The search for truly healthy skin

Hey ladies, how many facial cleansing products have you tried in your lifetime?  Too many to count?  Yeah, me too.  I've also spent literally hours of my life standing in a store aisle trying to find just the right cleanser to make my sometimes dry, sometimes oily, always blotchy face magically gorgeous.  Who knows how much hard-earned money I've spent trying different products, a lot of which haven't worked.  And something I've been coming to realize lately is that there are potentially very harmful things in those cleansers -- things the oh-so-trusted FDA hasn't even bothered to have tested...which means I'm the guinea pig.  (If you want to be even more scared...um, informed...on this issue, take five minutes and watch The Story of Cosmetics.) 

What's a girl to do on a tight budget and with the drive to be as healthy as possible?  Thanks to my friend-of-a-friend Katie at Simple Organic, I have something new to try:  the oil-cleansing method.  What?  Cleaning with oil?  Isn't that counter-intuitive?  I thought so and was pretty skeptical about it until I did a little research (most helpfully, here)  and have started to think differently about my skin's needs.  My body produces oil naturally, and when I try to strip it of that essential oil, it often works overtime to produce more. So, I'm embarking on a new adventure.

The anti-inflammatory, healing, and cleansing powers of Castor oil mixed with the soothing, moisturizing powers of sunflower oil are supposed to give me glowing, smooth skin.  And since it's easy on the budget ($3.19 for the bottle of Castor oil + $7 for the bottle of sunflower oil, the combination of which looks to be able to last me at least six months), and proven safe for my body, I'm willing to be the guinea pig here.  For my combination skin, I'm going with a 25% castor to 75% sunflower oil ratio.  If you have oilier skin, you might want to try closer to a 30/70% ratio, and if you have drier skin, a ratio of  10/90% might work best for you. 

The method is easy, too:  massage the oil deep into your skin, rubbing all over your face and eyelids.  Place a hot, wet cloth over your face and let it cool.  Then rinse the cloth again in hot water and gently wipe off all the oil.  That's it!  I tried it last night, and I was immediately happy with two things:  1) It took my eye makeup off beautifully and effortlessly, and 2) I didn't feel the need to moisturize afterwards and I wasn't greasy, either.  My skin just felt soft and happy.  I'm going to give it a week or so to see how my skin reacts and if I'm using the right ratio of oils.  I'll keep you posted!