When I first heard about the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) I thought it was a little crazy. Washing your face with oil? How does that help at all? My skin was combination/oily and even though I heard it could help with that I wasn’t in the least bit convinced that it could work for me.

I always had slightly oily skin, but it was more combination than anything. My company of choice was Neutrogena, but their products had started to leave my skin more dried than anything, and so I switched to Clinique. I bought the tester pack, and my skin simply thrived on their system, so I bought the full three month set which put me back a pretty penny (~£60). But who can put a price tag on feeling great right?

Then I went to Ghana and the whole thing fell apart, my skin just wasn’t happy at all. I stopped being Combination Oily and dove straight into the world of Oily skin. I didn’t really have room to experiment with products as I was out there for such a long time, so I tried dropping out the products from my routine. The more products I dropped out, the more I realised that the 3 Step System clearly wasn’t working anymore.

the process

OCM is simple enough and incredibly cheap compared to other cleansing systems. There are hundreds of guides online, but I followed the one I found on r/skincareaddiction, all you need is a microfiber cloth and oil.  

1. I wet my skin with lukewarm water.
2. Poured some oil onto my wet hands and massaged it into my skin for a few minutes.
3. Wiped away the oil with a warm wet microfiber cloth.

results

Within a week my skin became significantly less oily and stayed that way! The only problem? Spots. Turns out Sweet Almond Oil is comedogenic, which means it can increase spots. I tried exfoliating once a week to work around it and double cleansing with a foam cleanser (which actually helped a bit), but I still had spots. Gah! So I switched to Baby Oil, but the smell made me unhappy. I tried a mixture of the two, it was better but still, spots. 

Overall, the process did help but it was exhausting. I’ve found that my skin has settled down back into Combination Oily and I’ve found other products that work well. I did learn a lot, double cleansing with foam cleansers is awesome and I can’t use anything other than gel moisturisers on my face.

tl;dr

I tried it for three months, it was alright. It works, but it’s such a hassle getting the right oils and finding the right balance that I’ve found it not worth the effort. Other products seem to be working better. I learnt a lot and I’ll still use it every once in a while, but it isn’t part of my regular skin care routine anymore.