Who Knew?

August 22, 2011 | My Jottings

I have never really done much to take care of my skin. There are times when I wish I had, but now that I’m in my fifties I know that the wrinkles signs of aging on my face are always going to be there. If you haven’t seen the up-close and personal evidence on my face in recent years, click here.

My skincare regimen consists of washing my face with lavender soap whenever I take a shower, and moisturizing my face a few times a year. I feel guilty admitting it, but I have just never remembered to put cream on my face before I go to bed at night. I remember to read, I remember to make sure the covers are just so, I remember to turn on a soothing CD before turning in for the night, but my skin rarely gets the attention that Lancôme and Clinique tells me it should.

When I was growing up in Southern California there was no talk of skin cancer, and we didn’t know that blistering sunburns dramatically increased your risk for it. I slathered baby oil all over my body and roasted in the sun so many times I couldn’t count if I tried. The bridge of my nose and the back of my shoulders have been blistered on numerous occasions.

Now I see that getting just the right amount of sunlight is needed — my family tends to be deficient in Vitamin D because we live so far north. So I still go out in the sun, but I no longer lay down on a towel and purposely broil myself. If I’m going to be out in the hot sun for very long, I use sunscreen.

About two weeks ago I happened upon a skin cleansing/moisturizing method that really got my attention. It’s called The Oil Cleansing Method and instead of me explaining everything myself, you can quickly read about it here. And here’s a great post by a blogger who tried this method and has been using it for years now. You can also find some videos on YouTube showing how to do this if you like.

I shared this information with my daughters, and Sara decided right away that she would try it with me. We found some people online who used a little Castor oil mixed with olive oil, and others who preferred a little Castor oil mixed with sunflower oil. Sara came home with a bottle of Castor and a bottle of sunflower, and we mixed our formulas.

My skin tends to be drier than Sara’s, so my personal little bottle has 10% Castor oil and 90% sunflower oil. Sara tried the ratio 30% Castor and 70% sunflower.

I’ve been faithfully cleansing my face every night for one week, using the methods found in the links above. I intend to do this every day for one month and then evaluate the results.

It makes sense to me that oil removes oil…I’d never thought about that before. Supposedly people with clogged pores have experienced wonderful results with oil cleansing…I hope to see the same for myself. 🙂 I also like that I’m not putting seventeen chemicals on my very absorbent skin, which would transport those chemicals quickly into my bloodstream.

So after one week, here’s what I’ve observed. In fact, I noticed it after one oil cleansing. No skin flakes! I used to have very flaky skin on my forehead and no matter how much moisturizing or exfoliating I tried, I always had flakes. All I had to do was run my finger across my forehead and it would start to snow little white flakes down in front of my face. Yes, I know, you don’t even have to say it. Blech.

Not a bit of soap has touched my face in a week, and not a bit will touch it for another 24 days. Sara tells me she sees a difference in the way my skin looks, but I’m not doing too much scrutinizing yet. I just know that it’s easy, cheap, and that all the flakes are gone.

Have any of you ever tried this method? If so, what did you think? If not, after reading the directions and the reasons why, do you think you’ll try it?