Oil Cleansing Method (OCM)

Tried the oil cleansing method because of all of the great things I heard about it, but that was a decision I was going to regret more than anything yet. I started with cleansing my face once a day with a mixture of castor oil, jojoba oil and hemp seed oil, and would afterwards moisturize with rose hip seed oil. After two weeks of treatment, my whole face is covered in inflamed pimples and cysts, and my skin is the worst it has ever been. I am so sad and devastated about the situation and I am in desperate need of advice on how to heal my face the best way possible. My skin care routine is very simple and I have eliminated all harsh products: I now wash my face twice a day with water, tone with a mixture of rose water, witch hazel and apple cider vinegar. I moisturize once at night with an organic moisturizer and as a treatment, I use aloe vera from my plant as often as possible. Is there anything I can do differently? how can I heal the scars that it will leave? I will be forever thankful for any response.

I'll start off by saying I have normal skin, I found out about oil cleansing on YouTube and thought I'd give it a try, and long story short, it didn't work. I used coconut oil and I know there's tons of different oils to use but that's what I used. It didn't really make my skin worse but it also didn't make it better. The only thing it did is make my skin a little bit smoother and softer afterwards. Although every person is different, it may work for you and it may not.

I have been using OCM with sunflower oil and olive oil (no castor oil) and it was worked wonders for my whiteheads. I will be experimenting with castor oil soon. I definitely recommend this cleansing method.

I'm asian and have sensitive/ oily skin. I have occasional hormonal acne on the chin and the sides of my face and I found out about the oil cleansing method and have only started this method for about a month now. From the reviews that I have read, people usually use castor oil and In the beginning I started with just Grapeseed oil cos its supposed to be good for oily and acne skin and I couldn't find castor oil in my country, I have ordered it online and Im just waiting for it to arrive. All the reviews that I have read has said that in the earlier stages the method will cause your skin to breakout and after a while your skin will get better. I'm starting to get worried cos I have been breaking out a lot more than usual, I have breakouts on the forehead now and more of the sides of my face. These breakouts are not that bad, they're just little red spots and it makes my skin grainy and rough. I have switched my oil to sunflower oil cos I read its a high linoleic oil and it is not comedogenic. I've been reworking with the sunflower oil for about a few days now and my skin still hasn't gotten better. I dont know what I should do? Should I continue with the method or just stop? Cos people's reviews have been saying that to just stick it out for a few months. Help! I need advice!

I tried OCM for about 2 or 3 weeks and I just wound up with more acne. I used a half and half mix of castor oil and hemp seed oil twice a day. I went from having a few small zits on my forehead to having acne all over my cheeks, nose, the sides of my face, and my forehead. It took months for my skin to get back to how it was before trying OCM. OCM might work for someone who doesn't have acne, but if you do, I don't recommend trying it.

Blog here - Read all the comments - [link edited out] Around April of 2012 my boss told me about OCM and finally convinced me to try it so I bought castor oil in the drug aisle and mixed it with my extra virgin olive oil in the kitchen. I used it off and on maybe once every 2 weeks for several months...never noticed a major effect but did start noticing slightly more clogged pores than usual. I attributed it to stress and stopped using OCM for a while and used gycolic acid...I picked OCM back up more frequently in Sept-Oct 2012 and then we moved to Colorado Springs. I started noticing more and more clogged pores around my mouth and nose, where I normally did not get pimples (I have always been Tzone for breakouts). I attributed this to the dry air we had moved to and started using OCM even more. Early November I bought grapeseed oil and used it to clean and moisturize my face almost daily...my face continued to get worse and for some reason I thought I needed more oil. In mid February I went to see an aestetician for the first time and she told me not to use the oil since I was already oily. I stopped and went back to moisturizer and in March is pretty much when all hell broke loose. Since I wasnt really using OCM at that time anymore I didnt think of it...it was like every single pore in my lower face was clogged and I started getting swollen breakouts too (which are not common for me). In April the derm told me it was hormonal and recommended Spiro to accompany my retinoid use. March-April were the worst acne I have ever had in my life. I think the antibiotics were finally controlling the swollen ones...but I had to literally manually extract every single clog as the retin a was bringing it up over the period of 2-3 months. I don't know how many I extracted...but they were all stuck under the skin. I always commented that my skin had seemingly changed in the way it functioned...Ide never had major issues on my cheeks and jaw...and some of the clogs were in lines across my cheeks, like every pore effected and took sooo long to come out. After finally getting most of all that gunk out (4 months after stopping OCM) I am still getting occasional clogs rising to the surface, but it was nothing like it was. After reading the comments in that blog as well as the negative reviews on makeupalley - [link edited out] and her story - [link edited out] I finally realized how what had happened to be was EXACTLY what happened to so many of these women, seeing effects for months later. I even read some saying there's took over a year to correct after OCM. Mine has gotten so much better in the past few months that I am hoping my skin is pretty much clear of all that stupid oil and possible infection now. I am still going to take Spiro to control any excess oil and antibiotics for the next month. I hope I am over it, but I can't believe I was the cause of it. I am 90% sure using OCM was the worst thing I could have ever done to myself. It caused so much anxiety and trauma over the past several months. The stress caused from that may very well be affecting my skin too....but I cant imagine that my experience is a coincidence if so many women using OCM had literally the exact same experience, type and location of pimples. I have my 6 week derm checkup tomorrow and will be talking to her about this in depth. The retin-a micro (and microdermabrasian) has been a godsend in getting this stuff out of my skin much faster than it would have. This gives me hope in that this shouldn't continue. Since I caused it myself with oil...once all that is out of my skin it shouldn't be something inside of me that is causing it...however it makes me so angry at myself...that I did this to myself. Such a simple stupid mistake could cause such terrible effects. Wow. What I did to myself in the pursuit of perfection. It is definitely humbling. Anyone reading this, DO NOT TRY OCM!!!