Oil Cleansing Method
I have always had acne.
I mean, I suppose there was a short time as a child that I was blemish free, but I also remember being the first kid in my grade to sport a pimple.
My acne in high school was painful. My parents wouldn’t take me to a dermatologist, so I just tried over the counter product after over the counter product. Nothing worked!
Finally, once I left my teens, my acne did die down a bit. No longer did I deal with painful cystic acne, but I still was far from clear skinned!
I had the best skin of my life when I was pregnant with my son. I remember feeling so beautiful! For the first time since that first pimple popped up, I felt confident leaving the house makeup free.
Unfortunately that was short lived.
Having kids taught me a lot about being confident in the skin I’m in, so thankfully I wasn’t crippled any longer by stepping out in public with bare skin.
I knew there had to be a way to conquer my bad skin though!
I heard about the Oil Cleansing Method several months back and thought it was ridiculous.
I have combination oily/dry skin so the idea of putting more oil onto my skin seemed incredibly counterproductive! Finally I’d had enough though and I decided to give it a try.
I found this website (The Oil Cleansing Method) that gave me the following options:
:: Oily Skin: Try a blend of 30% Castor Oil to 70% Sunflower Seed Oil
:: Balanced Skin: Try a blend of 20% Castor Oil to 80% Sunflower Seed Oil.
:: Dry Skin: Try a blend of 10% Castor Oil to 90% Sunflower Seed Oil
On that website, she states that you can also use Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (cold pressed) in place of the Sunflower Seed Oil, and that you might need to play with the percentages until you hit your sweet spot.
I ended up finding that a blend of 25% Castor Oil and 75% Olive Oil was perfect for my skin!
I don’t use the oil cleansing method daily because that dried my skin out a bit too much.
Instead I make a habit of doing the following routine every other night:
- I have my oil blend in an airtight container in the bathroom. I pour a quarter size amount into my hand and start rubbing it in all over my face/neck in a circular motion. The oil takes off all of my makeup so no makeup remover is necessary. I do this for at least 3-5 minutes so I can be sure the oil has had time to really get into my pores.
- Next I run the water until it’s very hot. I wet a washcloth and wring it out so it’s dampened by the hot water.
- I place the hot washcloth on my face and let it stay on there until it starts to cool. Then I gently wipe away the oil. I usually repeat this at least one more time. Sometimes 2 more times.
- Now that the oil is off my face, I follow up with a cotton ball and witch hazel.
- Finally, I put on a good thick moisturizer. I’ve been using Olay Regenerist Night Recovery Moisturizing Treatment
, which is a bit pricey but feels INCREDIBLE.
- That’s it!
It’s a longer process than simply washing your face, but it feels good to pamper yourself a bit after a long day. In between oil cleanses, I just use water to rinse or if I am wearing makeup I use a gentle cleanser like Cetaphil
My skin looks so much better! I don’t have a good before picture because I avoided pictures like the plague when my skin was broken out and I wasn’t wearing makeup. Here’s a not so great picture of me now though. Skin still isn’t flawless, but it’s come a long way!
I would never have posted a no make up picture prior to the oil cleansing method (although I have to admit, I’m not feeling too super confident about it now either, LOL).
I love the oil cleansing method and I definitely think you should give it a try.
You look fabulous! I’ll have to try this… 🙂
Thank you!
How long have you been doing this!? I’m in the same boat as you on acne. It has been the best during pregnancy and no OTC products work. I need to try this!
I think it’s been about 45 days! The first week I did it everyday and that was overkill. I do every other or every third day now
This is great, Heather! I definitely want to try this…I keep telling husband that it isn’t fair that I have acne AND wrinkles at the same time!
Thank you so much for posting this! You look happy and radiant 🙂
I am going to give this a try. I am leaning towards sunflower oil and castor oil bc they are non comedogenic. Have you tried jojoba oil or olive oil?
I am not sure if I should try jojoba oil and castor oil, sunflower oil and castor oil or olive oil and castor oil.
Right now I just used only olive oil and used a manuka honey UMf 16+ mask bc it is what I have on hand. I think the manuka honey does help a lot too.
I used coconut oil 2 about 2 weeks ago and it made my skin nice for a few days and then it broke me out a lot more than before I used it, then I did some research and found it highly comedogenic.
I have to decide what oil to order online because I live abroad in South Korea and I can only find extra virgin olive oil ( non-organic) here, so you post was very helpful. WISH ME LUCK! <3
I used olive oil and castor oil (well I still do) it works really well! I do use coconut oil as a moisturizer sometimes though!
Thank you for sharing, and I can relate to having those skin issues that make you afraid of cameras (and company in my case) when you are bare-skinned. Congrats on getting a beautiful, fresh-skinned photo up! You are beautiful.
how much of each for u put in there