The Oil Cleansing Method:100% Natural Moisturizing Face Cleanser

I've been using olive oil to wash my face for the past two months. Yeah, you heard me right. I wash my face with oil. Sound like an oxymoron? Here's how it works: like disolves like. The clean oil dissolves the dirty oil from your face, all without stripping your skin's natural protective oils. This all natural, gentle cleansing approach is called the oil cleansing method or OCM in the blogosphere. Not only do I save money compared to my old Clinique face wash, it also doubles as my eye makeup remover. Yay for simplifying! The best part? My face has never looked and felt better.

Recommended Oils

You'll want to use a little castor oil mixed with a carrier oil. Castor oil is very cleansing. Start with one of the following ratios listed below. If your skin feels too oily, use more castor oil. If your skin feels too dry, use less castor oil. Castor oil is very drying, so don't use too much. You should be able to find these oils at your local health food store, Amazon, or Mountain Rose Herbs. It may take time to find what works for your skin. When I started OCM, I used 100% olive oil because my skin was so dry. Now that my skin has adjusted and isn't dry anymore, I use 10% castor oil, 90% jojoba oil.

• Oily Skin: 30% castor oil to 70% carrier oil
• Normal Skin: 20% castor oil to 80% carrier oil
• Dry Skin: 10% castor oil to 90% carrier oil
• Really Dry Skin: 0% castor oil to 100% carrier oil

Moisturizing Carrier Oils:

• Jojoba--all skin types, especially acne-prone, oily, sensitive, and normal
• Sweet Almond--all skin types, especially dry, itchy, and normal
• Avocado--all skin types, especially dry, itchy, sensitive, and aging
• Apricot Kernel--all skin types, especially dry, sensitive, aging, and normal
• Grape Seed--all skin types, especially acne-prone and oily
• Kukui Nut--all skin types, especially dry and normal
• Olive--all skin types, especially dry

Oil Cleansing Steps

1. Rinse Face. Rinse face with water.


2. Massage with Oil. Lightly massage oil in a circular motion over your face for two minutes. Massaging your face can lead to firmer, more radiant skin by minimizing fine lines and wrinkles, releasing tension, and improving circulation. Just remember that when you're getting bored and wondering if the two minutes are up yet.


3. Remove Eye Makeup. Gently rub oil across your eye lids and eye lashes to remove eye makeup.


4. Steam. Soak a washcloth with hot water. Hold it over your face for 10-15 seconds.


5. Wipe Off. Gently wipe oil off your face and eyes with your washcloth. When I'm finished, my face feels clean and moisturized, never greasy. I'm still amazed that oil can clean my face.

(Don't forget to admire your beautiful, glowing skin in the mirror.)

Customize with Essential Oils

You can make your cleansing oil even more luxurious and customized to your individual skin type by adding essential oils. Essential oils are natural compounds extracted from parts of plants, flowers, and trees. They have been used throughout history for their medicinal and therapeutic benefits. They are extremely concentrated so you only need to add a few drops to your bottle of oil. Click here for more essential oil safety. You can find essential oils at your local health food store, Amazon, dōTERRA, or Mountain Rose Herbs.

• Mature Skin/Wrinkles: frankincense, helichrysum, geranium, lavender, myrrh, sandalwood, carrot seed
• Dry Skin: rose, lavender, geranium, sandalwood, rosewood, ylang-ylang, chamomile
• Oily Skin: lemon, cedarwood, cypress, juniper, lavender, lemongrass, grapefruit
• Acne-Prone Skin: tea tree, lemongrass, lavender, geranium, peppermint, rosemary, sandalwood

Questions About OCM

How often do you wash your face with oil?

I do OCM most nights to wash my makeup off, but many people do it less often. I wash my face with water only when I shower in the morning. I don't use facial cleansers anymore because they strip too much of the skin's natural protective oils.

Do you need to moisturize after OCM?

My face was quite dry when I started OCM, so I had to moisturize. Over the past two months of doing OCM, my face has gotten less and less dry so I don't even need to moisturize anymore. But I do it anyway to help prevent wrinkles (it's never too early). I also use oil to moisturize, which you can read about here.

Does washing with oil make you break out?

No, I get less blemishes now then I did before OCM. Occasionally I'll get a tiny blemish when I'm lazy and don't wash my makeup off at night. Do OCM for at least three weeks to give your face adequate time to adjust. Be patient. It took some time before I figured out what oils worked for my skin and for my face to adjust to this new way of doing things.

How does OCM save you money?

Here's how much money I'm saving by switching to olive oil/castor oil. Not only do I save money, I don't have to worry about all the chemicals in commercial cleanser anymore. I also use oil as a natural make-up remover so that saves me even more money.

$3.90/oz. Clinique Foaming Cleanser ($19.50/5 oz.)
$1.68/oz. Olive Oil ($9/24 oz) & Castor Oil ($10/8 oz.)

Read More About OCM:
The Oil Cleansing Method
Nitty Gritty on the Oil Cleansing Method

Have you tried the oil cleansing method? What do you think?

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Homemade Face & Body Scrub

It's official. I've called it quits with my old Mary Kay scrub and I'm now in a long-term relationship with my all-natural, homemade face & body scrub. I've been using it once a week to exfoliate. I can't say it enough, I'm in love. It's soooo moisturizing and it leaves my skin feeling as soft as a baby's bottom.

Face & Body Sugar Scrub

2 tsp honey
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp olive oil

Mix honey with sugar and olive oil. (I mix it with my fingers while I'm in the shower.) Rub lightly in a circular motion on your face and body to exfoliate.

Ingredients

Honey: Honey is really good for your skin. I've been using raw honey. Am I the only one that didn't know about raw honey until recently? I thought honey was honey but ohhh, was I wrong. Raw honey has the live enzymes, vitamins, and minerals left in so it's going to be more beneficial to your skin. You can check out Crunchy Betty's honey guide to learn more. I bought raw honey at my local health food store, but you can also find it on Amazon. If you don't have raw honey on hand, of course, just use what's in your cupboard.

Sugar: I've been using organic dark brown sugar. White granulated sugar also works well. Normal brown sugar won't work because it's too processed and soft and won't exfoliate as well.

Olive Oil: The olive oil makes this scrub Über moisturizing. I like to use extra virgin olive oil because it's less processed and contains more antioxidents; but again, just use what's in your cupboard. You could even use vegetable oil if that's what you have.


Instructions

My scrub recipe is pretty thick, but that's how I like it so that it will stick to my skin and moisturize away. I use the scrub on my face first. After I'm done, I leave the scrub mixture on my face to moisturize while I'm using the scrub on my body. Then I rinse off with water. If you are going to use soap, lather up before you exfoliate so the oil can soak in until it can't soak in no mo'. If you want a less thick scrub, add a little yogurt (also moisturizing) or add more oil.

Saves Money

By switching to a homemade scrub, I save money AND stop worrying about all the chemicals in commercial scrubs.

$12/oz. Mary Kay Microdermabrasion ($30/2.5 oz.)
$.26/oz. Raw Honey ($6/14 oz), Organic Sugar ($3/32 oz.), & Olive Oil ($9/24 oz.)

Enough talking. Now go try it so you can have soft baby bum skin too!
How do you like to exfoliate?


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Homemade Rust Remover and Stainless Steel Cleaner

A few weeks ago I stumbled across this article about using lime juice and salt to remove rust stains. I love how well Bar Keepers Friend cleaner removes rust and cleans my stainless steel pots and pans but I don't love the toxic ingredients. So I thought I'd give lime juice a go. I'm always up for a chance to smell a lime.

The All-Amazing Lime: Not Just a Fruit

First I tried lime juice on my knife which had some rust stains. See those three orange spots? (Sorry for the blurry pic) I squeezed lime juice on the rust spots and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then I sprinkled some salt on it and scrubbed with a non-scratch scouring pad. It took more elbow grease then Bar Keepers Friend would take, but it worked!

BEFORE

AFTER

Then I used lime juice on my supposedly clean pots and pans which were looking pretty nasty. I rubbed a slice of lime on my pots, let it sit 10 minutes, sprinkled salt on them and then rubbed with a scouring pad. I didn't even have to use elbow grease this time. I'm all for saving my elbow grease.

BEFORE

AFTER

I was having so much fun by this point that I rubbed a slice of lime all over my stainless steel faucet and it came out all shiny! The citric acid in the lime dissolves the rust and build-up while the tiny salt granules help scrub it away. Now I've got one more reason to love limes.

p.s. lemons work too.

What else can you do with lovely limes? Do you have any other rust removing tips? Or stainless steel cleaning tips?


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