Fighting Oil With Oil

Several months ago, I posted this post about finding a new face soap, and my friend B suggested that I try something called "The Oil Method". I laughed to myself. "I'm pretty sure I can't use OIL to wash my greasy, acne-prone, stressed out skin". I filed it under "Things I Swear I Will Never Do". I should have known right then that I would eventually embrace it, since many of my current raves are things I originally scoffed.

I was running out of my bar face soap, and while probably greener than my fancy bottles of Olay, my face was still dry and flaky and oily and zitty all at the same time.

So.... I did some more reading about the Oil Method and started to come around. Then Whole Living did an article about it, and I was sold. See, sometimes all it really takes to convince me are some pretty pictures.

The article and the online info suggested a 75% olive oil, 25% castor oil blend for oily and acne-prone skin. I ordered a bottle of Castor Oil online, and I tried it for the first time tonight!

EVOO and Castor Oil blend

Clean white wash cloth

I got a 1/4 tsp from the kitchen and filled it up "most of the way" with olive oil, then topped it off with the castor oil. Very precise... Yeah, that's why I stick to cooking rather than baking. Anyway. I poured the 1/4 tsp into my hand and then used my palms and fingers to rub the oils into my face (bonus! mini face massage!) while I counted to 90. It felt surprisingly pleasant, and not at all like I was rubbing salad dressing into my pores.

After you rub in the oil, you drape a HOT damp washcloth over your face to steam the now-grimey oil back out of your pores. Let the washcloth cool off, then use the washcloth to gently wipe away the oil and gunk. It was hard to just stand there with a washcloth on my face while it cooled, but it did feel pretty great. After wiping the oil away, my formerly pristine cloth looked like this:

Makeup and city grossness

All that came off with just a 1/4 tsp of oils! Joy! My skin feels soft and clean. You are only supposed to wash this way once per day, and then just splash your face with cold water in the morning. Even LESS product being used. Love that.

From what I read, this works because the olive oil is a natural skin softener that binds with the castor oil, which is a natural cleanser. The olive oil acts as a vehicle to get the cleansing castor oil down into your pores, and then the steam from the washcloth yanks them both back out of your skin again. Soft, clean, and 100% natural.

So, thanks B for planting the seed of the idea all those months ago! I'm really happy with this new plan. I'm also hopeful that the Oil Method will help rebalance my skin, and maybe even make it less oily over time.

I know. It blew my mind too.

Go get some more oil on your face!