Hey everyone,

I've done what I'm about to describe a few times to take care of my skin if it starts acting up and getting flaky, and I thought I ought to share it. It might be similar to something you're already doing if you use jojoba oil before applying BP. I think of it almost like a combination of a mask and a scrub, but very different in a lot of ways, and simpler than most homemade concoctions.

You would want to do this BEFORE cleansing your face or taking a shower, either morning or night is fine. You pour a good amount of jojoba oil into your palm, probably 10-12 drops worth or so, but basically just a large amount so that you can rub it all over your face. You start dabbing the jojoba oil all over your face, and once you have it all on there, you start massaging it in with your finger tips. At first, just lightly spread it around, but then build up pressure a little. Be very careful around active acne if you have it, but definitely rub in the jojoba oil. Don't be aggressive, but you don't want to be quite as gentle as you are when you apply BP, for example. You should feel some grittiness to your skin as you massage the jojoba oil in, which is a combination of the skin that was flaking off and maybe some residual BP/moisturizer, since after all, you haven't washed your face yet. The massage helps to loosen a whole bunch of flakes and is also good for your circulation as a bonus. I give my face a massage for several minutes straight, just rubbing it in and picking up more and more grittiness. You might put a couple more drops of oil on very dry patches partway through to help loosen those flakes even more. When you feel like you've loosened all that you can and that new gritty stuff isn't coming up (or if you get the the point where you think your face will start to get raw if you go for much longer, which means you should have used more jojoba oil, I suspect), then stop. Just leave the jojoba oil on your face for about another 10 minutes so that your face is really nice and moisturized, like leaving on a moisturizing mask. Then, just wash it off! You might want to wash your face off in the shower since the heat will make removing the jojoba oil easier if your cleanser is really mild, but it shouldn't be too hard to clean up. You mostly just want to get rid of the grittiness and leftover crud you had on your face, nothing wrong with leaving some jojoba oil behind. Then do your regimen as normal following cleansing, perhaps even using more jojoba oil before BP if that's what you like to do.

You might wonder if this is excessively irritating. I think it's a good deal less irritating than using a brush of some sort to physically remove flakes, and since a lot of people seem to be able to handle that as it is, this should be tolerable for even more people. I also think it's less irritating than a scrub because you're loosening the flakes with a moisturizing oil (technically jojoba oil is a liquid wax but whatever ), rather than ripping them off with some abrasive bits. Plus, as a bonus, you have this moisturizing, protective barrier on your face for a little bit while you're massaging the jojoba oil in and leaving it on for the 10 minutes, so it's like a therapeutic moisturizing mask. If you know that jojoba oil makes you break out, obviously, this is not the flake treatment for you, and if you have such sensitive skin that massaging your face for a few minutes would leave you feeling irritated, then this is also not for you. For everyone else, though, I think this is a nice way to deal with flakes as they come up, either as regular treatment several times a week or just something to do once in a while when they get bad.

Hope this helps! If you try this and like it or hate it, definitely leave feedback so that others may benefit; after all, I'm the only person with my exact skin, so I don't know how other people will handle it. I wouldn't expect perfect results at first if your face is very dry and has too many flakes to deal with, but if you try this every other day or so, I think you'd see an improvement in your skin's texture and dryness pretty quickly.

Thanks, sounds good!

What if I wear make-up during the day, I wouldnt be able to do this at night then, coz the make-up has to come off first?

I hadn't thought of that because I stopped wearing makeup, oops. You're definitely right, I think anyone who wears makeup would want to do this in the morning rather than at night so that you weren't rubbing makeup around your face in addition to the dead skin.

True true.

I have another question, sorry! You mentioned, jojoba before BP?? Because flakiness is quite a big problem for me. So you just slap on jojoba (pat or rub?) before BP, day and night? Or just day?

I do the jojoba oil before BP both day and night in a way similar to what I described above, but with less jojoba oil and time. I use about 5-6 drops for my whole face. At first I start dabbing them on problem areas (eyelids, around mouth, sides of face), and then I put on the rest and sort of pat it on. I use a massaging technique similar to what I described in my really long post above, but not for nearly as long, just to cover my face. If I accidentally used too much jojoba oil, I might blot some off. I wait just a minute or two and then start applying BP as normal. The BP takes a bit longer to rub in, what really threw me off for a long time, though, is that once you've gotten it to disappear, your face won't feel nearly as tight or dry. Even after waiting 15 minutes, my face doesn't get that feeling, which it always used to get. I apply normal moisturizer at that time for more hydration, sun protection, and/or the benefits of regular AHA use, though I don't always feel that I need the extra moisture because I'm so used to BP. At first I was very worried that this would interfere with the absorption of the BP and make it less effective, but not at all, and of other posters who have tried this, I don't think any of them found that this made the BP less effective.

Gyroscope352 also uses jojoba oil before BP, but in a slightly different way, so you might want to see his take on it.

I thought about trying this a couple times. I read somewhere that Jojoba oil makes a good cleanser because it removes skin and oil. So im very glad you made this post. I think i will try it for sure now.

As for BP, I thought about mixing a drop or two of jojoba oil with my actual BP and then rubbing it on my face. Do you think this would help out with some of the excessive drying?

Thanks for the plug, CAKD! lol

Can I use DK's moisturizer for this instead?

i don't see why not. i'd try it.

You mean instead of jojoba oil? No, I don't think that would quite work. I don't think it's oily enough. I mean, you can try it, but I don't think it would be similar at all, because it is a lotion. The reason pure jojoba works so well for this is because it is oily, and doesn't really rub into the skin that well, and loosens the flakes really well. I guess I don't know how else to explain it besides that they are really different, so it wouldn't make sense to substitute them.

I agree, the reason I use straight jojoba oil for this is that when I've got a ton of it on my face, it's not going to get very absorbed in to my skin. With a lotion, even large amounts will eventually get absorbed. I would consider doing this with other non-comedogenic oils, though, but I'm not feeling adventurous enough now to mess with that.

I finally found some (a rather small tube) of Jojoba oil. I'm going to try tonight, i'll let you know how it turns out.

Ok, the stuff is on my face. I was amazed, i literally saw hundreds of chunks of flakes come right off... its on my face now, time to wash it off.

Where would I buy Jojoba Oil?

Online at a bunch of places (drugstore.com, amazon.com, some natural product retailers), or kind of crunchy/more uppity grocery stores (Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, the "natural" bodycare section of larger supermarkets or stores, health food stores, coops, etc). Desert Essence is probably the most readily available brand, and it's what I use.

I got mine at Whole Foods, but you can try any organic store.

Update: Ok, just got out the shower, and I was surprised to see I had even more visible flakes then before. I was forced to pick some off between my eyes, and I just put in my BP. SO far, there areen't as many flakes now, but I dont think I did the proceedures as good as I should've. I definetly should've massaged it to my skin alot longer.

Question: WHile I was rubbing the jojoba oil in, i had numerous dead skin flakes transfer to my hand. Should I wash the dead skin off, and continue rubbing, or should I just keep rubbing regardless of the numerous skin flakes on my hand.

When the flakes are to the point where they are completely loose and just kind of floating around your face or on your hand, it doesn't really matter where they are, since you'll wash them off anyway. I just keep on going. Last time I did this, I massaged my face for a good while, my fingertips were tingling and all when I was done. Doing it longer definitely helps, but I also think that if you continue to do this every other day or so for a couple of a weeks, you'll be a lot less flaky overall. You might also use the tip of your fingernail to gently scrape the flakes off areas that are seriously flaky while you have the jojoba oil on.

Ok, I used it again this morning. Throughout the day, my flakes have DEFINETLY dissapeared, up to at least 78%. There are still some here and there, but its definetly under control. But now my face feels a tad bit raw, and under the mirror it seems a little red, so I guess I will only be exfoliating once every couple days.

Ahh! I just started the regimen a few days ago, and my skin is flaking off at an alarming rate. I'll try to go out and find some jojoba oil tomorrow - I hope I can find some place that stocks it. What would you suggest I do if I can't find any?

Edit: Nvm, I just went out and found some. Yay? I'll try this today! (Yay... today... rhymes...)

i wanna try it