The Oil Cleansing Method

Hello everyone! Today we are going to talk about the oil cleansing method, aka OCM. Now this may sound like a really weird thing to do, especially to those of you who have oily skin. I mean...isn't the whole point of "cleansing" your skin to remove all that oil? No! We cleanse our skin to get rid of the impurities, makeup, and dirt buildup. The oil cleansing method does exactly this. So for about half a year now, I tested out the OCM so that I could share my thoughts about it after a thorough experience. May I just say that I am in love! Now there are many ways to go about it, but here is my basic recipe.

What you need:

1. Castor Oil
2. Jojoba Oil
3. Washcloth

Where to purchase oils:
You can purchase these oils online through various suppliers, or at a local health food store like Whole Foods.

What you do:
I take about a 1:3 ratio of castor and jojoba oil (respectively). You can mix your oils in a small container for easier use (or just mix them in the palm of your hands each for each use). I lightly mix the oils in the palm of my hand, warming it up, and then gently massage my face with it. I usually start out on my cheeks and make my way around my face using small circular motions, and I finish off by massaging to oil very gently into my eyelashes and eyebrows. If you are wearing makeup, no sweat, this will remove all the grime. After massing it into your skin for a few minutes, take your washcloth and soak it in hot water (as hot as you can stand without burning yourself), then wring it out and lay the hot towel on your face for 10-15 seconds or until it cools. Repeat this process with the hot washcloth until most if not all of the oil is removed from your skin. Using hot water is crucial to the oil cleansing method because the heat will help soften the dirt in your pores and it will remove the oil more efficiently than using cold or warm water. If you were are wearing makeup, you might want to double cleanse, meaning you do it once and repeat the same cleansing method to ensure you remove all the makeup and grime.

What I love about it:
Although I have fairly oily skin, I find that using the oil cleansing method actually helps control my oil more efficiently because it only removes excess oil and grime without stripping my skin. Using the OCM also helps any breakouts I have clear up much quicker than any other cleansing/moisturizing method I use. I've tried using acne spot treatments that contain salicylic acid in it to dry up the pimple but I have never had luck with these, for me, cleansing my skin via the OCM is a better treatment for acne and I feel that this applies to many other people. Often times, I don't even follow up with a moisturizer because this acts as both a cleanser and a moisturizer.

I recommend checking out Etsy for organic cotton towels, they are considerably cheap and much better quality and thus more gentle on the skin.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will get to you shortly. If you have tried this before or want to try it, let me know how it goes for you! Just keep in mind that this is the sort of cleansing method shows results after a few weeks of using it, so keep at it unless you are experiencing bad reactions (in the case of allergies) and you should see results within a month or so. I hope this was useful and I hope you try this method ^_^