and pinterest usage in my future lol! I am going to try to do DIY projects as much as possible and I will try to post about those too.

I have created a facebook page, Made In USA 2012. Please "Like" it if you want to follow on our journey and my hopes are that people will share sources and ideas for American made products to help each other.

Welcome 2012!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday and a wonderful Christmas as well.

So sorry its been so long since I have posted, we got the stomach flu the week before Christmas. That was not so fun. And my sister and her hubby and family just left after staying with us a couple days. Now its back to "normal" and I am praying I will not slip into the winter blues. It has been a very mild winter so far, we just got our first real snow fall this past weekend. I am looking forward to getting my garden all planned out and getting Jimmy back on a schedule for his schooling. Matthew is still not walking at 17 months old, but he did take his first steps alone. Hasn't done it since, but at least I know he can if he wants to!

I will be posting the last few Christopher Pop-In-Kins posts soon, so we can have them for our memories =) I will also be posting soon about my main New Year's Resolution, so stay tuned! Its going to be an interesting year and I hope our family can keep with it! That's all for now, I am off to work on my catch up posts. Cheers!