Oil Cleansing Method (OCM)

Beware! If you see first sign of increased acne "JUST STOP" .2 years ago winter time I decided to try the OCM method mostly to soften my skin .I was 33 years old and only would get one or two pimples around that time of the month, every few month.The first time I did the OCM ,my skin looked great and felt soft but few days after I saw pimples coming! I had read that my skin is just adjusting to the method and that it's detoxing and...so I continued. I have had severe acne for 2 years now! at times I've had 15 actice acne on my face!! + previous pimple's red marks .I can't get rid of it! even though I stopped the OCM after 2 month. I used organic oils, clean towels( I even boiled the towels to make sure they're clean,I'd let it cool down of course!). If you see first signs of increase acne,don't continue hoping a miracle is on the way...

I'm 30 and I've been breaking out on and off for about 10-15 years. I have tried a bunch of things, but I am starting to truly belive it's about living a healthy lifestyle. OCM fits into that. I wash with 1/4 Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 1/4 castor oil, and 1/2 jojoba. I put it on my face and steam with a washcoth a few times. Sometimes I'll put AHA on my face for 1 min after and then rinse. Maybe 1nce a week I'll do a honey/asprin scrub if I really think I need to. After I rinse everything off I DON'T put some oil back on, thats my only difference. I kind of switch up my products at night, usually though using neutrogena bp 2.5% and sebamed vitamin e face lotion (which i am obsessed with). I actually had someone say to me just yesterday that I was lucky to have been blessed with naturally good skin. WHAT! I've bawled over my acne before. I could hardly believe it. My skin isn't perfect, but it's SO much better. In the morning I don't wash with anything!!! I just rinse with water a few times. OTHER CONTRIBUTORS (I THINK) Drinking water (I vote for Trader Joe's Elextrolyte water), eating lots of fruits, veggies, whole wheat, grilled meats and fish, easy on the alcohol and sugar, and totally avoiding chemicals and high fructose corn syrup!!! Some people say food doesn't affect it but thats so untrue. I swear if I eat raw cookie dough it's for sure a big new cyst. I also exercise, pray, and enjoy life. I've pretty much stopped picking and obsessing over my face. I believe this has helped a lot. :-) Good luck!

I've been using this OCM method for over a year with great results. Using other cleansers left my face dry & itchy...causing me to touch my face more, etc. After a few months of using OCM, it cleared most of my cosemtic acne and all I had left was the cystic acne that was occuring because of unbalanced hormone levels. I was able to see that I was getting new acne the week before my period. So I got back on birth control (Ortho-cyclen ... generic: mononessa or sprintec). The birth control helped clear the cystic acne. Nothing you put on top of your skin will ever cure acne that is hormonal. I've been on epiduo...antibiotics...aczone etc. It wasn't until I was back on the pill that I started to see the cystic acne go away. Now back to OCM, it's a great simple way to cleanse your skin at night. I use 50/50 castor oil and jojoba oil. I also made my own scent by adding in Geranium oil, Jojoba oil, Juniper berry oil, Lavender oil, Lemon oil, Lime oil. I rub that mixture in for a few minutes then I put a warm wash cloth over my face and then I wipe it off. I follow it with a homemade mosturizer that consists of jojoba oil, vegetable glycerin, aloe vera gel, and a little bit of water in a spitzer bottle. I have not had dry skin since I've been using OCM. And in combination w/ the birth control I've been acne free for the past 2 months!

Oh, how I wish the OCM had worked for me. I was completely committed for over 2 months. I'm 30 y/o and have combination oily/dry skin. I tend to only breakout on my chin (leads me to believe it's hormonal). Before starting this new method, I had just switched to using from using Proactiv to an organic blend of black african soap w/ a tiny amount of salicylic acid. Then, I'd use Clinique moisturizer. I wanted to try to wean myself off of these acne products, thinking, hey, now I'm 30, I probably don't need these chemicals, I'm probably just reliant on them. I did that for 3 months and would have maybe 1 small zit a week, sometimes maybe a cystic pimple, treatable with on the spot Proactiv lotion. So, I was pretty please that my skin was doing decently without needing daily acne treatment. I wanted to take it a step further and eliminate the need for the lotion (has some harmful chemicals in it and just thought it would be simpler, less products). Here's how it went: Week 1: Coconut oil 2Xday, no steaming...beautiful skin Week 2: Coconut oil 2Xday, not steaming...horrible huge cystic zits...3-6 at a time. I understand the whole purging thing, but this was insane. Then I read coconut oil bad for acneic skin so I then I switched to jojoba. Week 3-4: Jojoba Oil 2Xday...getting better Week 4-5: Jojoba Oil 2Xday ...horrible huge cystic zits, again only on my chin, tried adding the steaming method Week 5-6: Jojoba Oil, Castor Oil, Tea Tree Oil and Tamanu oil blend, with steaming method 2X day...mostly tons of zits again, sometimes I'd have a couple days of freedom, and I'd think my skin was finally adjusting. Week 6-7: continued Jojoba Oil, Castor Oil, Tea Tree Oil and Tamanu oil blend...realized that I now I 25 (yes 25) new ugly acne scars on my face. I started spot treating them with Proactiv again as it was just out of control. Week 7-8: Did OCM only 1Xday, back to African black soap in the morning. Still breaking out. Week 9: I quit. It was destroying my chin. This scarring is going to take months (years?) to heal (I have fair skin and it heals slowly). I'm now trying baking soda as my face wash, using a jojoba oil blend as a moisturizer for everywhere but my chin, proactiv on my chin, and my old Clinique moisturizer (just bought a Derm-e moisturizer today with NO oil...again, this Clinque moisturizer has some questionable chemicals in it.) Been 5 days and totally zit-free. So there's my (probably way too) detailed account. I have gone totally DIY/organic with all my cleaning and body products my last few months, so believe me, it hurt to give up on the OCM. But you know what...these chemicals, that I've been using my whole life, never did even a fraction of the damage that the OCM did. I'm going to just hope this new organic moisturizer doesn't cause break-outs and call it a day. I really tried my best here with troubleshooting. Would I recommend the OCM? Well, it works for some people, and I'm not sure I even regret it as it could have been great, but maybe I should have quit sooner. Maybe it just sucks for people with hormonal acne on their chin and jawline? Fair skin? Everyone's different.

I started using the OCM method after 37 years of battling moderately severe acne (both hormonal and topical). I was able to find a great system on a natural hair website for African-Americans. Since I started using the system 2 months ago, my skin has made a remarkable improvement. All of my friends and family constantly comment on how great me skin is currently looking. Cleanser: 50/50 Castor Oil / Grapeseed oil with some johoba oil and tea tree Toner: ACV spritzer (ACV/tea tree oil/johoba oil / asprin/ green tea / chamomile tea) Moisterizer: Grapeseed oil Mask: weekly honey-lemon mask I will recommend young black girls to try this out before using a more abrasive cleansing system that would strip the natural oils from your skin.

The OCM is pretty much hit or miss. If you're willing to take the risk and you happen to react badly be prepared to deal with visits to the dermatologist, spending lots of money and all the tears that come with cystic acne. JUST DON'T DO IT. Use a regular moisturizer, natural if you want to, but not oily stuff. You have been warned.

I have been using hemp seed oil on my face as a moisturizer on and off for about 2 years now and I have never felt like it caused me to break out, although I do have acne-prone skin.I just recently started using it in the Oil Cleansing Method. MY BACKGROUND I'm 24, I had mostly clear skin growing up but at age 20 I got the Mirena IUD and it broke me out horribly, I started getting cystic acne which I used to not get, after a year when I finally clued in that it was the Mirena making a mess of my skin, I had it removed and switched to the copper t-novo iud (which does not release any hormones) since then my skin has still been a struggle, not as bad as when I had the mirena - when I had the mirena I'd get acne all over my my cheeks, chin, my temples, and my forehead. Now without the mirena it is just my cheeks and chin that tend to get acne. I've tried a lot, acid peels (salicylic and lac tic acid), I've tried so many topicals, Proactiv, and I even had a few laser treatments which HURT. A lot. Some more than others, but yea pure torture. My acne eventually came back. I've also tried clean eating, I've noticed dairy and sugar (especially combined- icecream!) break me out, but even avoiding those and drinking 8-12 cups of water a day I still break out, and on top of that my red scarring was extremely slow to leave. REVIEW OF OCM - 2/3 Hemp seed Oil, 1/3 Castor Oil So like I said I used to moisturize with Hemp seed, and now I recently started using it in the OC method. At first I thought it was pretty good, I could feel it removing little blackheads and the tiny clogged pores very easily, but then I decided to add castor oil to it and I love it!!! It is the perfect mix for me. Before using this method my skin looked dull and lifeless, like it was lacking collagen. Basically, I looked gaunt, like I was under-nutritioned even though I eat quite healthy. This oil combo not only greatly reduces my redness, but it plumps my skin like nothing other!! But the great thing about the plumping, is that I put it under and on my eyelids too, and they don't swell up whereas other oils and also vaseline cause me to have gross puffy swelling. Note that this plumping of my skin only happens if I steam my face with the oil on, if I skip the steaming I don't get this so the steaming is very important. MY ROUTINE I OC at night every night and occasionally in the AM. At night, I grab my oil from the fridge (Hemp Seed oil Must be kept in the fridge) and I start massaging it all over my face, over my makeup (sometimes if I have heavy mascara on, I will rinse my face with water just to get most of it off, and then towel dry completely, but I don't use any other cleanser apart from the oil). So, I put it onto a dry face with clean hands and I begin to massage it into my skin for about 10 minutes, and then I soak a face cloth in hot hot water, ring it out a bit and drape it over my face, trying to seal it around my face with my hands. I re-soak it in hot water usually 3-5 times, I keep going with the steam until I feel I've gotten enough to give me the plumping effect. Then I either wipe the oil off with the cloth in an upward motion (I don't resoak it because I don't want to take all the oil off) orr if I had just gotten out of the shower or something and the whole bathroom is very steamy and hot, I will massage again and maybe even take some time to massage down my neck to get flow going in my lymph nodes. And ta da! Done. I don't apply any moisturizer because hemp oil penetrates the skin so amazingly well (and its a 0 on the noncomedigenic scale). In the morning, I wake up with significantly less redness than what any less skin routine would give me, and cute collagen-filled cheeks! So in the AM I just leave my skin be, unless it was a hot night where I was sweating a lot, then I do the OC again, but this time taking a bit less time to massage it in (depending on how much time I have) Anyways if you've tried OCM and it wasn't entirely pleasing you to the degree you hoped, I HIGHLY SUGGEST you try it with hemp seed oil and castor! It even leaves my skin looking matte! I seriously can't say enough about it. The only downside is it needs to be kept in the fridge or freezer. For me this isn't much of an issue because my place is small and my bathroom is right next to my kitchen. Totally worth it though, if you have to run down to a kitchen that is far away, I suggest just washing your hands thoroughly and then going to your kitchen to get the oil, and then start massaging it straight onto your skin while you're still in the kitchen, no need to grab it and bring it to the bathroom with you just to have to go put it back again. Ps- I've tried this with coconut oil, olive oil, and grapeseed oil, I would say that Hemp is superior to all of them. (Can be found at a health foods store!)

I just want to say I wish I would have listened to my aunt when I was a teenager. She told my to clean my face with oil and I thought "your crazy lady." Why would I put more oil on my oily face. Fast forward 22 years after struggling with acne since I was 12, I finally decided to try this as my last resort. Believe my when I say I have tried everything too many to list. I finally realized that I was stripping my face and always trying to dry it out. Your skin is not supposed to be totally oil free. Your skin needs moisture even if your oily. By constantly using harsh drying products my skin was producing more oil. It was a vicious cycle. So now I only cleanse with oil and occasionally use a honey lemon cinnamon mask. Soap never touches my face. Since doing this I no longer get cysts. There is no cure but this has changed my skin dramatically and I don't have to wear as much makeup and sometimes go without.

I haven't really started using oil cleansing method religiously because I have a lot of acne (moderate acne) suddenly on the right side of my cheek and I don't want to irritate or spread it more. But from all the research I have done about acne and from everything that I know about it, here are my conclusions as to why OCM may not work for some people: Firstly, before you go ahead and slather anything on your skin, know that your skin is generally very delicate. 1. Most people back in the day never had as much acne as we do now, simply because they left their skin alone. They ate natural, organic food and washed their face naturally. Finally, they didn't slather on a ton of makeup/creams/sunscreens on their face. This is definitely something to think about as we put a lot of sh*t on our face that eventually clogs pores. Letting your face breathe is EXTREMELY important. I know this because I finally understand the structure of a pore. Inside every pore is a hair follicle and a sebaceous gland that secretes oil on to the surface of the skin. Acne happens when your sebaceous glands are either very active or your pores are blocked by something (either dead skin cells or comedogenic makeup or a pore blocking moisturizer or any makeup, period). Usually overactive sebaceous glands are not the only reason acne happens. When sebaceous glands are too active and the oil doesn't have an outlet to be pushed out, it keeps getting filled up in the pore. Bacteria then rushes into the pore to feed into the oil and this creates acne. So it makes sense that if you slather something on your skin that is not good for you and let it sit for a long time, the oil in your pores keeps getting built up because it doesn't have an outlet to be pushed out, leading to acne. 2. Steaming/extremely hot water is usually not very good for you, and it isn't very convenient either. Whenever I steam my face or scrub it too much, I get more acne. If you find that OCM is giving you more acne and you are steaming/scrubbing your face, cut the steaming and scrubbing out. If you are putting makeup or any other thing on your face on top of OCM and it is breaking you out, this is probably because your skin now has (on top of all the extra oil) ten layers of foreign stuff on it that is blocking all your pores. You are using the wrong combination of oils + steaming your face + slathering something more on your skin after (even if it is just oil). Imagine what that does to your pore. Steaming opens up pores and removes natural oil from pores + you put more oil and scrub it in (putting a lot of external oil back into the pore) + you put more oil on top of the pore. To me, this would look like a balloon filling up with more and more oil and at the same time producing more oil from within and finally being blocked by more oil/makeup. Bacteria rushes into the pore and creates acne. 3. Oil is definitely good for your skin because it restores moisture in your skin which is usually stripped off from all the harsh soaps/detergents we put on our skin. So the idea behind OCM is correct. You just need to do it the write way and not fill up your pore with unnecessary amount of oil. I generally slather sunflower oil on my skin every night to remove dead skin cells and restore lost oil back to my pores, and then I take a cotton pad to wipe all the oil off. After that I wash my skin with a gentle cleanser. I need to use the cleanser because I don't want my pores blocked by dead skin cells or I don't want dirt and dust to stick to my skin since I live in a very humid, hot and dusty environment. After I wash my face with the cleanser, it feels nice and soft without all the extra oil. It looks clean and fresh as well. I only do this at night. In the morning I was my face normally with a soap free cleanser and put a moisturizer on. That's it. No makeup, only eyeliner. I need my pores to breathe.

I have tried OCM for three days, developed the most terrible irritation and breakouts I have ever encountered in my life (had relatively clear skin before, except some breakouts because of makeup) and here is my review on it: (I have Master's degree in Biochemistry. If you don't agree with something I'm going to say or provide, you can leave a comment below and we can figure out it together. Also, English is not my first language, so I can make mistakes. Sorry.) Many people use oils (ideally cold pressed organic 100% pure) as a replacement of skincare. Yes, such words as organic, all natural, full of vitamins and minerals sound really good and people leading organic lifestyle propagate the usage of those. You know, there are oils that can clog your pores. They do so by increasing follicular hyperkeratosis'"an increased production of keratin in hair follicles. Over time, this leads to clogged follicles and comedones. Thus, oils with the low comedogenic score are safe to use. This is nothing I'm going to talk here about. So, what are these beloved avocado, rosehip seed, grape seed, hemp seed, olive, safflower, coconut, etc oils? Well, 60% of each are fatty acids. Among these, in the vast majority of cases, 95% are linoleic and oleic acids. Thus, oils are concentrated chemical solutions. Linoleic acid (18:2) is scaled by NFPA 704 as level 2 hazard to health (0-4), meaning intense or continued but not chronic exposure could cause temporary incapacitation or possible residual injury (e.g. diethyl ether, ammonium phosphate). The next point on the scale is this one: 3 - short exposure could cause serious temporary or moderate residual injury (e.g. liquid hydrogen, carbon monoxide, calcium hypochlorite). Oleic acids (18:1) is scaled 1 by HMIS: - exposure would cause irritation with only minor residual injury (e.g. acetone, sodium bromate). Safety data sheets in chemical/biochemical labs state: Adverse Human Health: Material may be irritating to the mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract Effects and Symptoms: May be harmful by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. May cause eye, skin, or respiratory system irritation. Indeed, 1 of 2 people is sensitive to even organic cold pressed natural oils and develop the worst irritation and breakouts they have ever had in their lives even because low or non-comedogenic oils. WHY? WHY ARE THEY SO IRRITATING TO SOME PEOPLE AND WHY DO THEY MAKE OTHERS SKIN VERY SOFT AND SUPPLE? Answers hide in the nature of fatty acids and how they act when applied topically. Studies show that even micromolar concentrations of palmitic (C16, saturated acid) and oleic acids incorporate into the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane (an inner cell organelle, surrounded by lipid bilayer) and reduce the content of phospholipids in the membrane. (Leo G et all, 1983) A consequence of enhanced skin permeability and/or toxicity with fatty acids is increased transdermal water loss (lauric, oleic acids). The intercellular lipids (permeate through the whole membrane) have an important function in maintaining the barrier to water permeation through the skin and for holding water in the skin, removing of intercellular lipids produced chapped and scaly skin. Maximum permeation enhancement was observed for fatty acids of 9 to 12 carbon atoms and for fatty alcohols of 10 to 12 carbons. Among saturated fatty acid, the maximum enhancement was shown by lauric acid (C12). (M. Loden at all, 2000) Remember, when tests say the maximum or elevated score they don't say other substances scored 0, as permeation ability was shown for many other fatty acids, as myristoleic, palmitoleic, linoleic, oleic, lauric and many others. Let's be clear. The skin permeation effect of fatty acids indeed depends on the chain length and saturation. But the thing is oils do not contain very short fatty acids or contain only trace amounts of those (chains of very very short fatty acids are too short to incorporate into the lipid bilayer, therefore didn't show irritation reactions). Also, it's not the deal with a specific membrane, as all of them have the same basis. In an irritation test in nude mice, 10% oleic acid caused severe irritation. Oleic acid was also evaluated in guinea pigs, with 5% producing significant epidermal damage. Various fatty acids have been examined in humans by applying for 3 h under occlusion using concentrations 0. 16 M. Oleic acid resulted in an elevated score and visible erythema and edema. (M. Loden, 2000) Another study shows linoleic acid produced significant irritation on human skin (Michael A et al, 1975). Also, prior studies on the relative irritancy of free fatty acids revealed the saturated C8 to C14 fatty acids and a C18 unsaturated fatty acid to be the most irritating. Another study says that among saturated free fatty acids from C3 to C18, and unsaturated C18 free fatty acids that were applied daily under occlusive patch tests to human skin until detectable erythema appeared, the most irritating fatty acids were C8 through C12. Of the unsaturated fatty acids tested, only linoleic acid produced irritation ( it was the only tested, though). Also, notice that different tests evaluated different fatty acids and therefore one can say the most irritating was this acid/only this acid showed irritation, while an another test names different acid due to different samples included. Studies say they applied oils until the detectable erythema occurred, thus erythema occurred in all applied saturated fatty acids. Among these, they evaluated the most irritating samples. SO WHY OILS ARE SUCH GOOD CARRIERS? All people say oils are good natural carriers of vitamins and minerals to the skin. Oh yes, they are very good carriers, as they disrupt lipid bilayer (membrane that surrounds our cells) incorporating in it and therefore make it easier for other substances to penetrate through it. But our skin is not designed as frogs skin, which consume near 10% of oxigen within it. Our skin is a barrier, nourished by minerals, vitamins and fatty acids, etc. supplied by blood, thus there is no need to disrupt the natural barrier in order to deliver minerals and vitamins topically. But even people that develop skin irritation and breakouts can safely consume different types of oils. Even mice like food flavoured with oil more. What's the secret behind it? The thing is our digestive tract has a layer of mucus that protects it, also it regenerates really fast and digest all sort of organic compounds starting from our mouth. WHY DO SOME PEOPLE DEVELOP IRRITATION AND OTHERS NOT? Let's look at one example. There is a compound called PTC (phenyltiocarbamide). It has extremely bitter taste. Evolution gifted us an ability to detect bitter tastes bacuse at the most cases bitter means toxic. So, when you can distunguish many bitter substances, you have better chances of survival. But turns out that we vary in the ability to taste PTC and among different nations and populations only certain amount of people can taste it (from 16% to 40%). But it doesn't mean for those who can't distunguish the taste, it's beneficial and they can eat it without councequences. The same is with topical irritation. Not everyone develope the reaction, but it doesn't mean it's beneficial for those (we are not talking about allergies here, just irritation!) Most people experience some sort of reaction after some time of continuous application, as irritation may be induced by repeat disturbance of barrier function. Maybe you also wonder how oils helped some people to battle acne(especially oil cleansing method) It turns out, they aren't sensible to the mechanism in which fatty acids act. Okay, fatty acids act the same on their skin, they just don't develop a visible reaction to it. Thus, fatty acids could dissolve makeup traces that can irritate their skin, or dissolve natural sebum that clogs pores and not to cause irritation by itself. WHY DO PEOPLE