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Natural Skin Care a la Denise

A few different people have asked about my new oil cleansing routine, so what I've figured out is below.

I'd read about oil cleansing for a long time, but really could not get down with that because it was terrifying. Then I read this post about honey cleansing, and decided to give it a try along with the oil. Then if one was terrible, I'd at least feel like I was making some changes. 


I bought my honey at Whole Foods and it's raw, organic honey, not crazy expensive. It's pretty solid and I like that because it makes it easier to scoop and put on my face. I just grab a clump and put it on my fingers, get a little warm water and smear it around. I usually leave it on while I make my coffee and then wash it off in the shower. Sometimes I end up just putting it on in the shower if I'm in a super hurry. It turns out that my skin is pretty dry, so while she mentions a half water / half ACV toner, I made some, but don't use it very often. If my skin is dry, I'll use some of my oil mixture as a moisturizer right after I get out of the shower. The woman above is also the one who posted about honey shampoo.

This is the post about oil cleansing I read:

I use a mixture of 2 pts hazelnut oil (astringent): 3 pts hemp oil (antioxidants): 3 pts grapeseed (straight up oily nourishing), put a quarter's worth in my hand and rub it all over. If I have some kind of blemish, I massage the oil on, and then tackle it with my extractor (I know, eww, but that's life, y'all), but the massage and the oil help ease the process and leaves less redness and scarring. Then I heat up my wash cloth, put it on my face and let it cool, then wipe. I don't use a ton of oil, and as I've mentioned, my skin is kind of dry, so usually I just wipe once, and then put on a thin layer of the oil for night moisturizing.  When my skin gets crazy dry, I use some coconut oil. 

For years, I've thought my face was disgusting and oily and I've fought with it. I've used every over the counter chemical you can find to fight acne and the result was dry skin after a shower and oily skin by lunchtime. I switched over Christmas when I was home because I figured if it made my skin crazy, it would already be at a time when I break out from stress. It never happened. I do still have blemishes, but they are nowhere near as bad. The oil cleansing makes them heal faster and the honey leaves me with a light clean feeling without the dryness and tightness. 

I have also been making a real effort to sleep on my back more, which my chiropractor recommended, and I imagine that has also helped some.

So yes, I've consumed the natural body care kool-aid. I'm now trying to figure out if there's a soap alternative, although I already buy the crazy natural saponified coconut oil stuff, so maybe that's not a leap I need to take.

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