Not the kind of Girl who can wash her face with Olive Oil

(Don’t you just want to dip a piece of bread in that and drizzle some balsamic vinegar ALL OVER IT?)

NTKOG (Not that kind of girl): who would think olive oil would be something good to put on her combination skin, as a cleanser.

I am: Not shy when trying back to basic beauty recipes like washing my hair without shampoo, coating shea butter on my legs, or using baking soda as a cheap, very gentle and effective facial scrub.

I am not: Willing to let this method go even if it sounds weird, if it will be better on my skin in the long run, and taste pretty good if it runs into my mouth by accident.

The Scene: My apartment, the test bathroom for all of my crazy going green ideas. Luckily, I have a wonderful BF who is VERY low maintenance, and totally supports my going back to basic beauty experiments.

So I scoured Google with my trusty internet skills to read up about it.

Why they say it works:

Basically, your skin produces oil. Everyone knows that.

If you cook, you know that putting water into a pan with oil is NOT a good idea (and yes, I have done it by accident a number of times).

Since oil doesn’t mix with water and wash off, it’s why we use a facial cleanser that has something called surfactants in it.

These surfactants grab those little oil molecules and hugs them with their white foamy lather so that when you rinse the lather off, the oil molecule goes kicking and screaming down into the drain, in a tight head lock by those lathered suds.

At least, that’s how I imagine it works.

Now that your skin is stripped of all the oil (both good and bad) and you will have to put back some sort of water-based moisturizer so your skin doesn’t feel tight and start to over produce oil to make up for the dryness of your skin.

Therefore, bad face oil + olive oil is able to mix together, blend into one another and potentially remove the bad oils out of your skin with a little work on your part.

Method #1

The recipe: Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Castor Oil.

If you have dry skin, use more Olive Oil, and if you have oilier skin, use more Castor Oil.

The method: Take extra virgin olive oil, rub it into your face, and then using a warm wash cloth, gently rub and wash the skin, while slowly removing the oil. This is the decidedly messier option, as the oil may never completely rub off, they say.

Read here on The Ultimate Money Blog about how it’s done.

Method #2

The recipe: Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The method: Take extra virgin olive oil, rub it into your face to mix with the bad oil that produces pimples and clogs your pores. Gently rub it off with a warm wash cloth, and finish with a facial cleanser.

This last part never made much sense to me with the finish of the facial cleanser, but I suppose it’s like putting oil onto your skin FIRST, and then when you clean it off afterwards, the oil has somehow absorbed into your skin beforehand, and built up a little olive barrier?

Either way, I was finishing with a facial cleanser, and my whole goal was to NOT use a facial cleanser if this method worked.

The Verdict: 🙁

No go for me.

I broke out within the first week of trying method one. Pimples popped up on my cheeks, and on my forehead. No go damn it!

Method two, felt the same as when I washed with a facial cleanser. Just with an extra, messy, oily step.

While it doesn’t work for me and my skin, I hear it does wonders for others. I guess my skin is just extra sensitive to oils, and olive oil is just too heavy for it to handle.

I think I will stick to what I have been doing before — if I don’t wear makeup, I’ll just wash my face with just plain ol’ water and dabbing it try.

If I wear makeup that day, I’ll just use a good facial cleanser with some baking soda mixed in it to get everything off my skin.

This was originally posted on Not that Kind of Girl.