How I (Pretty Much) Fixed My Skin!
There are plenty of big bad scary things to think about. There are global things, like ISIS, the threat of diseases like Ebola and whatever Boko Haram is up to now. Or, there is the continued threat of the awful things we as a species like to do to the environment. Then there’s all that social unrest and prejudice at play; like the pie charts showing documented evidence of police racism in Missouri. Or, heck, locally, I could point to our rising obesity rate, the epidemic of skeet culture, or the fact that we have, like, almost NO female representation whatsoever in politics, and plenty of people here are totally fine with that. (After all…women? With periods? Making decisions? OMG.)
I admit that I can get a little too caught up in the negative stuff too sometimes. Soooo, with that in mind, let’s go navel-gazing! Let’s take this moment and talk beauty routines! Ok???
OK!
What? I woke up like this!
Here’s the deal: I’m not a pretty princess pony. Instead I’m naturally very pale, and my skin tends toward dryness. I am the type of person who will burn rather than tan. My skin is also really sensitive. This sucks. On plenty of occasions I have purchased a moisturizer or cleanser and have had to pass it on to my mother or sister, because I just couldn’t use it. Even products specifically for sensitive skin will sometimes burn when I apply them to my face! Basically, I just have to be careful what it is I put upon my visage. This became doubly hard a few years ago when I started getting a lot of acne.
It was weird because I never really had it in High School (not especially, anyway). I never had it when I went away to University. Then, lo and behold, I get into my mid-twenties and the bottom of my face just starts reacting. Sure, I didn’t like how it looked, but the worst part was the irritation and discomfort.
Eventually I had so much acne that I qualified for a treatment study. (Um, yay?) As a part of the trial, my treatment involved a special cream in an unmarked tube and regular trips to a dermatologist. I would go, and they would measure spots on my face for comparison week to week.
Yes, I did see some mild improvement. I would say that the treatments themselves could be drying and irritating though. Once the study was over, I stayed with the dermatologist for a while, and I used a perscription set of creams. However, these creams continued to be pretty harsh. You are supposed to avoid the sun when you use them, and one of them, if you left some on a dark cloth, was even capable of lightening the fabric.
I was less keen on using creams capable of bleaching facecloths on my face. I hunted for other products and routines to keep my face happy without the chemical warfare. I wanted something gentle. I also wasn’t into dropping bux deluxe on some celebrity cream. (I did get a set of samples from an expensive skincare line at one point. They were great, but I couldn’t justify the price tag!)
Then, I read something about how Sophia Loren uses the “occasional olive oil bath” for her skin.
Guys. There’s stunning, and then there’s SOPHIA LOREN.
If Sophia Loren swore by smearing tomato paste into her eyebrows at night, you can be damn sure I’d try it!
Well, I was pretty desperate, so I tried it. I went to the kitchen and smeared olive oil all over my face.
At first, I only used it as a moisturizer at night. Right away I saw a big difference. There was never any stinging or burning, and my skin always felt better in the morning. No more dry patches. The biggest bonus? My acne began fading right away. Even though I was counterintuitively putting actual oil on my face, my skin was improving dramatically!
Eventually I also realized what a miracle it is for taking off makeup, especially eye makeup without irritation or pulling. I can just soak even the heaviest of mascara and eyeliner off with olive oil and wipe it away. I got into the cleansing with oil because it actually works very very well. (I do admit, however, that it sucks to get it in your eyes!) That alone is useful to know if you’re ever out or travelling and are stuck without a cleanser/remover somewhere.
As my face got better, a did some online digging around and realized that quite a few people use olive oil on their faces. It’s even popularized online in hippie circles as the “Oil Cleansing Method.” I’m not alone!
Is my face perfect? Nope. I definitely would say that I have some scar tissue on my face, and I might get a blemish here and there. However, when I’m well-rested, using olive oil and a gentle cleanser (if I’m not just cleansing with oil I sometimes use Spectro gel), my skin looks and feels healthier.
A shot of me without makeup. Much improved!
I feel like this is hardly something that beauty companies want you to latch onto. This is exactly why I think you should try it anyway! If it doesn’t work for you, that’s ok. Maybe you’re out a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. But if it does? That’s a big savings for you, and a potential improvement in your skin tone.
Personally, I can’t say enough good things about it. My acne is gone, and my face looks better. I even work outside now, and I haven’t gotten a single dry patch on my face all winter.
Worth a shot, anyway.
-Jennnq
...But I'm Not There Yet 