hope for my face

Another exciting something I learned today on the internet came from a post I found over on She Breathes Deeply about the "Oil Cleansing Method" of skin care. Truthfully, I have had horrendous skin off and on since I was about 16 or 17 years old. The only break I have ever had from it has been during pregnancy, nursing, right after my period starts and moments of God's grace. I have tried EVERYTHING. Since I weaned Noah, my skin has gone nuts again. I have been broken out now for the last two months it seems without any kind of break. I know I am seriously stressed out. AND I know I am not eating right, taking any good supplements or drinking enough water - all of which will help. But I've also noticed changes in my skin since I had Noah - weird patches of dry flaky skin and then really broken out areas. It just sucks. In conjunction with my lack of hair which I should never have cut off, my totally shrunken boobs post nursing Shiloh for 21 months, then pregnancy, then nursing another year, then weaning, and my broke out face, I just feel so ugly right now! 

All of this being said I came across this post and got excited, thinking it might be a huge help to my skin. The approach makes total sense - that oil dissolves oil... naturally, water does not dissolve oil, so chemicals and soaps are used in typical facial cleansers to strip it away. Which is really not a good thing, because then your skin over produces the oils that should be there that were stripped away, and this may result in breakouts. You can read more about it here.

I decided to do an experiment and share it with you all. You get to see my broken-outness in all it's glory. And hopefully some improvement. 

You can read more about the recommended ratios here, but basically, you start with a carrier oil, usually EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and castor oil. This Castor oil is leftover from inducing labor with Noah. Glad to have it, because I was able to put the concoction together without delay. Since I am acne prone, I did 50/50 EVOO and castor oil, and about 5 drops of tea tree oil. 

...kinda pretty how the oils separated. I stored mine in an old Ball jelly jar. I may need to grab a teaspoon to keep handy because the oil is messy and drippy when trying to pour it out of the jar. 

The deal is, you basically take a little bit of it (I used about a tablespoon - you can use less or more) and massage it into your skin for 2-5 minutes. Then, you take a hot washcloth, put it over your face until it cools, and repeat a few times. Then just wipe the oil off. You will be surprised how NOT greasy your face feels. In fact I questioned whether or not I needed to moisturize afterwards. I took these before and after photos. I will do my best to keep daily photos posted so you can see the change, provided there is a change. And I hope there will be!

Something I notice in this side-by-side is that the redness in the "after" photo seems to be reduced! I noticed that in the mirror too. I haven't edited these photos in any way, just in case you might be wondering.

I am hopeful that this change will result in clearer skin for me. I took it for granted when I was preggo and nursing, but here I am. Back to reality. Hoping for an improvement... Sure would make me feel a little better.

Thanks for being sweet...

Brooke