Going Green... on my face

Well, now I've gone and done it. I really did something bad. I broke a tooth... over the Rosh Hashanah/New Year weekend... in Israel... when every dentist's office is closed... in the whole country. Yup, I did it! Aside from a pinched nerve in my back and tendinitis in my wrist - now I have a broken tooth. October is shaping up to be an extremely expensive month.

You know what's not expensive? My newest face wash. Baby Glaser is making my skin dry in some areas, red in others, with some shine in places that I don't want to shine. I realized it was time for a change and after researching the Internet for a few weeks... I found nothing. Then I was on Pinterest and found this amazing little piece of advice.

Oil gets rid of oil.

Stop laughing! Here's what I'm doing: washing my face with olive oil and castor oil.

Ok, really, stop laughing. I've gone a bit green. Not tree-hugging green but kinda green. This treatment is called OCM - Oil Cleansing Method. After reading about it on Simple Mom, I decided I had to try it! Here are some basics:

Dry Skin:
3 parts olive oil
1 part castor oil

Oily Skin
1 parts olive oil
3 parts castor oil

Normal Skin
1 part olive oil
1 part castor oil 

If your skin has a bit of acne, add a few drops of tea tree oil to the mix. I mixed my oily skin combination into a small tupperware box and added 4 drops of tea tree oil. When I'm ready to wash my face at night, I give it a mix and dip my clean fingers into it. I "lather" up in my hands and apply the mix to dry skin. I rub in the mixture with little circles using my finger tips. After about a minute or so, I take a washcloth and run it under warm water. I place the warm washcloth on my face for a minute, take a deep breath, then gently wipe away the mixture. I repeat this 3 or 4 times then pat my face dry.

So far, I haven't used moisturizer and my skin is A LOT less oily during the day. Plus, the bumps on my face caused by my hormones are starting to clear up. If only it got rid of the bags under my eyes...

The upside: it's REALLY cheap, really easy and seems to be working. I just wash my face at night and rinse my face with cold water in the morning.

The downside: I no longer need to buy those cutesy little soaps. No, wait, that's another upside. I guess there is no down side. YAY!

So far, I'm on day 3 and my face is feeling so much better. I told my doctor about it this morning and she told me that she hopes it works for me and she wants an update in a month. If it works for me, she'll start telling her other patients about it.

I started this new facial remedy because I'm sick of how I look. My face isn't radiant and everything feels blah right now. I guess this is my way to try something "new".

My next experiment: DIY make up wipes.

Would you ever slather on the castor-olive oil mixture? What's your favorite DIY beauty remedy?