This post is going to about a technique I use in my skin care routine to get amazingly soft and deeply cleansed skin. You'll feel like you've had some sort of top notch facial treatment at some top notch spa once you've tried this technique. Yes, really! So what am I raving about? The oil cleansing method baby! (OCM for short). This method works for all skin types including oily and acne prone like mine. So how does it work? Well, you massage your dry skin with your chosen oil mixture and then remove the oil with a damp hot washcloth while applying pressure so as to exfoliate your skin while you remove the oil. You remove the oil from you face as many times as you feel necessary wetting the washcloth with hot water (as hot as you can handle without burning yourself) and ringing out the water to leave the washcloth damp and not too wet each time you use the flannel on your face. It's as simple as that but it is so effective. It's the same principle as the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish system and the Eve Lom cleanser. I actually tried the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish as it looked amazing the many times I saw her promoting it on QVC but unfortunately it didn't work for me. It didn't improve the appearance of my skin in any way, in fact it made the acne I was suffering from at the time slightly worse. I realised why later - it has cocoa butter in the ingredients! The Eve Lom cleanser also has cocoa butter in it's ingredients so I didn't even want to go there. I was disappointed because I was really looking forward to the Cleanse & Polish system working for me as I had heard so many great reviews about it. But everyone's skin it is different. Mel at Wall of Mirrors did a review of Cleanse & Polish and she got on great with it. I think it is better suited to people who do not have acne prone skin. Both of these cleansers are used with a muslin cloth rather than a washcloth/flannel.
Other balmy-like cleansers with the same concept as the above are Lush's Ultra Bland Cleanser, Boot's Time Delay Daily Skin Brightening Cleansing balm and The Organic Pharmacy's Carrot Butter Cleanser.
I haven't tried any of these but seeing as I'm quite the cosmetics junkie I'll probably want to give them ago as soon as I get get my hands them! (Except the Carrot Butter - it's got coconut oil and cocoa butter in it)
So what kind oils do you use for the OCM? There are many cleansing oils on the market that are packaged and ready for you to use such as L'Occitane's Almond Apple Cleansing Oil, Sanctuary's Ultimate Facial Cleansing Oil, Nip+Fab's Clean Fix Facial Cleansing Oil and Origins' Clean Energy Gentle Cleansing Oil.
However, these options tend to be a bit on the pricey side. You do not need any of these products to get the great results the OCM offers at home with your own oil concoction. Plus, the great thing about the OCM is the oil mixture you chose to use will be 100% natural and pure meaning no ingredients used to bulk up / fill out the product such as mineral oil. To begin with, the base oil you can use is castor oil. Castor oil helps to absorb the excess sebum on your skin so the oilier your skin the more castor oil you will use and the drier your skin the less castor oil you will use. Your main oil as an example could be something like jojoba oil. So, someone with oily skin can mix 1 part castor oil and 1 part jojoba oil while someone with dry skin may mix 1 part castor oil to two or three parts jojoba oil.
You do not have to use castor oil and jojoba oil. I'm merely mentioning these as examples. That's the beauty of the OCM. You tailor the mixture to however you think best suits your skin. At the moment I am using just plain sunflower oil without castor oil as a base. I chose sunflower oil as it's non-comedogenic and contains high levels of vitamin E. So choose an oil that you think works well for you. It might be jojoba oil for it's lightness, olive oil for it's moisturising properties or grape seed oil for it's vitamin C and vitamin E content etc. There are various oils to chose from. I don't use olive oil as it breaks me out. Sunflower is my favourite so far. Definitely do not use coconut oil!! It is highly comedogenic, I found this out the hard way! Though if you do try it you may find you like it and doesn't cause you to break out. Everyone is different. But I definitely do not recommend it. The Sage Advice website has an extensive list of commonly used cosmetic ingredients (which includes some natural oils like castor oil and olive oil) and their comedogenic levels and SavvyHomemade lists oils and their benefits so take a peek to see which oil may work well with your skin. If you cannot find the comedogenic level of your chosen oil on Sage Advice then just do a quick search on your preferred search engine.
To tailor the mixture even more to your skin you can add essential oils. For my acne prone skin I use tea tree oil and lavender oil (about 10 drops of each essential with 100ml of the main oil). I also like to use rosemary oil for it's revitalising properties. There are so many options available to meet whatever requirements you have such as fennel essential oil for toxin removal, melissa essential oil for eczema and sandalwood essential oil for dry skin. The AromaWeb website has an extensive list of essential oils and their benefits, check it out to see which essential oils appeal to you.
So once you've mixed up all your choices you are ready to get the cleanest and softest skin ever! I recommend using a pump bottle for your mixture. It's extremely practical. My OCM routine is as follows:
- I briefly shake my pump bottle to make sure all the oils are blended, then I massage my face with about 2-3 pumps of the oils for about 10 seconds to loosen all the oil and dirt on my skin.
- I wet my flannel/washcloth with water as hot as I can handle without burning my skin and ring the water out leaving the washcloth damp. I then place the washcloth on my face for a few seconds to help expand my pores a bit, after this I begin to to remove the oil from my skin applying firm pressure.
- I repeat the second step as many times as I feel I need to remove all the oil from my skin which is usually about another two times.
- Last but not least I splash my face with cold water.
An important point to remember is that you should change and wash (hot water cycle) your washcloth frequently so as not to spread bacteria.
Easy peasy right? Definitely give it a go if you want to try a cleansing technique that gives you a deep clean, good exfoliation and is very moisturising at the same time. I love the OCM and I don't know what I did without it! It's the perfect makeup remover as it gets every last bit of makeup off and it helps keep your skin clear due to how deeply it cleanses and exfoliates your skin so no old sebum and dirt getting lodged in your pores, or at least a good amount of old sebum and dirt. I use the OCM about 2-3 times a week, no more.
The beauty of the OCM is that it easily moisturises your skin very well so you do not need to use a moisturiser after you've cleansed your skin. It works for both oily skin and dry skin because while it removes all dirt and excess oil it does not strip your skin. Therefore your skin doesn't feel tight or uncomfortable once cleansed causing your skin not to over produce sebum. All in all, I hiiighly recommend the OCM!
