Oil Cleansing Method, or You wash your face with what?

Washing one's face with oil?  Sounds counter-intuitive, yes?  I mean, one washes one's face to remove oil, so why would you rub oil all over your face and then call it clean?  Honestly, I don't know.  According to this post at Crunchy Betty, a blog I've recently discovered and fallen in love with, like dissolves like, so when you wash your face with oil, the oil in your pores is actually bought out and dissolved.  Then you wipe it away with a very warm washcloth.  The steam from the washcloth further opens your pores, allowing the gunk in them to be brought to the surface and wiped away.  

In theory, it sounds great.  In practice?  It's too soon to tell.  This is my second night using the oil cleansing method, hereafter referred to as the OCM, and my skin feels great.  But am I just days away from huge embarrassing breakouts?  I don't know.  

There is a the reason I wanted to try it (aside from finding a non-toxic way to wash my face). I wax away the unwanted hair from my face (in a perfect world, I would get threaded, but I don't have time to do that every couple of weeks), and the best way to dissolve the extra wax from my skin is to gently massage it with oil.  When I wax and wash it away with the oil, I end up essentially washing my entire face with oil and wiping it away with a warm washcloth.  Every time I do that, my skin feels great afterward.  So when I read about the OCM, something clicked.

There are quite a few blog tutorials out there that describe the OCM in detail.  For the most part, I followed Crunchy Betty's advice, with the exception of the castor oil.  I don't have any at the moment, so I figured I would give it a go with two of the oils she suggested that I do have. 

So here's a rundown of what I've been doing:

1. Mix a 1:1 ratio of grapeseed oil and sweet almond oil.  I'm mixing on a night by night basis in case my skin freaks out.  That way I don't have a vast quantity of unusable oil sitting around.  
2. Turn the faucet on hot and let the water come up in temperature.  
3. Splash some very warm water on your face.
4. Rub the mixed oils into your face.
5. Continue to rub for a minute or two.
6. Turn the hot water back on while you allow the oils to sit on your skin for about 30 seconds.
7. Wet a washcloth with very warm water and hold it against your oily face for about 10-15 seconds, then begin to wipe.  Wipe well, rinse your cloth, wipe again, rinse again, wipe again.  Continue until you feel that you've wiped all the oil off and your skin feels clean.
8. Last night I patted dry with a towel, tonight I allowed it to air dry.  

Right now, my skin feels fabulous.  Soft to the touch and moisturized without feeling oily or greasy.  Will this become a nightly routine?  Don't know...if my skin breaks out and I suddenly look like I'm going through puberty again, I'll probably pull it back, but for now, it's my go to face-washing routine.