All Natural, Alcohol free Citris Toner

My apologies for not having a smartphone for better pics and being too lazy to take pics with my camera and upload them, so this is better (maybe) than nothing...  so here I am, FINALLY posting my toner recipe.  The ingredients are simple.  I use a  4 oz bottle so I will post the recipes in "parts" vs. measurements.  It's water, lemon juice, from a freshly squeezed lemon, and Thayers Alcohol -Free Witch Hazel.  Oh yes and grapefruit essential oil.

- Lemon juice helps lighten dark spots and helps to cleanse and exfoliate the skin.  Do put on sunscreen as it can make you more sun sensitive.  Avoid your eyebrows... unless you're looking to lighen them. ;) I found that out this summer, nothing drastic but I could tell... oops. 

-Witch hazel helps to sooth the skin and reduce inflammation and is an astringent.

-Grapefruit essential oil unlike other citric oils this does not make you sun sensitive.  It is anti bacterial and anti fungal < a common cause of acne.  Just google it, essential oils have a wide array of uses.  I'm barely scratching the surface!  It will smell citrisy good!!

Recipe:

1/2 bottle with witch hazel

1/4 bottle with real just squeezed lemon juice. ( no big deal if seeds or pulp end up in there)

1/4 bottle with water

a few drops of grapefruit essential oil.

*if you find this is too strong for your skin, instead of a 1:1 ratio of water and lemon you can 2:1 ratio doubling the water and decreasing the lemon juice.

Shake before each use.  I love this and have been using it for I can't remember how many months now.  I won't go back...since over hauling my skin regimen, while a bumpy road... has been totally worth it. I don't think my skin has been clear since I was in the 6th grade!!

Stupid Sebum Plugs

 

Whilest my skin has been doing pretty well lately, I was having this annoying problem which I had before I started OCM of sebum plugs on my chin and on the sides of my nose, SO annoying, nothing was getting them out!!  I even thought I would try my microdermabrasion scrub and that didn't even seem to help and it broke my face out.<idiot.  Dang, I can't believe how many products I am finding are obsolite in my quest for more natural skin care.  So I did a lot of running about on the web and had read before about baking soda for microdermabrasion.  sure... I thought, but I had nothing to lose so I just made a paste of it with some water and after I oil cleansed spent a couple minutes rubbing it on my face and paying special attention to my stupid pluggy areas.  Once I felt some tingling I decided it was time to stop, I rinsed my face with water, and checked my pores.  Smooth!! no pluggies!!  And my skin felt nice and resurfaced.  It was wonderful and surprising!! My best friend tried it too and it worked for her as well.  Now keep in mind the plugs do return and you have use your scrub every few days or so, but it's so nice to find something that worked, better than my 20+dollar microderm scrub.  So nice to put on makeup and not have it show off stupid plugs even more!! Thanks baking soda!

Facewash: we are never never never getting back together. Oil Cleansing Update

The play by play, hey when you struggle with breakouts detailed info matters right?!!  If not then you must have great skin.  So recap.

Let us preface us with what I USED to do, for like, EVER. 
-I meticulously washed my face with BWC alpha hydroxy cleanser twice a day.
-blemish control lotion (toneresque stuff)
-eye serum ( I'll post what I use soonish)
-blemish touch stick
-mychelle serum
-mychelle spf moisturizer in the a.m.

Anal for clear skin, that is me.  I also used a microdermabrasion scrub twice a week.  Which I will share that with you too sometime.  All... two of you.

So starting Jan 5th, I decided because of running out of my serum so I thought I should dial back on the product usage to save some money.  I started researching, do you reaaaaallly have to wash your face in the morning/oily skin etc;  I stumbled across a plethora of blogs about this oil cleansing method.  Heresy I tell you, but I was intrigued by the oil skin breakout stories that had turned their skin around,  that using the proper oils helped skin to function as it was meant to.  And it does make sense that companies would love to compound your problems and keep you coming back for the NEXT thing that was finally gonna help.  *Tangent alert*  I am just now realizing and learning how amazing our bodies were designed, how man has dinked with that in hopes of bigger and better but we're in worse shape healthwise, stresswise.  Look at how our bodies heal themselves when treated correctly, given the right nutrition ( netflix docs I'm telling you!!  Hungry for Change, Food Inc etc) naturally our bodies can do what they were meant to do.  We forget how amazing the Creator designed all these amazing details of nature and our bodies to work together and function.  Countless benefits to getting your sleep, not living such a fast paced stressed life, eating healthy, exercise.  Anyway enough about that, so that is how I came across OCM.

My skin status before starting OCM, oily, pore clogged always, under control but always clogged areas.  It was also prone to itchy breakouts and irritation in times past.  Skipping washing my face in the mornign didn't seem to make it worse tho it did take getting used to,  do I tone or not tone? serum or not?? splash some water on face? dab my forehead with a tissue?  nothing?  put, dare I say it, moisturizer OVER my unwashed skin??  I've been all over the board here.

Day 1- (or night I should say)I can do this, I have clogged pores oily skin and I. am. rubbing. oil. on my FACE.  I prepared to wake up for church with a disaster.  Morning came and I was no worse off than usual. relief.

-Few more days, finding that I needed to changed my castor oil ratio, it was drying me,  from 60-70% to50/50 currently.  Discovered that putting my oil mix on my eyes irritated them.  So used almond oil for eyes and they were happy again.  I have also been trying this on makeup days, to rub the oil on, then tissue the makeup off before I get into the shower to do the the oil cleansing routine,  I notice my toner cottonball was much cleaner this way.  I started getting zits in places I didn't usually and my pores were releasing grody little plugs, some hard like sand, others softer.  Gross but hey if you have zits you get it!

-Days 8-10  Skin looking crappier than it had in a while, while some pores and the sides of my face were smoothing out, I had some stupid zits that, dad gum it I picked at. GRRR  you know the battle goes in your head, " I can help this resolve faster if I juuuust...."  So while we are talking about " pore clearing" ;) Here are my tips, wait as long as you can, or don't even pick or poke at ALL most zits resolve on their own.  If it's real obvious something needs to be done:  This is what works best for me, sterile needle, sterile comedone extractor, after a steamy shower, prick it once with the needle to make channel, then you use a rocking back and forth motion with the extractor, don't push too hard, you'll make it worse, if the zit won't yield after 1 or 2 times, you're done, walk away, it's not time and it may be itjust needs to resolve on it's own.  I broke my own rules on two zits last week and kept going back thinking THIS time we'll clear it!!  Ok so at this point in the game, I kept thinking, that's it, I have to use my cleanser... I need to do my microdermabrasion!!  But I took the advice of the blogosphere and stayed the course so as to not confuse my skin, let it work itself out.  Ok ok.... ok.

-Day 11, discovered something, almond oil, my newest bestest friend, it downright awesome, I put on my cheeks the night before, my skin there was looking good,  I even put it on my oily forehead, it wasn't as oily in the morning... HUH?  And more zit talk sooorrrreeee, but it brought 2 zits to a head within hours and they cleared easy.  Gross, yes, I'm sorry but other pore clogged suffers need to know this!! 

-Day 12  I think I made it through the wilderness...somehow. ;)

-Day 14 continued improvement!!  Face smoothing out, bumpy forehead getting smoother, I'm really amazed.  really.  No, my skin is not perfect, and it's still working out some cloggs but it keeps getting better and better and I haven't felt my face this smooth in years!! ( since getting off the pill in 2008 my breakouts got worse, tho it is so worth it to be off them fyi)

The Routine Rundown Thus Far.

OCM at night.

If makeuped, oil up and wipe with tissue then procede.

-Wet face

-Massage in oil blend ( I use half castor oil half flax oil with a few drops of tea tree oil)

-Wet your clean washcloth with real hot water, not to burn you, but warmer than you could stand pouring on you in the shower, ring it out, and press on to your face gently till it cools down to room temp.  Wipe the oil from your face, get everywhere, leave no area unwiped.  I then rinse it out.  Heat it up again, use the other side of the cloth, steam and wipe once more.

-now maybe eventually I will get this down to a science where my skin is just fab and well balanced it's good to go with nothing else to do for the face routine but I need to make things are harder on myself, more time consuming and expensive. so next:

-blemish toner lotion stuff
-eye serum
-blemish touch stick on breaking out areas
-mychelle serum
-the little magic bullet that's done so much for me lately, almond oil on the orbital bone eye area is that right?? orbital bone?  And now I've been patting it on my cheeks and forehead, I'm going to get real crazy and let my chin in on this too tonight!!  I also have been putting it around my nose, it always gets flaky and porecloggy and it's helping it, it's so strange!!! oil on those problem areas.

Now morning time, it's not set it stone but here is what seems to be working, no washing, no toning, a splash of water on my forehead and eyes, pat dry, blemish touch stick on zits, almond oil around eye area ( not upper eyelid or makeup will slide all over probably) and forehead clogged area.  IF I plan on being outside that day, spf mchelle.

-unexpected goodies from OCM. longer thicker lashes, not falling out nearly as much!!!  When I'm oiling up my face I use some on my chest, another bumpy unhappy area, I don't steam or anything just gently wipe with the washcloth,  it's so much better, smooth and clear.

-A general guide to the oil mixes:

25 -50% Castor oil to any of the following oils:

Olive Oil, best for DRY skin.

Flax, grapeseed, jojoba oils for normal and problem skin.  Heck, who knows maybe you could do a tiny percent of castor oil to these if you have dry skin, probably so but it takes some tweaking at the beginning.

Play with the ratios, you'll be able to tell if your face is feeling tight and pulling this is not the goal, you don't want the tight feeling.  This may even make a difference from winter to summer how much your castor oil portion varies.  Also my fave to add for anti fungal and anti bacterial, some drops of tea tree oil,  I put maybe 2-3 drops into 2 ounces of my oil mix.

-Tips

-Prepare yourself for your skin to look worse than it did before you started at the beginning, but don't be afraid to adjust your oil ratios while your skin is working things out.

-Stay the course, you're going to want to cop out and use a scrub, a facewash " just this one time..." but be strong, it will mess with your skin adjustment.

-optional : take some lysine for a few days, I did for about 5 days.  Did it help??  It certainly didn't seem to hurt.

-ask yourself, what other products am I using on my face? does your moisturizer you're putting on afterwards, contain fragrance(parfum), parabens and other chemically crap?  This won't help your cause.  Check out the Skin Deep Data link at the top of the blog to see what your products and ingredients rate.  I am a really big fan of using the almond oil or something like it, grapeseed or jojoba on your face,dry, breaking out, where ever.

*if something crazy happens and you break out in HIVES on your face then I would stop, or see what is in your mix you could be reacting to, though in my own research I haven't come across these stories, doesn't mean they aren't out there...

 To think that maybe I can start my daughters on the right foot when they get older and not have them enter into the wretched cycle of crappy skin is pretty exciting for me.

Now, when I slather that oil all over my face, it actually feels good and not freaky weird anymore, my face is smoother and happier.   Now face says " welcome, oil. welcome." ;) 

Flax Oil and..

 Click the pic for this person's take on flax oil for beautifulness.  I also researched jojoba oil and grapeseed oil and castor oil today.

*Castor Oil ~ Studies Support Castor Oil's Efficacy as an Antimicrobial, Anti-Inflammatory, and Immunostimulant

All of these oils are oils that are anti germy pore clearing.  I keep reading to make sure it's organic when you buy it.  All of these oils are supposed to help with acne.  Crazy, I think it just must be getting the hang of using it and your own little personal mix, which I'm still working on.  But gotta say this, it hasn't made my hair greasy around the hairline like I thought and on my 3rd day when I wash my hairline is strangely LESS greasy.  This was a concern for me, also, strange but true, I feel like my face itself is less oily and greasy.  So my face status today, about 1 ugly zit and 3 annoying lesser ones I am riding out.  High hopes, people... high hopes...

ps I also started to take some lysine while my skin, *ahem* "works out" it's nasties while I'm getting use to OCM.  I have no intention of taking it long term.

Oil Cleansing

 

Hmmm so shaking up my face regimine since after the new year, first, I stopped washing my face in the morning, did nothing in the morning for a week but went back to everything, toning, serums but not washing in the morning and just started the oil cleansing last night.(last saturday)  I'm, on the fence, just not sure, I read different things, for and against.  Some people love it, some gave it up.  So far I'm a few days in and my skin is breaking out a little more than usual but I'm willing to see what happens in the next couple weeks to give my skin a chance to adjust.  THIS article I just read today says no, it's crap.  Then there are articles like this that say it's great and why.  I have also read various mixes.  half castor oil for normal skin, 2/3 for oily and a 1/4 for dry, combined with the remaining percent of various oils, flax, evoo, sunflower, jojoba, grapseed, etc;  "Another example: In terms of the blend, it will depend on your skin type. I have very oily skin so I used 60% or so Castor Oil to start off
with but after a few weeks lowered this amount as my skin was getting quite dry. It might take a bit of trial and
error. The basic rule is:
- Oily Skin: 30% Castor Oil to 70% Sunflower Seed Oil.
- Balanced Skin: 20% Castor Oil to 80% Sunflower Seed Oil.
- Dry Skin: 10% Castor Oil to 90% Sunflower Seed Oil."
http://www.mommypotamus.com/oil-cleansing-for-clear-baby-soft-skin-video-tutorial/ check out this link for even more info and a video tutorial.

So I started about 5 days ago, I started with, 2/3 or maybe even 75% castor oil then the rest Flax oil which I didn't realize had some additional ingredients  and that I need to OOPS get in the fridge pronto.  The ingredients :
Organic flax seed oil (cold-pressed, unrefined and non-GE) and a natural antioxidant blend of organic sunflower oil, organic rosemary extract, natural mixed tocopherols, ascorbic acid and citric acid.
Contains soy derivative. < soy dang and I just read how it's no so good, but it's not going in my body so maybe that is not so bad???  Now Foods Castor oil is the brand I got for castor oil.  Anyway so initially it felt wrong, soo soo so wrong, to rub oil on my oily skin. Oh yes and I also added a drop of tea tree oil for it's anti bacterial properties.  I probably have only made.... an ounce to start out.  First thing, believe it or not after a few days, I had to up my flax oil ratio to half because that castor oil CAN dry.  I did start to pull gunk and little plugs (yum!) out of my face and empty out pores a lot easier.  I have started to break out a little more than normal this far into it.  But I really want to give it a chance,  I feel like the zits resolve faster than normal too, so we shall see.  The first night I did it I was wearing makeup and I used my "toner" Home Health Blemish lotion and got dirty looking dark stuff on my cottonball.  So I don't know if I need to try oil then wipe the makeup off with a tissue, then oil again and steam?  Still figuring this out.  The other nights I have  not worn makeup I have not gotten dark stuff to come off on the cottonball.  I also do not know if I should be using the oil mix with the tea tree oil on my eyes, though it does just great at getting off eyemakeup, I do use almond oil to get off whatever is left when I get done.  I know most women just oil cleanse and that's it, nothing else, maybe a little moisturizer if needed.  I think this will take some figuring out, if anyone has insights and tips please let me know!!  I keep using my serum and eye serum because I love just so much but could there be just a good stuff, cheaper made at home stuff out there??  I need to do more research.  Saving money and having great skin with no chemicals, that just sounds awesome!!
Gotta go refridgerate that flax oil.... and one more link for you from Detox Diva. And more info from her on the various oils...maybe I should've gone with jojoba??  More to come I'm sure...

MyChelle Face Serum

                                

MyChelle Dermaceuticals, Clear Skin Serum, Oily / Blemish Control.  I'm on my second bottle and before that I used MyChelle vitamin A serum which I liked very much, but I needed more pore cloggin acne help and I really love this.  At Iherb, it's 25$ which you can drop no problem as chemically laden crap at walmart.  And if you spend 20 you get free shipping, if you spend 40 it's free 1-3 day shipping.  There's my little IHERB plug, too bad I don't get paid for that.  This has great ingredients, retinol, tea tree oil, witchhazel and minus the crap ingredients.  "Always free of harmful ingredients such as parabens, phthalates, ureas, petroleum-based chemicals and artificial colors."  Check out the link for more info.  I did not find this irritating at all, though it's not my first go around with retinol.  And it's probably been the thing that's cleared up my skin the best in a very long time. Along with getting rid of my crappy aveeno spf moisturizer that contributed to my itchy breakouts and also I think it helped to use better more natural hair products.  I did start using this in the morning also and it really seemed to help clear things up.  Now that I've quit washing my face in the morning I'm still working out on what exactly I do to my face in the morning.  If I could get by I was hoping to save money by not using it in the a.m. to go through it half as fast.  We'll see, the oil cleansing method is awaiting me, and I just got my castor oil and flax oil in the mail from IHERB yesterday!!  A little scared still... ;)

Long Awaited

MyChelle Dermaceuticals, Replenishing Solar Defense, SPF 30, Step 6, 2.3 fl oz (68 ml) 

One thing over the years I have not be able to find was an spf moisturizer that was natural, that didn't turn my face white, make me breakout or itch.  I had been using Aveeno postively radiant spf 30 until I found this this summer.  And when I quit this and my terminator zit cream... I know I know. bad bad bad.  I quit getting this breakouts that itched me.  I love this stuff, I have not meticulously combed the ingredients but I looked them all over and it looks good to me.  And I love the stuff, no white thick coating and the price is very comparable to the aveeno.  Which then brings me to giving up benzoyl peroxide cream, I don't think I spelled that right but whatever, I have used this stuff for... ever. I'm talking 15+ years, it was my precious and I wasn't going to give it up,  I needed it or else my face would explode with zits.  Or so I thought.  I'm sure it played it's part in my breakouts and itching, I switched to this as well this summer- 

Desert Essence, Blemish Touch Stick, .31 fl oz (9.3 ml) 

and my skin is no worse off as far as breakouts go and no more itchiness.  I have oily breakout prone, sensitive skin.  I am finding, exfloliating excessively and drying the crap out of it just may not be the answer,  I've dialed back on my agressiveness and seem to be better off for it. I still get break outs but things are under control, not overly dry and not irritated, more on that another time.