I've tried many things for my oily skin and acne but recently discovered the oil cleansing method. For those of you who are not familiar, the oil cleansing method is a natural remedy that you create by mixing castor oil with another diluting oil. You'll use this on your face to help draw out impurities. I've been doing this for a few weeks and my acne does seem to better. I found out about the routine from this site:
http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/
On that site they suggest using extra virgin olive oil as the diluting oil with castor oil. I didn't follow this. Instead I used jojoba oil as my diluting oil since I know that one doesn't give me breakouts. I'm curious to know who else using the oil cleansing method and if you use olive oil for your dilution. Does it work better for you with olive oil vs another oil? The article states that olive oil really helps the castor oil to get into the pores. I'm not sure if jojoba does the same or if olive oil is truly the better choice.Thanks for any feedback!!
They also suggest using grape seed oil too. I'm going to try revising my mixture using Castor Oil, Tea Tree Oil and perhaps grape seed oil this time around. I'm already trying jojoba which seems fine but I need to to have something that can be anti-bacterial too because my acne keeps coming back.
Another thing I should mention, I usually go into the sauna after I put the oil on my face. It helps to draw out all the impurities. Would the steam room be a better option? I think both of them opens up the pores and it's more of a matter of preference on what kind of heat works best for each person.
Saunas are generally useful for this purpose, I don't think steaming will help as much. The heat of the sauna is a dry heat which means you sweat a lot, but because the air is dry, the sweat evaporates very quickly, thus you cool down. In a steamroom, all the sweat will be sitting on top of your skin as well as all the impurities that have been driven out...yuck. At least in a sauna all that crap will mostly come off you and won't be just building up trapped by your sweat.
good luck with it!
I was doing the oil cleansing for several months but like BMarieWantsNoAcne I also found it wasn't doing much for my deep cycstic acne. I Love how the oil made my skin soft but after a while my skin felt "heavy". I was using Jojoba oil, btw, and I've since changed my cleansing methods and gone back to Cetaphil.
Personally, as someone with pretty oily skin I don't think ocm is a good idea to do everyday, especially if you're like me and have lazy skin that requires manual exfoliation everyday... Just a conclusion from my personal experience.
However, for moisturizing I do like to sometimes use a thin layer of Almond Oil on my face for 15 minutes, then simply wash it off with warm water. I find this oil to be very lightweight.
I have been using OCM for the last 2 months. I just do the OCM in the morning, but at night I follow up with a non-soap, natural, fragrance free cleanser, just to make sure there is no oil residue to interfere with the Differin I put on at night. I use Hemp as a moisturizer, but LOVE the EVOO and Grapeseed for the cleanser. These are very heavy, but after just one week, evert non-acneic pore is perfect, clean and nearly invisible. I literally only have 3 blackheads, that aren't quite ready yet... almost though!
OCM does nothing for cystic acne. The oils dont go into your skin. OCM is wonderful for clogged pores and black/whiteheads. It draws all the gunk out, and then the topical (whatever you use) helps prevent the pore from infection.
4 times a week I make a mask of raw organic honey (it must be RAW), and cinnamon to help lock in moisture, plus honey is naturally antibacterial. makes the skin just GLOW! I absolutely LOVE the result. Just waiting for the prescriptions to help with the Cysts and I believe I'll have the skin I always dreamed of!!
I'm still doing the OCM method and still using castor oil with jojoba oil. It's been helpful for me. I still have acne but I have less of it. I don't have cystic acne but I can imagine that the OCM won't be of much help since cysts are not ordinary acne. The OCM unclogs pores so you can drain the impurities out. Cysts form below the skin right? So draining impurities won't necessarily do much for cysts.
Another thing I've decided to do since I'm tired of using benzoyl peroxide , I've created my own oil treatment of jojoba oil, lavender oil and tea tree oil and put it on my face to treat my breakouts. I'm finding that it helps with nearly no side effects like BP. BP always made me dry regardless of how little I used.
Hi, newbie here. I'm using OCM, have been for about 3 weeks - argan, jojoba and castor oil. Acne definitely not got worse. There was one point where I thought my skin was getting better, then I went on a blackhead eliminating binge and my skin was bad again 
If i can finally get some will power I've got high hopes for it.