This morning, before the Hubby left for work, we were watching the news and a commercial came on about some new skin system that is customized for your skin. And then there was another one from some other company claiming that your skin will look brand new if you use their product. I’ve realized, if any of these claims were true, there wouldn’t be one wrinkle, blemish or spot in North America.

Folks, these advertisements are bare foolishness… at least I think so. Don’t send me emails telling me how much Clin.ique, Neutr.ogena, Sk.inID or Pro.activ work for you — I’m sure they all do. But after, I’d say, 20 years of trying all types of skin care products with hopes that my face would be smoother and even, I believe fewer and fewer of the claims that cosmetic companies make.

That being said, a couple of months ago, I decided to begin incorporating more natural products into my lifestyle for a couple of reasons:

• A lot of the synthetic products just weren’t working for me
• Commercial products had ingredients that I wasn’t impressed by
• I figured, my grandmothers and great-grandmothers didn’t have access to all these serums/creams/lotions/etc. and their skin and hair was just fine

About two weeks after I wrote that post, I decided to try out the oil cleansing method (OCM). You use oil to cleanse your face. Kinda crazy, huh? Using oil to clean your oily, make-up covered mug? Well, I did some research and decided to use half extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and half castor oil (regular castor oil, not JBCO). I read that you don’t have to use olive oil — there are other natural oils like avocado or jojoba that people use and like — but castor oil is a must; it’s what is cleansing your skin.

Here’s what I do :

• pour some of the oil into my hands and warm it up by rubbing my hands together.
• apply it to my face in circles and work it in.
• once it’s been worked it, I use a washcloth soaked in hot tap water — not crazy hot to scald my skin — and let it sit on my face and steam for 30 seconds.
• finally, I wipe off the excess oil with the hot water and my washcloth.

Voila! Clean, soft skin. Here’s a video so you can see for yourself how it’s done.

I have sensitive, combination skin and I rarely breakout or have too many issues. I liked it from the first time I tried it, but I didn’t want to review it until I had used OCM for a few weeks without any negative results. Some reviewers said that they had breakouts of blackheads and whiteheads. I haven’t experienced anything like that — but my skin isn’t problematic, as long as I’m using products that I’m not allergic to. If you have skin that breaks out easily, I’d caution you to be very careful because I’m not sure how this will work on your skin

It’s been also two months and I love it. I normally use OCM at night before I go to bed and rinse my face with water in the morning or wash it with 100% olive oil soap that I bought from the health food store.

After I had been using it for a while, I mentioned it to my sister. She was wondering if I truly got my face 100% clean. I purchased witch hazel and used it as an astringent. What did I notice? Clean skin! Yes, I had to do more work around my hairline, but over all my skin was completely cleaned with the oil mixture.

Very interesting!

So, I’ve found another safe, all-natural way to wash my face. Have any of you tried OCM? What did you think?