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Oil Cleansing – All Natural Way To Clean You Face

October 29, 2015

Oil cleansing

Why Oil Cleansing?

It’s the most natural powerful cleansing you can get. Some people are skeptical about using oil to cleanse their skin and worry their skin will become overly oily, but the opposite is true. Natural oils balance your skin and get rid of the excess bad oils, toxins and dirt in the same way oil pulling does for your teeth and gums. This can be used for all skin types by using specific combinations of natural oils, broken down below, to clean and balance the skin on your face.

How does Oil Cleansing Work?

Unlike commercial soaps and facial cleaners, natural oils don’t destroy or strip the skin’s innate protection, but promote healing and cleaning. Most commercial skin care products, aggressively strip the fatty acid or oil called sebum off of your skin, that is designed to protect the skin. Your skin then over-compensates for the loss by producing even more oil, making your skin look greasy. As a result, you use even more of the drying products, creating a vicious cycle. On top of that, cosmetic products come laden with all sorts of fragrances that often act as irritants and deepen the problem.

For this reason applying natural oils to your skin makes the skin less oily. Oil dissolves oil and using the right oils you will help remove the dirty oils and cleanse your pores of dirt and bacteria.

The eliminated oils will be replaced by healthy oils, which will help nourish the skin. Natural oils also balance the skin’s pH, which makes this method successful in the long run.

There might be an initial adjustment period when skin looks more oily or even break out but this is just a part of the detox process and doesn’t mean that the oil treatment isn’t working. Detoxing is a good thing and you’re skin will look much better afterwards.

Best Oils for Oil Cleansing

– The first oil is Castor Oil.

This oil is antibacterial and excellent at pulling impurities from the skin and for improving your hair as well. It needs to be diluted with some other oil or it will dry the skin. If your skin is already dry, you can still use castor oil, but you just use less of it. (click photo for link)

– The Secondary Oil

Mix the Castor Oil with the secondary oil, which can be your choice of any of these: (click photos for links)

Jojoba oil (great for all skin types especially oily)

Avocado (best for drier and aged skin)

Almond oil (best for oily skin)

Argan Oil (all skin types, especially aging skin)

(More secondary oils below)

Different Skin Types

Depending on your skin type, you will need to use a different ratio of castor oil to the secondary oil. You can make smaller batches at first, and make necessary adjustments until you get your perfect formula. My recommendation is for:

Normal Skin: 1:1 ratio of castor oil to secondary oil.
Oily Skin: 3:1 ratio of castor oil to secondary oil.
Dry Skin: 1:3 ratio of castor oil to secondary oil.
Experiment and see what works best for you!

You can also buy your oil. The ones sold in the shops are usually a combination of botanical oils (olive, sesame, sunflower, grape seed, almond, safflower), an extract (jasmine, green tea), and/or vitamins A and E. These are often more expensive and you have to check the other ingredients for additives.

How to do Facial Oil Cleansing

It’s most practical if you do this in the shower or bathroom sink.

After mixing the oils in a glass jar with lid, Pour 1-3 tablespoons of the oil blend in your hand and massage into the skin. Start small and add more oil if needed. You don’t need to wet or clean the face first. The oil will remove all dirt (including makeup). If you wear mascara and eye makeup, rub a small amount onto your lids gently to remove any makeup, just as you would use a makeup remover. Massage until you feel the skin is saturated with oil; you can even leave it on for 10 minutes as a mask.
Place clean washcloth under very hot water (preferably from a shower filter), soak it and wring it out.
Put the washcloth over your face and leave it there for a few minutes (until it cools). This will create a steaming effect and clean the pores. Wipe the oil gently away and repeat two to three times.
Don’t scrub, just let the steamy washcloth remove the oil. It’s OK for a thin layer of clean oil to remain on the skin.
If your skin feels slightly dry at the end, you can use a drop of your oil mixture as a soft moisturizer. Typically, no moisturizer is needed.
That’s it, your skin should now be glowing.

When and How Often Should You Do the Oil Cleanse?

It is best to do your cleanse in the evening, before going to bed. Some suggest doing it daily, while others prefer to do it less frequently to give the skin a chance to react and balance itself. It is best to see how your skin feels and reacts.

Things to Consider

It is very important for the health of your skin to drink enough pure water. Sometimes skin impurities will reduce if you just stay hydrated and flush the toxins out. (see my blog here on more healthy skin tips)
You won’t achieve perfect skin overnight and a few treatments will probably be needed before you see positive results.
Allow a few tries to create your personal oil blend.

What about Coconut Oil or Olive Oil?

Many sites recommend using extra virgin Olive oil and coconut oil to do this, but I have found that everyone who doesn’t like oil cleansing is using either of those. Coconut oil is comedogenic, it either works for you as it does for me, or you hate it for your skin.

A Note on Castor Oil

Castor oil is great for most people, but it can be very drying. If you find that no amount of using less in the ratio of your castor oil helps with the dryness, try one of these:

Hazelnut or sunflower oil (for typically acneic skin)
Sunflower, grapeseed, or sweet almond oil (for oily to normal skin)
Jojoba, grapeseed, or apricot kernel oil (for normal to dry skin)
Avocado or apricot kernel oil (for dry skin)

Just remember to wipe your face off very well if you’re not using castor oil. It’s going to take just a touch more work to get all the previous grime and/or makeup off your face. But it is possible. And I don’t recommend skipping castor oil unless you absolutely HAVE to. It’s quite effective and efficient. Only remove it from your blend if you’re at your wits end and need to try something new.

Breaking out or have scars?

If you’re using the oil cleansing method and find you still have a few breakout issues – or if you have acne scars, Add tamanu oil to your blend, Not a lot (it’s thick), a little will help immensely. (click photo for link)