Natural Skin Care - Oil Cleansing Method

I have been trying for a while to come up with a working alternative to my normal skin care routine. Just to give you a little background on my skin woes. I have been battling adult acne since my daughter was born. I am guessing that I had some sort of hormonal change after giving birth to her and it screwed up my skin. I have tried everything there is to control my outbreaks. I have been a Proactiv user for years but "Going Natural" with my hair has eventually led me to look for natural alternatives for my skin. Proactive worked for me in the beginning, but the more knowledgeable I have become about ingredients the more I wanted to try something new. For the past 8 weeks I have been using the Oil Cleansing Method. I can't remember where i first saw this method being discussed but it sounded like a great idea and I have nothing to lose so i did a little research. I found a great website http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/ among others that explained exactly what the method is and how it works. The jist of it is this. Instead of stripping all of the natural oils from your face like you do when using any of the popular commercial skin care regimens, why not try gently removing the impurities from your skin by massaging it with nutrient filled oils that are similar to the natural oils that your skin carries. This massage followed by a good steam to open the pores, leaves your skin feeling naturally soft, smooth & healthy. The website mentioned earlier will give more details behind why this method can work, so I'll let you go over there to read about it. I will go on to tell you what oils I chose for my concoction and why.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil ~ This is a thick and nutrient filled oil that is supposed to work well by adding vitamins A & E (antioxidants) to your skin. (5 parts)

Castor Oil ~ Is the actual cleansing part of this method its good for removing impurities. The oil is thick and carries the other oils. If you use too much of this, you could actually end up drying out your skin. (3 parts)

Jojoba Oil ~ This oil is light and is said to be the oil that matches our skins natural sebum most closely. It is very absorbant, so using it by itself would probably make your skin oily since it absorbs so fast. When you use it with the others though it becomes restorative (2 parts)

Tea Tree Oil ~ is an anti inflammatory as well as an antiseptic. Adding this soothes the skin and calms any outbreaks that you may have and it also helps to preserve the blend. (6 drops)

I blend all of this together and keep it in an air tight container and use it 2x a day as follows:

I pour a dime sized amount of the blended oils into the palm of my hand. I rub my hands together to emulsify the oils. This gets them nice and warm for my face. I then slowly massage my face.

I soak a wash cloth in hot water (careful! not too hot) and lay it on my face until it cools and then gently wipe. I do this 3x or until i feel the oil is wiped away sufficiently. I follow with a cool water rinse (to close the pours) as well as a homemade toner (recipe to come!)

This combination works perfectly for my oily skin. I have been using it for about 8 weeks and these are the things that i have noticed

~Increased elasticity in my skin (40+'ers will understand)

~Decreased amount of outbreaks

~Rapidly fading darkspots

~Skin "appears" blemish free

I believe that if I continue using this method that I may be able to restore my skin back to its former pre~baby lovelyness...and if not, I will certainly come back with updates! If you have used this method before, share your oil recipes!

Thanks for reading

Peace :-)

This Week in Natural Hair 10/18 - 10/22

WoowwWW! What a week we had folks! If you don't happen to follow any of the "goings on" in the Natural Hair Cyber-Social Community allow me to recap.

Monday 10/18 - A beautiful and interesting segment of Natural Hair's new fav mascot aka the "I Love My Hair Muppet" from Sesame Street was covered on ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer. If you havent seen this muppet you MUST check her out. She is beautiful and new to Sesame Street. She is chocolate and lovely. She has Natural Hair and sings a confident song about how much she looooves her hair. Its just great. The segment explored the story behind this character and it turns out that she was a the brainchild of a white Sesame Street writer who adopted an Ethiopian daughter and wanted to teach/help her love herself. Its a beautiful story. Go to abcnews.com for the full story. Check out the YT vid.


AT THE SAME Time this story was being told, Lil Miss Willow Smith was debuting her hit song, "I Whip My Hair" on BET. This song has become a sort of anthem in the Natural Hair community and how can you not love Will & Jada's kid? She's an energetic cutie pie and she's got us ALL throwin our hair around and having fun. I think its great :-) Hit up Bet.com to see the episode ( http://www.bet.com/video/1386154 )

AND THEN... Kohl's SMH @ Kohl's. Were they really selling a Halloween Costume called "Ghetto Fab Wig" that featured a woman wearing a textured afro wig with a bunch of gold jewelry on...?? Yeah they were. A bunch of us bombarded @Kohls_Offical with demands that they remove it immediately...and guess what?? They did. They also apologized profusely. But still, how dare they?


Tuesday 10/19 I was saddened to hear about a NASTY YouTube scuffle going on between some of our most popular Vloggers. I wont mention names or discuss this further because I dont want to give it anymore power, but it happened. :-( Here is what I tweeted on this day:
#NaturalHair Seriously...Why Cant we all just get along?? I got LOVE for ALL of my Sistahs. > 19 Oct

Wednesday 10/20 Oh happy day! Sesame Street's "I Love My Hair" muppet was featured on a segment of The View! I was so happy!! They discussed the beautiful message that is being spread by this popular new character. Teaching little black girls to love their hair, what could be better right?? and then I heard Ms Sherri Shepherd imply that our hair needs to be relaxed in order to be manageable. (record scratch) Now you may not get that from what she said, but its what I got. First she said that the straightening comb was invented by Madame CJ Walker, which is absolutely not true, then she gave explanation as to possibly why 1st Lady Mrs. Michelle Obama does not wear her hair natural. She said "...its about manageability...we press our hair, we relax our hair..." No disrepect to Ms Sherri because she is my sistah. I just wish she would do a bit more research before making her statements. Whether we like it or not, she reaches a very wide audience, so I need her to get things right. Nuff said.

Thursday, 10/21 Not much went on in the #NaturalHair Community on this day, but today Black In America 3 aired on CNN. I wont say much, because there's too much to say. To me this Soledad OBrien series has never adequately represented any part of the Black America that I know. I mean seriously...not all of us go to Mega Churches and feel that its God's responsibility to bail us out of bad financial decisions. Some of us live within our means, take responsibilty for ourselves and we do just fine... following this show was Anderson Cooper 360. long and short...they did the doll test on a bunch of kids (The doll test is a test for kids. They have 2 dolls, one black & one white. They ask the kids to choose the one that is the prettiest, nicest, etc... Google it to learn more) So they do a modernized version of this test, all of the kids say that the "white doll" is the prettiest and the nicest. They all say that the "black doll" is not nice and its bad because its dark. It was very sad. Especially, when the little black girl explained that she hated her own skin and hair because its brown and nasty. If they had tested my little girl, the outcome would have been totally different, so this test was very biased and the results are unreliable. moving on.

Friday 10/22 Jawn Murray. Jawn Murray is an Entertainment reporter for AOL's Black Voices. Apparently, he commented on twitter that there were some Militant Nappy Headed Angry Black Women that are mad at Tyler Perry for his attempt at For Colored Girls. A lot of people felt that it was very derogatory and offensive to have a representative of an African American media outlet speaking this way. Ok 1st of all who is Jawn Murray again? I'd never heard of him till today. Is Aol Black Voices still around? wooow. ok. This guy also later commented that any Militant Nappy Headed Angry Black Women who have a problem with what he said, should "...Get a Life and Get a Perm." Say What? ForHarriet.com started an online petition calling for an immediate apology or his termination from Black Voices lol... his apology is below.

Whew...like I said in the beginning...What a Week! Lets hope that next week is a bit more calm! I cant take all of this drama! Until then... thanks for reading :-)

Peace