A few months ago I was given the chance to test out a Tria Skin Perfecting Blue Light. It failed miserably.  I had such high hopes for that little machine, I used it well over a month, but it stunk. Didn’t do a darn thing for my skin, or my acne issues. Granted, I don’t have horribly painful acne, but I have acne issues, and I don’t want to deal with it anymore.

Even though I have been eating better, and my nutrition has improved, along with doing my Cleanse for Life…….my skin just keeps getting worse. Yes, I’m sure, once every last toxin is out of my body, my skin will be fabulous and glowing. However, I’m not patient enough to wait, and I need something to work on the outside, while my body is getting better on the inside. Soooooo, where do you go when you want to find the answer to all your skin care problems? The internet, of course.

I mean, seriously, look at the before pix right here: My skin is just sprouting with pimples THAT HURT on my chin, my forehead, right between my eyes. UGH. Just sore, and red, and painful. I want it to end.

Off I went to the trusted interwebs to find myself a solution, before I clawed my skin off my face and REALLY had a problem! Where does one go when looking for beauty and skin care help? Well, Pinterest, of course! I hit Pinterest with every search I could, and found something I’d never thought would work…….Oil Cleaning Method. Have you heard of OCM? I had heard of people I know putting Olive Oil on their face after washing it with cleanser, but never using oil to clean their faces.

***I’m not sure which Pinterest article led me to the OCM method, but just the other day, one of my favorite bloggers wrote about it (and since I had written about it, and scheduled it for my “week off” I wanted to make sure I gave her some props for her much better blog post, which you can find on her blog, Dear Crissy.)

When I saw the method, I was a bit shocked, because I have oily skin (not anymore, though.) How can cleaning with oil work for me? Who cares, I was ready to try just about anything. It was just to that point.

I went to every local drug store, no one had Cold Pressed Castor Oil. Finally, I called Whole Foods, and the really helpful girl on the phone said absolutely, we have it in our pharmacy area. I asked WHERE? She said make a right when you walk into the store, a left into the pharmacy area, and look for the toothpaste, it’s right after that. I got off the phone, dropped my son off at school and floored it to our local Whole Foods. When I found it, right where the lovely woman had told me it would be, I kind of did a happy dance. Someone smiled at me, and laughed. I held up my Castor Oil and said “It’s been two weeks of me going all over the place looking for Castor Oil, sorry, I’m excited.” She just nodded and said “when it doubt, head to Whole Foods.”

I paid, ran home, and put three teaspoons of Castor Oil and one teaspoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil into the palm of my hands, mixed it up, massaged my face, and then applied a hot washcloth to my entire face, then waited for the washcloth to cool down to room temperature. I didn’t love how that felt, but I did it. And then I wiped off the extra oil……and my face wasn’t cleared up, obviously, but it was so damn soft. I had to make sure I didn’t touch it too much, which would cause more zits to pop up!

Every morning and evening, I followed the same procedure. My only modification was to apply the wash cloth to my face one area at a time, instead of my entire face at once. I would do it on my forehead first, then my chin, which were my two worst areas, then I did it across my nose and cheeks. Little by little, my chin cleared up first. Then my forehead made improvements. However, let’s remember, I’m not patient! Back to do more research……

I read on the interwebs, adding a little Tea Tree Oil as a spot treatment would help. Sooooooo miss impatient added Tea Tree Oil on cotton to my evening cleansing. I applied it to my hardest hit areas on my chin, and forehead.

It took about one day for my chin to look clear. My chin was overnight fabulous-ness. My forehead took longer to get better, and is still clearing up. WAHOOOOO.

I also found, on the internet, another spot treatment I like to do once or twice a week. I take Peroxide, you know the one in the brown bottle that every drug store sells? Yeah, that one. Normally used on cuts. Well, if you put it on cotton and just dab your worst areas, it helps clear that up. Normally, it would have dried out my skin, but now that I’m using the OCM for my face, the peroxide doesn’t do anything but help my skin clear up.

Seriously, the most inexpensive facial cleansing routine I have ever had. The most expensive part? The $9.99 the Castor Oil cost at Whole Foods. We always have Peroxide in the house, and in our home, I make all our household cleaners, so we ALWAYS have Tea Tree Oil – which if we score it on sale, is a couple of bucks per bottle. And a little goes a loooong way with Tea Tree Oil!

I’m doing much better with my skin now, don’t you agree?

Now, I just need to find an age spot treatment, and a faster way to get rid of these acne scars…….and I’m good to go! Guess I will be hitting the internet for that next! Or if you’ve got an idea for that, let me know. I’m willing to try anything!!!!