Health & Support

Sounds counterintuitive doesn't it? It's called the Oil Cleansing Method. I've been doing it for a week now and I notice a big difference in the look and feel of my skin. I've had blackheads on my nose and chin since I was about 12 years old and I could never get rid of them. I'd wash my face and they'd be right back. I could still see them. Even masks didn't really work. With using this oil stuff they are starting to go away! I keep running to the mirror to check and yeah, it's seriously working. My pores are still big, so I have empty holes in my face but I suspect that will change once all the gunk gets out.

I have acne prone skin that's oily, dry, and normal in some spots. Though I haven't had a problem in awhile, I get cystic ance too. It's only been a week but so far so good, no pimples no nothing execpt glowing skin and empty pores.

I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil (yes, the stuff you cook with) mixed in with a little Castor Oil (yes, the stuff that makes you poop). I also mix in a little tea tree oil because that's always helped with my skin.

So who's going to try this?

http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/
http://www.thebeautybottle.com/index.php?opti on=com_content&task=view&id=6&Ite mid=2

edited to add the following

Okay, for those of us who are having problems here are some Trouble Shooting tips.  I would add this to the first post but since it's been edited by a mod it won't let me.  Boo.  Maybe I'll add it to my second post. 

Anyway, everyone's skin is different.  You have to find what works for your skin.  Same thing when you use commerical facial cleansers...you have to figure out what works for you.  If you're having breakouts that you believe are related to OCM try these Trouble Shooting Tips:

1.  Your skin doesn't like EVOO (or whatever oil).  Try different oil.

2.  Your skin doesn't like Castor Oil.  Does it work without castor oil?  Some people do a modified version of OCM without castor.  Some people have luck with just EVOO or Jojoba (or whatever). 

3.  Your skin doesn't like the ratio of EVOO (or whatever oil) to Castor.  Change your ratios around.

4.  You're not spending enough time rubbing the oils in.  Give it at least 5 minutes.  Take some you time and enjoy.

5.  You're not getting enough dirty oils off your skin.  Spend more time with the rag on your face and take more care to get the oils off.

6.  Your skin does not like your washing off technique.  Lay a hot rag across your face.  Hold it in place.  Let it sit there until it cools a little.  Gently wipe your face.  Repeat.  Don't scrub.

7.  Your skin doesn't like the hot rag approach.  Try doing OCM in the shower and forgo the hot rag.  Instead, rub your oils in for AT LEAST 5 minutes then wash with water only.

8.  You're not soaking your wash cloths in dish soap and very hot water for a long time before sending them through the washing machine.  Laundry detergent cannot get the dirty oils out of your rags.  Dirty oil rags can cause you to break out.  Only use a rag once. 

9.  Your skin is too dry.  Try using plain EVOO (or whatever oil) as a moisturizer.  Or try bumping down your % of castor oil.

10.  Are you over washing your face?  Are you using your normal harsh cleanser in the morning then doing OCM at night?  Try washing your face with just water in the morning.  It's not gross, trust me.

11.  Are you under washing your face?  Are you washing your face with water only in the morning and doing OCM at night?  If you have time, do OCM in the morning and at night.  If you don’t have time, try using a light cleanser in the morning.  Look for one that's oil based.  You could probably find something good at a health food store.  

12.  Are you doing OCM everyday?  Try doing it only once every other day.  Maybe everyday is too much for your skin.

13.  Are you NOT doing OCM everyday?  Maybe you should try it.

14.  Maybe your skin needs extra pimple busting power.  Try adding a few drops of EO to your mix.  I highly recommend tea tree oil.  Other all around skin helpers include lavender, rosemary, geranium, and rose.  Do some research and see what might help you.

Guys I saw this post when jewels first posted it and I tried it. I used a generic moisturizer I have lying around (key ingredient sunflower seed oil, but it also has soybean, corn, and olive oil?) that I would never dare put anywhere near my face normally. I have skin that is ALWAYS prone to breakouts and blackheads. But after about 3 "treatments" I'm convinced my skin looks better... maybe it's a coincidence, but it certainly didn't HURT anything.

I'm going to keep using it, especially on my nose where I still have a little blemish. =) I was the most conservative with the oil on my nose during those trials because that's usually my worst area, hehe.

First time I did it was just with EVOO and TTO.  My skin felt awesome!  The next day though I noticed a few flesh colored bumps.  Basically using EVOO without the castor oil didn't clean my skin but really moisturized it.  The next time I did it I added castor oil and there was a huge difference.  My skin got that tight clean feeling, but it wasn't as tight as it is using regular face soap and it still felt soft.  Castor oil is what does the deep cleansing.

Deflepan, my skin looked dewey/glowy after using the EVOO and TTO without any castor oil.  It felt great too, so I don't think it's all in your head.

I got Castor Oil in the laxative section of my local drugstore.  You can find it at Wal-Mart and grocery stores too.  If you've got health food stores near you, you can find the organic cold pressed stuff.  The laxative kind works for me though.  If you're not in North America it might be harder to find.

Ohh ok, I'll be sure to pick some up next time I'm at Walmart then!  Thank you! =D

Here's how I do it.

I mix up:
1 teaspoon EVOO
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon castor oil (the amount depends on wether or not I'm really oily)
1/4 teaspoon TTO

That's enough for two applications.  I pour some in my hands, rub together, and start rubbing it on my face.  My face is dry and dirty.  If you are wearing makeup don't bother washing it off before doing OCM.  The oils make perfect makeup removers.  My focus is mainly my T Zone but I'm sure to my whole face.  I rub it in for at least five minutes but I find this very relaxing so sometimes it's more like 10 minutes.  Then I get my wash cloth nice and hot and lay it across my face.  I let it sit there a few minutes then slowly and gently wipe my face with it.  I repeat two more times.  Then I splash my face in cold water.  If I'm feeling a little dry I use plain EVOO on my dry parts.

I ALWAYS use a clean cloth every day.  Once I get a few dirty ones I soak them in Dawn dish detergent for awhile before throwing them in the wash.  I soak them in Dawn to get all the oils out of them.  Eventually all the dirty oils will build up on the towels and they'll go rank and could cause break outs.  Apparently they make laundry detergent that does get oil out (used by Massage Therapists) but so far so good with the Dawn soak.

Everyone who's trying this be sure to keep us updated!  And thanks for trying it too!

Great information - I will try this too!

I always feel great after facials (and they use oils), but get dry between - -  - why didn't I ever think of this - - - I've tried almost everything else!

I intend to try this and photograph daily to watch the changes. I couldn't get any castor oil at the supermarket today but I will definitely look for some tomorrow in the health food shop. I'm going to try with sunflower oil and caster oil to begin with as it says on those links. I'm also trying to get into the habit of drinking more water at the minute so hopefully combined I'll see some changes. If the photographs turn out well I'm not against sharing them. :) Probably just a week by week showing though, I'm not expecting miraculous changes daily - though I could be surprised!

I must admit my boyfriend was a little surprised at the supermarket today and was very much "surely putting oil on your skin is going to cause to to be oily and give you more spots", I tried to explain and then gave up since I'm in a ratty mood today ;)

I also have the issue of hogging the one bathroom between four of us, but... never mind! I only have two washcloths too and no idea what Dawn dish detergent is - I'm in the UK. I'll have to hunt out an equivalent.

Dawn dish detergent is a strong grease busting liquid soap that you wash dishes with.  Any dish detergent would work, I just say to use Dawn because in my experience it's the best grease killing dish detergent available in US/Canada.  I don't know what you guys have but I'm sure any would work to help prevent buildup.

Cool, I hope the photos do turn out well.  Be sure to get a nice macro shot of your pores if you can!

That sounds like a great idea.... I think I'll try it when I return home (I'm at school, just finishing exams right now).... I have decent sized blackheads on my nose that just dont go away!

in the meanwhile, if someone's trying it.... keep us updated w/ the results!!

I tried this last night and it wasn't nearly as weird as I thought it would be.  I did have a little trouble getting it off of my eyelashes.  It seemed to want to stick.  I noticed that I still missed some this morning when I got up.

jewels - where did you get the TTO?

I just tried this last night.  My 15 year old son is doing it, too.  He has some pretty severe acne on parts of his face, so we will see how it goes.

I bought the TTO at Wal-Mart.  It was in the vitamin aisle, sorted alphabetically.

I will let you know how it goes!

You can get tea tree oil just about anywhere.  I have one bottle from GNC and then other bottle from a tiny health food store.  If you have a biggish Wal-Mart I'm sure you can find it there as well.  Also if your gorcery store has a health/vegan/organic section you might be able to find it there.

TTO isn't necessary for it to work.  I've had such good experience with that oil in the past I decided I would go ahead and use that too.  I hear lavander EO and rose EO work really well too and smell a lot better than TTO.

I've been doing this for two nights now and taking photographs - I must admit the before pictures are somewhat depressing since my camera lets you see so close!

Anyway I'm not sure if I'm noticing a difference in the spots or blackheads yet (although I'm fairly certain something's going on) but I must admit that oil is amazing at getting makeup off! I was wearing a significant amount of liquid eyeliner and it got it off no problem! My usual cleanser would only get so much of the mascara off and I'd still go to bed with slight dark smudges under my eyes no matter what I did - but not anymore! So I imagine this is definitely doing something for the other dirt on my skin too.

I'll share the pictures next week and post about them then.

I'm just using castor oil and sunflower oil in the balanced skin percentages.

Hellooo!!! It's the esthetician here again - I'm so excited to see so many people wanting to do good things for their skin! Too bad I couldn't get you all as facial clients.

Make sure that if you're buying essential oils to mix with your Oil Cleansing Method that you are getting PURE essential oils. Just like cosmetic companies, sometimes the essential oil companies put filler chemicals in with their oils. So make sure you're getting 100% pure, or better yet, organic. You can usually find them at health food stores or here we have a yoga store that has a bunch. Online is always an easy avenue, too!

Good essential oils for cleansing/acne are bergamot, chamomile, clary sage, clove bud, geranium, grapefruit, juniper, lavender, lemon, lime, mandarin, palmarosa, peppermint, rosemary, rosewood, tea tree, and ylang-ylang.  I currently am using 40% Castor Oil, 60% EVOO, and then have mixed in about 10 drops each of lavender and ylang-ylang - it smells deliciously sweet.  

If you're looking for a good skincare system to use when you're not using the OCM, check out Naturkosmetiks by Martina Gebhardt. They are 100% Natural and over 95% Organic!!! It's out of Germany - the main ingredient in most of the cleansers and lotions is Olive Oil!!! The North American distributor is called Eco-Beauty Organics - here is her website: http://www.eco-beauty.com/  These are the products I use and sell at my spa (in Normal, Illinois if any of you are local) and have gotten rave reviews from everyone so far. I do the OCM for about a week (at night), and use my Naturkosmetiks in the morning (I have very oily skin, and workout a lot, so have to cleanse in the shower) and then when I'm not using the OCM I use the Naturkosmetiks. They're a great companion to the OCM!!!

Good luck everyone!!! Let me know if you have any skincare questions!

I look forward to starting this system. I have alright skin but I'd like to see it better. I'm assuming that I could probably do this on my back too right? I have some gross skin stuff going on there.

lisamarie, I have a question. I have a little vial of my favorite scent but I don't know if this is ok to add to the face. It says its perfume oils, pure concentrate, wearable or pottery. Can I add that?

oh my god. i used just some EVOO yesterday and one application later, my skin feels so much better. my pores aren't as clogged. the thing is, normal cleansers left my skin tight and oil-free, but it didn't get rid of the oil that was trapped within the pores. The EVOO left my skin nice supple while cleaning out my pores. this is awesome!

now if only there was a way to reduce redness and get rid of really bad bags underneath my eyes...

whoa! i am totally going to try this out!

i have one question though, do you guys do this daily? if you don't do it daily, what kind of cleaser do you use in between? i wear make-up almost daily, and currently use some kind of daily acne scrub face wash. i still break out pretty frequently and it's bumming me out! i'm 26, i shouldn't still have so many breakouts!

i'm stopping at CVS on the way home for some castor oil! i've already got the EVOO!

Original Post by offinlalaland:

lisamarie, I have a question. I have a little vial of my favorite scent but I don't know if this is ok to add to the face. It says its perfume oils, pure concentrate, wearable or pottery. Can I add that?

Hmmm.. I'm not sure. Depends on what they consist of. I suppose that since it will be diluted by the olive oil and what not that it might be okay. What you can try is doing a test-patch on the skin behind your ear. Put some there and wait 24 hours and see if there is any irritation at all. Pure essential oils are best to use on the skin rather than artificial fragrances, but then again I'm not sure what yours is made of.

Good luck!

Original Post by jules817:

i have one question though, do you guys do this daily? if you don't do it daily, what kind of cleaser do you use in between? i wear make-up almost daily, and currently use some kind of daily acne scrub face wash. i still break out pretty frequently and it's bumming me out! i'm 26, i shouldn't still have so many breakouts!

Jules - chances are your acne scrub face wash is stripping your skin, which can cause you to break out even more. I would try the Oil Cleansing Method every night for one week, and use an organic cleanser and moisturizer in the morning. Here's my suggestion from my post above:

"If you're looking for a good skincare system to use when you're not using the OCM, check out Naturkosmetiks by Martina Gebhardt. They are 100% Natural and over 95% Organic!!! It's out of Germany - the main ingredient in most of the cleansers and lotions is Olive Oil!!! The North American distributor is called Eco-Beauty Organics - here is her website: http://www.eco-beauty.com/  These are the products I use and sell at my spa (in Normal, Illinois if any of you are local) and have gotten rave reviews from everyone so far. I do the OCM for about a week (at night), and use my Naturkosmetiks in the morning (I have very oily skin, and workout a lot, so have to cleanse in the shower) and then when I'm not using the OCM I use the Naturkosmetiks. They're a great companion to the OCM!!!"

Jules, I would try OCM every night for two weeks.  If you're not comfortable washing with water only in the mornings (because OCM is a hassle when you're on the go) I would look for something like Lisa suggested.  For the longest time I was using Cetaphil because I thought it was a gentle cleanser.  I happened to look up the ingredients and holy cow, that stuff could wash engine grease off your face.

You wrote that your face wash is an acne scrub?  Is it exfoliating?  If it is, that could be your problem right there.  Most people don't need to exfoliate their face everyday.  That stuff can rip up your skin and make acne worse.  I'm no expert but I'd think exfoliating would be suffcient at once or twice a week.  You can add sugar/brown sugar or baking soda to your wash or oil as an exfoliant.