Oil Cleansing Method (OCM)

DO NOT USE THIS METHOD!!!!! I used this out of desperation and regret everything!!! I began breaking out about a year or two ago randomly after never having pimples. I figured the science behind it made sense, like dissolves like, it's natural, etc., etc. But boy was I wrong!!!! Almost every pore in my face had some sort of bump. NIGHTMARE!! Even though my whole face was blowing up its hard to detect the little changes in a face you look at everyday. I knew I had acne, but never had it gotten this horrible. Then I began to realize a bump under my chin. Eventually I went to the doctor and was informed that it was a inflamed gland due to all the acne draining on my face. I was prescribed a oral medication as well as a gel & and just now beginning to clear up 3 months later. I also use Aztec healing clay once a week. Hopefully the worst is behind me. Goodluck to all of you because I know how you feel!!

I have been using the OCM twice a week for the last three years. It has worked really well for me so far. I use a mixture of 40% castor + 60% almond oil. I have always wanted to try using safflower oil but never did because almond oil works great for me. Let me just give you some background about myself. I am a 29 year old from India, with a light brown complexion. I have normal skin which turns a little oily in summers. I have had a clear and smooth skin most of my life. I never had a single blemish on my face till the age of 24. Having always been kind of a nerd, I never bothered with my appearance or skin care. I started having little zits on my forehead and around my mouth. When people started commenting on how my skin is not as clear and baby smooth it used to be before, I started experimenting with a lot of beauty products to clear my face - washes, scrubs, masks, creams, you name it. It only made my skin worse. One day I got a big angry tomato red acne on my left cheek, and then another one near my mouth. These were not the harmless zits that went away in a couple of days. They were deep cystic acne. I saw a dermatologist right away. After taking the prescribed medicines, my left cheek cleared. But!! I got 2-3 new spots on my right cheek. Then that cleared up too...and I got more spots on my left cheek. My cheeks started looking like tomato patches. This went on for a while. My mom suggested this could be hormonal. I saw my gynecologist who ran a few blood tests for me. I was diagnosed with some early symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Disorder or PCOD. My doctor put me on birth control for three months (to regularize the menstrual cycle). She also prescribed another pill for PCOD for the next six months. With that and a LOT!! of lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, sleep, posture), my PCOD was under control. Within a month, my skin started clearing up. My complexion slowly got back to being flawless the way it was. After almost a year of being miserable, I got my clear skin back. I stopped experimenting with face products. I still do not use any commercial wash, cream etc. on my face if it is not recommended by my dermatologist. I do use homemade masks, scrubs made with kitchen ingredients though. I started doing the OCM only when my skin was absolutely clear. I noticed my complexion had started looking very dull and lifeless. I came across the OCM on a beauty blog. I was intrigued and decided to try it with 40% castor + 60% EVOO. The results on the first two days were amazing. I had this amazing glow on my face. But after a week, my skin felt a little dry and started looking dull again. I switched from EVOO to jojoba oil. That gave me tiny white heads on my nose and forehead. So I stopped doing it every day. I started doing it once a week and switched to almond oil. Luckily, almond oil did not break me out. After a few weeks when my skin adjusted to it (NOTE: I did not "purge". I have read many people have had a purging phase with OCM. Not in my case). I started doing it twice a week. OCM has worked out well for me. All said and done, I would suggest people to try this cleansing routine, but with a lot of care. Try once a week. Please do not go overboard while rubbing in the oil. Five minutes are more than enough. If you have perfect skin/complexion, please DO NOT experiment with it. I would definitely NOT recommend this to anyone who has acne, rosacea, or sensitive skin. OCM involves a lot of rubbing in of oil, which might further irritate your skin and worsen your acne. Having dealt with terrible cystic acne myself, I truly understand how upsetting it is and how desperate one feels to try the next new miracle cure. Acne (especially cystic/hormonal) is best treated with the help of a good doctor and important lifestyle changes. I really helps if you stop obsessing over it :). Your facial skin is delicate, treat it with a lot of care. Hope this helps!! and sorry about such a long post.

So when I started OCM, I sort of blindly walked into it after watching about three youtube videos from people with already perfect faces and articles raving the "like dissolves like" ability and whatever. I purchased some organic, unrefined, unfiltered, etc. coconut oil while I was on a trip to trader joe's, and when I got home proceeded to slather it on my face dry and steam it off with a warm wash cloth. Let me tell you, my skin looked and felt amazing afterwards; my blemishes had already retreated a bit and my discoloration was significantly lessened, and my skin felt baby soft. I thought it was great that this one step method, along with an apple cider vinegar toner, was all I needed to keep my face clear, and after my acne had completely disappeared about three days later, I was sure I discovered the secret to curing my seemingly immortal skin condition. Then I came across this review page for OCM on acne.org. The reviews were of course largely negative, and I was so shocked that anybody could possibly have had a bad experience with this god sent elixir of a cleanser! I was soooo not buying that I could ever react that way, but as I kept reading (I ended up reading every review), I started to notice that a majority of the positive reviews were from people like me, who had just started using OCM and reaping the magnificent short-term benefits, while everyone in the negative reviews had stuck around long enough to see just how bad this wrecks your skin. I was effectively scared away from OCM after about the 40th negative review, and with phrases like "cystic acne" and "the worst breakout of my life" thrown in the mix, I felt so betrayed by my $8 jar of coconut oil and stopped using it immediately. And of course, my skin did not only return to its dismal condition prior to OCM, but it now featured the all-too-talked-about "closed comedones" typical of OCM after-effects studded across my jaw. And then what proceeded really was the worst breakout of my life. I haven't really had too terrible of acne prior to this, so I'm not saying that I had horrible cystic acne covering my entire face, but I did breakout in about 10 painful pustules on each cheek, accompanied with tonsss of redness surrounding it (this was about 2 weeks after stopping OCM). As I type this, I'm struggling through the brunt of this OCM-induced breakout, and really wish that I never tried the darn thing in the first place. I know some people have definitely had success with this, and apparently there's some sort of "purge period" that people go through (? sounds made up to me), but it just isn't worth sticking around for some sort of positive outcome when the getting there is so painful and horrible; plus, people see my face every day, and high school people suck. All in all, this isn't worth the risk. Go see your derm, don't trust something you read about online just because a few testimonials and some logical-enough presentation of "facts" makes it out to be great. If you don't understand the science behind it, don't use it unless a doctor tells you to.

I ordered a large bottle of caster oil from amazon b/c the stuff they sell in the pharmacy is for internal use and is more expensive. I bought a oil salad dressing bottle (you know, the kind with the cork stopper) which makes it much less messy. I use 100% caster oil, massage, let sit while i shave and cleanse my body then use really hot water to steam/rinse the oil off my face. Standard OCM from what I've read. It's the magic ingredient if you are using Retin-A. It cures the dryness & feels great.

Okay, so my story might be similar to those who constantly searched and googled the internet on "how to clear up acne". First I tried Proactiv+...noticed nothing after the 60day window so I returned it for a refund. I had hopes for the OCM method and it was the worst decision for me: CLOSED COMEDONES EVERYWHERE once I used the OCM for about a month. I thought this was because of the "purge" stage, but I didn't know that meant that these comedones would actually work their way above my skin, making clumps of red comedones all over my cheeks. oils I used: Castor oil Jojoba oil grape seed oil I started with a 50:50:10 ratio with the above and adjusted based on the feel on my skin. I added more jojoba if needs since it made the castor oil easier to smooth around on my face. I combined the above oils in a bottle. I used a nickel sized amount and put it all over my face and then used hot water to soak my washcloth and put over my face for a few minutes, wiped, wa-lah. I then used bragg's ACV with water and sprayed as a toner. I did this for maybe 2 months until I was mortified enough. OCM all depends on your skin type "oh it's natural....oil dissolves oil...no harm there" no. This did not work for me, at all. It's February now and my hyper pigmentation marks are just starting to fade. The whole process was started in JUNE. that means it has taken me 8 months to get my skin back to what it was. if you want to help your acne do yourself a favor and check out Paula's Choice products. THEY ARE AMAZING. I used her sample size ($9) 2% BHA liquid on the damage OCM did to my cheeks.

So I found the OCM 3 or so years ago. And until I found the right balance of oils, it didn't work any better than anything else I'd ever tried as far as keeping my skin clear of big bumps goes. I've read a lot of these reviews... and I notice barely a mention of tea tree oil. Add TEA TREE to your regiment. My skin: super sensitive. a lot of congestion all the time with some bigger obnoxious pimples popping up. Normally do not wear makeup or sunscreen on my face as both made me break out (or did before the OCM) My job: Model, so the makeup artists slather that junk on my face and I always broke out after. Nothing worked to get all the makeup off my face, washing my face up to ten times to try to get it off. Leaving traces of makeup = break out. Over washing face = break out. Until the OCM. (And a side note, hair products can and do cause break outs too. If you don't shower that stuff out of your hair at night before bed, then it's getting on your pillow and you sleep on the pillow all night long. So if don't shower at night, change that pillow case every 2-4 days. More if you have extra.) My regular regiment: Jojoba oil and tea tree oil. I adjust the amount of tea tree as needed. usually I'm at 1/4 tea tree to 3/4 jojoba. But sometimes i up the tea tree if I know i'll be more prone to break outs, like around my menstrual cycle, or extra makeup days etc. In the beginning I did the whole "wash" my face with oil part of the method. After a year I switched to just rinsing my face with warm water, then rubbing the jojoba and tea tree into my face like moisturizer. Adjusted regiment for makeup/sunscreen: I use straight jojoba, rub in on my face, take a warm washcloth and wipe it off, then repeat this for a total of three times. It gets off all the makeup! THEN take jojoba mixed with tea tree and rub that on my face, wipe it off. Dry my face then rub jojoba and tea tree into my face like it was a moisturizer. Works like a charm and I stopped breaking out after photo shoots. I never tried grapeseed, mainly because I couldn't find it in the beginning and then jojoba and tea tree seemed to work pretty well so never bothered to change it. But the OCM is a trial and error process. Which oils work for you, and which don't. I did eventually give castor oil and try and found it too heavy for my skin except for when I visited super dry places in winter and even then only a very very small drop of it added to my oil mix bottle. The right mix for MY skin is key. The ocm didn't magically give me perfect skin, it didn't cure me of breakouts, blackheads, congestion, etc. But it was FAR superior to anything I have ever tried, and I've tried some pricy things. On the OCM I still have some congestion but have less visible acne (less of the big reds, or whites.) I have since tried using another skin care line as I have to start thinking about winkles and what I've found is this. 10% glycolic acid is great. and I like the line okay, but I've gone back to 90% ocm (or my lazy version of OCM), and 10% other products added in. Because the tea tree helps prevent my skin from breaking out.

I've had mild to moderate acne since I was twelve years old and for the duration of this time I have been using solely Proactiv and other similar products containing strong agents such as benzyl peroxide, glycolic acid and so on. While these products did work quite well, eventually my skin began to change and I found that these products were causing quite a bit of damage. My skin is no longer as oily as it once was when I was much younger (I'm 25 now). Instead, it's combination with many areas being quite dry. Recently, I began noticing that my cheeks and jaw line were completely covered in closed comedones. You can't really see them in artificial lighting but in natural light and with the addition of makeup, my skin looked extremely terrible. It looked bumpy and uneven. Nothing really worked to clean this up until I found the OCM. I was extremely hesitant to try this because I've used face oils in the past and they've always broken me out. That being said, I've also struggled with my skin for quite some time now and it's gotten to the point where I will simply try anything. I use a combination of castor oil and grape seed oil (which is known to be okay for acne prone skin). This has greatly improved the overall complexion of my skin not to mention it has greatly reduced the closed comedones. I think the important part is to know your skin. I DO NOT simply wipe away the oil when I'm finished and leave it at that. I always follow the OCM with a gentle cleanser, ensuring that there is no oil left on my face. I then follow this with my regular moisturizer and spot treatments if needed. Overall, my skin is much smoother and it's no longer as dry. I realized that my closed comedones were likely caused by extremely dry skin which can lead to congested pores. I still continue to experience hormonal acne on my chin although the breakouts I was having on my cheeks (where the congestion was mainly prevalent) has greatly decreased. I've also noticed that my acne scars are fading quite rapidly. Not sure if this is related to the OCM or not.

Please do not try this if you have acne-prone skin. I understand what it is like to feel desperate and hopeful about a new treatment, but this is probably the worst thing I have ever done for my skin. I have had hormonal/cystic acne for about 8 years (since age 20) and have tried multiple prescriptions and OTC options to no avail. I was very hopeful about the OCM. Used olive oil and castor oil, about 75/25 at first because my skin tends to dry out. It leaves you with a very nice, dewy moisturized feeling that seems healthier than the tight, dry feeling conventional products leave. After about two weeks, I noticed clogged pore forming, so I started doing 50/50 (more castor oil). Yes, with every wash I could feel gritty clogs coming out, but over time it seemed more were forming than were coming out. About two months into the method, I had the worst break out I've ever had, and it has lasted about six months (including during my wedding (what a bummer)! I have been desperate to clear this and it's only now starting to subside with Lerosett (but that's only been a couple of weeks, so we'll see longer term before I write any review on that). The breakout I've been fighting after OCM has caused substantial scarring on my temples and cheeks, both pigmentation and atrophic (icepicks). This is of course very upsetting. So please, be careful with this. I think I clogged so many pores and now I just have to wait until they all erupt and clear themselves out, leaving behind scars...

I started doing this with JUST EVOO because I had just done a chemical peel at home, and I just wanted to moisturize. Then I bought Castor oil, as well as Jojoba and Grapeseed. For the last week or so I have been using about 40-45% Castor oil, 35-40% EVOO, and 20-25% Jojoba. I have a couple of zits that have come up since then, but that is not unusual for my skin, and they seem to be smaller and healing faster than previous ones. I wish I would have started with just Castor oil and one other, then I could change things around after I got going and be able to pinpoint what each oil is doing for my skin. I DO like the EVOO, it seems to be working well, and it is supposed to be very healing for the skin. There are ALWAYS sites and people out there who say things break you out, no matter what it is, so dont believe what everyone says, do the research for yourself. EVOO is has not clogged my pores, and is the same PH as your skin. I have also heard great things about jojoba, so here is hopinh this keeps working!

I read positive things about the OCM and since I always tend to break up a bit during the summer (looking back this is nothing), I decided to try it. After 10 days into it (I used jojoba & castor oil) I noticed that I started to break out. I immediately stopped the OCM. Now, 6 weeks later I have cystic acne all over my chin that keeps getting worse by the day and is slowly expanding to my cheeks and neck. I have never had acne like this before; never more than maybe 2-3 pimples at a time, mostly none at all. I already went to see a derm and she told me that it's not a good idea to put oil on your face when you're acne prone. She prescribed some topicals I have now been using for 2 weeks, but cannot see an improvement. I cannot believe I did this to myself and am afraid my skin will never fully recover. I wish I had never come across it. Don't try it, it's not worth it. I'm desperate and all out of ideas...