The Fall of the Old Regime

Oh, my face. My pale, round, chronically imperfect face. I've spent so much money and so much time trying to get my skin into peak condition. The best it's ever looked was the day I got married:



I had virtually no makeup on in this picture. Eyes and lips of course, but no foundation. Just powder. How did I make that happen? Well, I didn't. My mom did, by sending me to an esthetician every week for six months. What a glorious six months THAT was! I was put on a strict cleansing/toning/moisturizing routine; I used AHA, I exfoliated, the whole nine yards. And it was totally worth it. (Thanks, Mom!)

Since then, I can count on one hand the number of facials I've had. And GOOD facials? Psht. Maybe three? Product-wise, I've tried everything from fancy, overpriced organic stuff to plain ol' antibacterial soap. Nothing really seems to work for long. I end up too oily, too dry; I go from flaky to broken out. Lately, I've started wearing more makeup to hide some of the problems that have developed, and of course that only makes things worse. The cycle goes on, and on, and on.

So what to do? Why, turn to teh Intarwebs, of course! And how perfect is this timing -- one of my favorite bloggers, Linda, just posted about her own skin and how she's trying something new. It's called an oil cleansing routine. I'd actually heard of it before; one of my instructors in massage school had gorgeous skin and swore by her castor oil and face brush. I'll let you follow the links in Linda's blog to find detailed explanations and instructions, but the short version is that you rub good, healthy oil on your face to cleanse it. I gave it a try last night, and I was pleasantly surprised:



You can see my spots, and some redness. What you can't see is my giant pores, which have been driving me bananas. Supposedly, the oil cleansing routine will help reduce their appearance by getting all the goop out of them (sounds delicious, doesn't it?). After cleansing, my skin felt very soft and surprisingly clean. The oil did a good job of removing my makeup, too.

I'm going to try this for a few weeks and see how it goes. Fortunately, I have tons of oils laying about. Last night, I used a product called Aura Glow from a local health food store. It's a blend of peanut oil and a few other oils. If I need to, I'll add some castor oil, but for right now it just feels too heavy. In the morning, I'll be washing my face with nothing but water while I take my shower.

We'll see how it goes. I'm happy to try something new, to do something that doesn't involve soap and chemicals and expense. I'll be posting an update (with pictures!) next week.