Cleansing with OIL? Yes! We have NO EVIL

By now, you may or may not have heard the benefits of using oil as a cleanser to reduce congestion (such as blackheads) and improve the skin’s natural oil/water balance. When used appropriately, it is by far our favorite way to gently pull hardened debris and old, oxidized oil from the pores.

How to Oil Cleanse

Apply 8-10 drops (one big old squirt) of your Cleansing Oil (our choice: NO EVIL. See below) to the entire face. It can be done on either wet or dry skin, but we find that it draws out blackheads better if you do it over dry skin. After massaging it in—particularly in the congested areas—for a minute or two, hold a steamy, damp washcloth (preferably one of our specially-textured ones. See links below) over the face for a few breaths and gently wipe away the debris. This can be followed by a few splashes of cool water or spritzes of your favorite Mineral Mist. (YUM!)

How to Make This Method Work for You

Start slow. Begin by adding oil cleansing to your routine once or twice a week at night—especially if you are congested. Do your best to avoid oil cleansing more than once within any 24 hour period—it takes time for the skin to rebuild it’s nature oil and over-oil cleansing can strip the skin of it’s natural oils just as much as a harsh chemical cleanser if done too often.

The skin does not usually need to be moisturized after cleansing with oil, especially once it is functioning well. Our preference is to NOT moisturize after oil cleansing in order to entice the oil glands to “step up their game” as you sleep and make fresh, beautiful new oil for you! (Especially if you are following our Diet for Incredibly Good Skin)

Do not oil cleanse in the morning! At night, you want to loosen and remove the oil based debris from your pores before allowing your skin to reset and metabolize while you sleep. In the morning, we suggest that you use a WATER-based method of cleansing (we suggest Facial Bathing in your cupped palms for everyday) to flush the metabolic wastes (found in sweat–the water part of your skin’s barrier) from the surface of you skin.

If you are using another cleanser that “controls” or “balances” you skin, don’t just go off of it cold turkey or things will go “out of control.” Luckily, adding NO EVIL as an oil cleanser alongside your controlling methods will benefit you in that it is providing something that isn’t being provided by other types of products. (See these articles on control and your skin)

About NO EVIL as Your Oil Cleanser

Characteristics
• No fragrance or intense scent
• Ouch-less and tasteless in delicate areas
• Visually clear
• Quiet and peaceful

Great for those who experience
• Enlarged or clogged pores
• Blackheads and milia
• Hardened Stress Bumps
• Sensitivity, irritation and reactivity

And may be looking for
• An awesome pre-cleanser for the double-cleansing method or under a mask
• Extra protection from harsh environmental conditions
• Make-up removal, forgiveness of sins

NO EVIL is made of pure Olive Squalane that has been potentiated with a double terminated quartz crystal (Herkimer Diamonds from Little Falls, NY) in order to restructure its vibrational frequency to one that is recognizable and soothing to the skin. The Herkimer Diamond is known as the Stone of Attunement because it is said to help you attune to any situation or environment.

In addition to “all that weird stuff” that you may or may not believe in (we’ve used quartz crystals in precision time-keeping for almost 100 years…just saying), the purity of the squalane and the fact that it is bioidentical to the squalane found in our skin’s natural sebum makes it something nearly impossible for even the most sensitive skin to be reactive to. Also, the structure of this oil in particular makes it glide on effortlessly without feeling “oily,” has no overwhelming scent and (importantly) makes it extremely stable without a chemical preservative. We do not use essential oils or any herbs in this product–we believe they are too precious for this use and can be potentially “confusing” to the skin.

Trouble Shooting Oil Cleansing

You still have blackheads/congestion after 6 weeks of cleansing with NO EVIL 2-6 times a week.

Make sure you are using a steamy-hot washcloth to remove the oil. Massage the oil into the congested areas and then hold the washcloth right on top of it, pausing for a few moments before wiping it gently away. Our washcloths have a special textured side that grabs onto the oil without pulling at the skin. You may also have so much old, hardened congestion that you need a professional facial to remove the debris. Lucky for you, if you have been oil cleansing regularly it will come out more easily when you come in for a service!

You see little white pus bumps.

Usually this comes from one of two things.

Either:

You are not using a washcloth to remove the oil

Or:

2. Or you are coming off of a product that has been killing bacteria faster than the skin is able to deal with them by itself.

If the second is the case, we suggest that you take your time moving away from anti-bacterial products and/or start using Cow Fart Juice as your cleansing oil for a few weeks.

You have overall redness with flat-feeling skin.

If you have been using a singular oil such as rosehip seed oil for more than 3 months or a mix of super-powered oils (such as our Seeds of Change) it is time to use something that is not so highly antioxidant. Switching to NO EVIL and using it appropriately, as mentioned above, should help. Oils like this feel great and can be extremely beneficial for the first couple of months while they are making dramatic transformation, but then “stop working” due to

Either:

1. They have served their transformational purpose and are now too much and becoming sensitizing to the skin.

Or:

2. They are not getting all of the skin’s basic needs met.

Notes on DIY skin care: Sometimes this happens with oils that are either imbalanced or have high concentrations of essential oils for the same reason.

You experience little bumps or itchy irritation

Either:

You are over doing it. We have this belief that if once is good, more is better. Over-achievers, listen to me: No more than once in each 24 hour period of any type of oil cleansing. This also goes for other uses of oils such as putting it on before going in a pool or steam room. If you’ve been over-doing it, you may need to come in for an Integrative Therapy for Barrier Repair or see if you are a candidate for our unique Vita-C Dry Serum (ask one of our aestheticians).

Or:

2. You may have stagnation under the skin that doesn’t let product penetrate and does not respond well to oil cleansing, no matter how gentle and lovely the oil. It usually comes from DIY skin skincare that uses oils inappropriately. For example: treating oil alone like a moisturizer (learn more about why that doesn’t work here). If this is the case, it usually looks like mottled redness under the skin that seems irritated and doesn’t seem to do much. It may be flaky, itchy, or sometimes appear chapped. Before continuing with an all-natural regimen, you will probably need to clear out the stagnation.

If it’s the latter case, we also recommend booking an appointment for Integrative Therapy for Barrier Repair or to come by one of our locations and meet with one of our specialists to see if you are good candidate for our Vita-C Dry Serum mentioned above.

Added Something-Somethings

When the skin is experiencing dehydration (blackheads or dinosaur skin) or if you need to loosen up congestion, it is useful to use either steam or compression towels (with or without the benefit of added herbs) to heat up the oil a bit more and get it moist before wiping it away. Here’s our favorite methods:

Steam:

Apply a layer of a cleansing oil on your face. Place Herbal Steamer herbs or one of Stress Bump Herbal Infusion (Cheek, Chin, Forehead) into a bowl of water and pour steaming water over the herbs. Make a tent with a towel over your head and put your face into the line of steam-but not too close, start with about a foot away. Be careful. Steaming water is HOT and can burn you.

Compression Towels:

Apply a layer of cleansing oil to your face. Pour your Stress Bumps Herbal Infusion over a folded towel until it just covers the fabric and it soaks in. Then cradle your face with the towel and relax for 5-10 minutes.

Double Cleanse:

You can double-cleanse using NO EVIL as a pre-cleanser or a make-up remover and then following your oil cleanse with a Sow Your Wild Oats scrub or an additional cleansing method you may need.

Switch Up Your Oil

Cow Fart Juice:

If the skin is covering from a period of open wounds or you have a “picking problem” (no judgments here-picking is a natural reaction to things being itchy such as a histamine response), you may want to use Cow Fart Juice as your cleansing oil sometimes.

Seeds of Change:

If you are looking to Maintain Radiance at Every Age by giving the skin a hormetic boost, you may want to switch over to Seeds of Change for a short time. (Functional Skin Care would have you do this one or two times a week, but you can do it every night for up to 6 weeks for a more intense transformation).

Rosehip Seed Oil:

The most basic “extra” oil that is well-tolerated by most people as something that they can “switch it up” with or add into their NO EVIL for an added bonus. Please note, we don’t recommend using Rosehip Seed (or any other oil for that matter) alone on the skin like it is a moisturizer. Instead, use Nourish & Replenish Oil and one of our Mineral Mists, please. Also, sensitive skin does well using Rosehip (Seed) Oil off and on for oil cleansing. If it seems to be becoming too much, TAKE A BREAK! …you can come back again next season.

What can I do if I can’t oil cleanse both day and night?

As mentioned above, we don’t recommend oil cleansing more than once in a 24 hour period. There are many ways to cleanse your skin and all of them serve different purposes. We recommend a Facial Bath with water or an Herbal Infusion in the morning. We offer Sow Your Wild Oats and Integrity Biome Mask for exfoliation that helps to rebuild the skin with more resilience and three different clay masks with seaweed that are recommended for that weekly ionic cleansing. And remember, your skin IS an organ…technically it is self-cleansing!