Oil Cleansing Method

[kaned_ferret]

I was sure that there was a topic a few aeons ago on this, but buggered if I can find it! So if anyone does know of it, then feel free to point it out, otherwise...

I have gone sls and chemical dye free in the hair stakes these last few months, and have seen great results with it. Now it's time to try something new for my skin, as at nearly 28 years old I am sick to death of getting spots! I mean really, I always thought it was a teenage affliction, so imagine my disappointment lol As it is I'm seriously considering the need for proper microdermabrasion in the next few years :/

I have been reading up on the ocm and am interested to give it a try, so I've ordered me some castor oil and will see what happens. What I want to know is, has anyone here got anything to say about it? (good, bad or ugly?!) I know Stina has said in a post that she uses it (still the case?), and was wondering if I could get some reviews together from you trusted lot. Also, for those of you that do/did, do you have any particular favoured mixes or recipes? I'm going to start off on plain castor and evoo to start, but recommendations are welcomed!

[guest123]

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[kaned_ferret]

haha you got me - I don't know what's happened but I've become a happy hair hippy and want lovely schmexy long hair again, so it's a good place to be

But I've tried the search function on that forum and it availed me nought... the forum engine just isn't anywhere near us user friendly as this one Not moseyed on over to tbb yet...

[guest123]

*deleted*

[kaned_ferret]

*facepalm* you is a star, and I is a moose brain for not realising that your lhc link was direct to the thread.. for some reason I just thought it was a straight lhc thread... must wake up! Good tip on the googlage as well I might add!

Thanking you!

[Nanou2]

I was about to make a OCM post!

I started the ocm a week ago now and I am loving it!! I use 50/50 castor oil and evoo. My face has been much brighter, cleaner and softer since I begun. I noticed my pores look smaller already and of the few blackheads I would get they have faded by about 80% already. I saw a girl on youtube do the ocm and said not to do it in the summer as her pores got clogged more from the heat and oil. I am going to do this for another month or so then maybe just a couple of times a week in summer.

The castor oil is great. My skin actually feels tight and clean after using it. The oil cleans all my makeup off including waterproof mascara easily.

I am getting some pure vitamin C powder/ascorbic acid to make my own vit c face serum.

You should check out some reviews for that, I hear it's good for acne as well as making the skin awesome !

Good luck

[Lorny]

I was thinking of giving this a go! I think I definitely will now, especially if it's as good as Nanou is making out!

By the way, how often does everyone do it? I saw it said not often, but I wear make up everyday so I'd hate to get a build up of make up before I did it again.

[Nanou2]

I saw someone recommend to do it 3times a week but I've been doing it 1-2 x a day depending on if I wear make up or not. I don't see it being that big of a deal how often you do it as long as you clean it off properly and use the right mixture to suit your skin needs.

Use less castor oil and more evoo for dry skin. Use more castor oil and less evoo for oily skin.

I read to not wipe the face with the hot flannel to take it off as it isn't necessary. I tried this but I found I was left with a film of oil on my skin.

I now put the hot flannel on my face/neck and reheat it 3-4times then on the 4/5 one I wipe the oil off. It doesn't take much to come off and I feel my face is much cleaner this way.

I found it was making my skin super tight and a bit dry after the wash so I am starting to use more evoo/less castor and also put a little dab of evoo on as a moisturizer before bed.

I am ordering some rose hip oil so I think I might add that to the mix!

[Lorny]

I did it last night and this morning and I think it's definitely done some good! I think I need to give my face a good scrub though, cuz over the past couple of weeks I've been getting crusty skin on my nose and forehead, even though I have oily skin. I've had it on my eyelids too, it's weird. I'm guessing I need to just give my face some exfoliation.

[Bomber]

Where do you get castor oil from? I want to give this a try because all "normal" facial washes seem to be seriously drying my skin out so it sounds like a good idea.

[Nanou2]

I got mine from a local chemist/pharmacist. It could be in Asda or boots. You may find it in the laxative section as it is used as a laxative when ingested.

It got rid of my dry skin around my nose. I'm changing my mixture to less olive oil and more castor oil now. It's wicked for removing make up.

How's it going Lorny?

[Lorny]

It's good! I've had trouble with it being too drying and giving me crusty patches and a sore nose, but I'm going to buy some jojoba oil to use as a moisturiser after cleansing. I need to get some sunflower seed oil cuz it's the closest match to sebum, which should really help balance my natural oils.

[Nanou2]

Are you just using a olive oil/castor oil mix at the moment?

I will keep a look out for some sunflower seed oil. I bought vitamin A oil for the moisturizing. Hopefully that will help a lot, as the castor oil is quite drying.

[Lorny]

I was using 75% sweet almond oil to 25% castor oil, but I plonked an extra 20 ml of sweet almond in the bottle. The dryness was making my skin all itchy and horrible, so I had to do something about it. It's sorted out the itch but it still has some dry patches. I will start using sunflower seed oil as the carrier oil once I can get my hands on some.

[Bomber]

I have very combination skin, some parts are very dry and others very oily. I guess it wouldn't be too hard to make up two batches with different ratios and use them on the different parts though.

[MichelleBichos]

Bear in mind that castor oil is for oily skin, and will dry out dry skin! I don't use the OCM per se, but I do take makeup off with jojoba oil, and use oil as a moisturiser ... for my dry skin, it has to be avocado or rosehip oil (at the moment I'm using a combo from Etsy).

If anyone's interested in my adventures in 'green beauty', here's a link to my blog entries on the subject: http://threefolddesigns.blogspot.com/se ... n%20beauty - since I stopped using chemicals on my skin, and have only used mineral makeup, my skin has improved dramatically - no spots!

[Lorny]

Well I reckon the 70% 30% for oily skin shouldn't be a general rule, cuz I have the kind of oily skin that changes your skin tone. I think I must have about 15% castor oil in mine at the minute and I'm still dry. My friend's mum is a holistic therapist and was showing me all her oils and what have you. I think I might only use a smidge of castor oil as the cleanser, cuz I don't like having rough skin, especially where I'm oily!

MichelleBichos, I found that blog quite interesting! I look forward to hearing the review on the face suncream. I'm off on my hols in a few months and I was wondering what I'd use should my face clear up and be lovely.

[MichelleBichos]

Thanks Lorny! I put the info on my blog, since I spent SO much time researching, I would have loved to have found it all in one place, haha!!

I should update the blog! - I've been using Devita 30+, and it's very light - probably not moisturising enough for my dry skin, but fine over the top of my facial oil. I'm still waiting for Petite Marie Organics to redo their sunscreens (but I think she's in the process of moving from the UK to Switzerland) - but I'd definitely buy the Devita again!

[Lorny]

I'm not sure I'm getting the hang of this castor oil business, even at a low castor:almond ratio. It started off fine for the first couple of days at 30% castor but then my cheeks and nose were sore and crusty, so I plonked another 20ml of almond to my bottle. Now my cheeks are just crusty without the soreness and my oily t-zone is pretty bad too. I shoved a ton of sweet almond oil on my face last night to help with the moisturising and it seems to be better today.

I use it once a day, in the evening to remove my make up. Maybe I need to try a 10% castor mix since I'm using it every day. I have no idea what sort of mix I have at the moment, but I'll plink another 10ml of almond in the bottle. I also have quite a few little pimples on my face, which I never got before. I'm wondering if this is the castor oil pulling crap from my face?

[Nanou2]

I used olive oil and that helped the dry skin.

I also got some little pimples which I would not have had before as I never break out on my forehead. I stopped using the oil wash twice a day and just use it to remove make up and a few nights a week. The pimples have gone and I am wondering if it was the oil cleanse or not. I will have to have to look into it a bit more.

[Nanou2]

http://www.skinacea.com/faq/acne/a12-cl ... akout.html

I think I am going to change the oil mixture I have. I am going to mix safflower oil with castor oil and see how that goes. I will see if I am not rinsing the oil of properly too. I do stand there for about 15minutes doing the whole process. I'm sure I'm rinsing good enough but I'll do the test in the link anyway.

[Lorny]

I give my face a rinse straight with warm water after I've rinsed off the oil with a cloth and I usually give my face rub to feel if it's oily, but there is nothing when my skin dries. No apparent residue and I don't feel a film on my face. Today I noticed that I have a lot more lines on my skin, and if I scrunch it I get a line there. I get a lot of liquid daily, so I can only imagine it's an effect from the oil cleanse. I already know my skin is a lot drier cuz it's crusty.

I think I might try using plain oil just to dissolve make up and any other day (although I do wear make up everyday) I just use a flannel to rinse/exfoliate my face. I don't know what I'll do about moisturiser though, maybe I can use a regular one for sensitive skin.

[Bomber]

Definitely intrigued by the high SPF moisturisers! I'm so ridiculously pale that I burn after 10 minutes in the sun in the UK and yet I cannot find readily available high SPF moisturisers anywhere. Ideally I'd need 50+ but 30+ would be way better than the SPF 12 I'm using now. I'm also intrigued by natural sunscreen, the regular kind plays absolute havoc with my keratosis and makes my skin disgustingly spotty.

[MichelleBichos]

Lorny, do you really *have* to use castor oil? Can you give a combo of almond and olive oil a try? A few drops of your almond oil would make a good moisturiser after you've taken your make-up off

Bomber, here's the link to the Devita sunscreen: http://www.springsunday.com/daily-solar ... evita.html. Not cheap, but it's very hard to find natural sunscreens, and they're all expensive!

[Lorny]

I don't have to, but I have just spent 8 quid on a bottle of it. Would regular oil work just as well? I thought castor oil was THE best oil for cleansing, or else I wouldn't have bothered buying it!