OCM and Me

[alienagentsab]

It was probably a month and a half ago that I tried OCM for the first time. I knew that my face would get worse for a couple weeks and I was prepared. What I was not prepared for was this:

Comments

[rocza]

I have been picking it apart trying to find one
Well, stop that, you're just making things worse. :-)

I'd back off on using any/everything on your face for the next few days. Just rinse your face twice a day with warm water, and pat (not scrub) your face dry. When things calm down, you can think about using extremely mild, non-comedogenic cleanser on your face.

[alienagentsab]

Every time I look in the mirror for the past two days I remember your advice, but I haven't actually done any of it. It's really good advice! Today I'm going to actually rinse, and then try not to touch, and see how it helps.

[mshanai]

I developed a few problems on OCM, and the suggestion I got was to cut down on the proportion of castor oil in the mix. It definitely helped. But this might not help you, because skin is a very personal thing

[alienagentsab]

I will definitely change the oil ratio and see if that helps. I tried to do what some website said for what type of skin I guessed I had, but maybe I was wrong. And I haven't tried jojoba oil for anything else so it would be easy to use a different oil in its place and see if that helps. I hope I'm not allergic: I chose it purely because I like the name. :(
I am under a lot of stress and have been eating badly, and my skin has gotten worse from that. Usually it's worse in more normal ways, but I can always cut down the chocolate and get a baseline for my skin's condition. I like the sound of your oatmeal scrub and I think I'll try it. Thanks for the suggestion.

[mshanai]

Ya welcome! :)

Don't give up on jojoba too soon--it's just something to consider. I think most people do just fine with it, and there are a lot of other variables to eliminate before jojoba. Sometimes, all I use is jojoba, and my skin responds quite well to it.

If it doesn't work out on your face, you can use jojoba on hair, too, if you have longer hair. Just a few drops smoothed between the palms and applied below the ears. Does wonders for long hair!

[alienagentsab]

I do have long hair, as it happens. I'll try some other oils, and if it turns out I have a problem with all of them, I'll just admit OCM is not for me. If some are okay, I will try putting jojoba on my hair-- hard to have an allergic reaction on dead cells! Thanks for the advice, it's all very helpful.

[alienagentsab]

When I first looked in to OCM, it seemed to me only one oil would be necessary. Knowing it works for you makes me confident enough to go ahead and try it. I have almond oil and it seems very gentle so i'll start there.
Cystic acne you say? I'll look in to that. Now I have a potential name for what's happening I may be able to make progress getting rid of it!

[maynda]

You could try a drop of grapefruit seed extract diluted on a cotton swab. If there's bacteria underneath your skin you might be trapping it in. Just a thought.

[alienagentsab]

That's a good thought, thank you for sharing it. :) As it happens, my mother recently went to great trouble to get some pure GSE, so I can try it immediately.

[autumn_sylver]

When I tried OCM, my skin did fine on it for about a month, and then it started getting crusty-feeling and I had little brown spots all over my face. I have no idea what was going on.

But now I use ground dried adzuki beans to scrub my face, castile soap to wash, then I put aloe on my face and vitamin A cream around my eyes (apparently it's supposed to get rid of dark circles, but I haven't seen any improvement yet).
I use bentonite clay once a week as a mask, and every now and then I'll use a mixture of milk and lemon juice to lighten my skin a little and even it out.

My skin looks way better than it did when I was using St. Ives medicated apricot scrub. I used to have redness on my forehead, around my nose and on my chin, and now that's gone.

[alienagentsab]

You use more of a variety of things than I want to (I just don't like keeping up with everything), but maybe I'll try a few of those things separately. The aloe, for example. I used to have aloe plants, maybe it's time to get some more.

[autumn_sylver]

I've been thinking about adding the adzuki beans to a scrub mixture. A few years ago, I found a recipe for a scrub that had ground oatmeal, ground almonds, honey and a bit of water (if it's too thick).
Ground almonds are expensive, so I was thinking about using ground adzuki beans instead. Maybe you could try that mixture.

I remember that it made my skin really soft after I used it, and the honey made it smell really nice.

[alienagentsab]

Is adzuki available in grocery or health stores? I've never heard of it before now.