I Think I’m Turning Hippie

I don’t think my sister and I realized that our mom was really a hippie. She disguised her hippie-ness by being Korean, so we just thought it was a culture thing more of our lives. Which, I suppose, either way you look at it, it’s a culture thing. And of course we thought our mom was kind of weird for all her “natural this” and unprocessed that. But despite my best efforts, my mom’s hippie ways have totally rubbed off on me.

For instance, I only use sulfate/sulfide free shampoo that also happen to be certified organic. Same goes for my leave in conditioner. Since I’ve done so, my hair doesn’t get as oily as quickly and it has more body as well. I use Giovanni shampoo & leave-in conditioner. It’s really reasonably priced compared to other sulfate/sulfide free shampoos I’ve tried and works best for me. It’s totally win-win.

And I stopped using store bought body soaps a few months ago as well. Now I buy all my soaps here or here. Since I stopped using liquid body washes and started using handmade soaps, my skin is much less dry. Especially my legs. My shins can get really scaly, but I’ve noticed that I don’t use lotion nearly as much as I used to. My skin is much softer and my shins aren’t scaly any more! Also, I suffer from keratosis pilaris on my upper arms and thighs and I noticed that since I started using natural soaps, it seems to be lessening. Total win!

The only thing that I was still using that wasn’t green or organic was my face wash and I’d been wondering what to do about this. Then, as if she was reading my mind, ESC told me about the oil cleansing method. I did some research and really liked the idea. For starters, I can tailor my cleanser to my specific needs and the long-term cost of doing this is actually much cheaper than continuously buying facial cleansers that have the very sulfates/sulfides that I’m trying to avoid putting on my body and hair. Why am I still applying them to my face?! Another added bonus is that the oil cleansing method also works a makeup remover. Including taking off waterproof mascara. So that means not having to buy makeup removers as well. Sweet!

But before I started on the oil cleansing method (OCM), I talked to my mom about it because she actually went to one of the premiere aromatherapy schools in London, England when I was growing up and is my go to authority on stuff like this. And she told me that the principal is a very sound one, but she advised against using castor oil or olive oil as most of the methods I’ve come across online suggest. She told me grape seed oil and jojoba oil are better choices and then gave me 3 different books on aromatherapy. Her reasoning is based on what she was taught. And that is that olive and castor oils have larger molecules and are not as easily absorbed by the skin. So while your skin may appear to look better and develop a glow, it’s all surface and shallow. When the body finally accepts these oils into your pores, it does so by expanding the pores. Grape seed and jojoba oils have smaller molecules and are more easily absorbed by your skin. (This is my mom’s explanation and I have not tested this out nor have I actually researched the internets to see if anyone backs her up.) However, since she did actually go to school to learn aromatherapy, I’m inclined to believe her.

So I went to Whole Foods and bought jojoba oil (OMG, this stuff is more expensive than I expected so I will look for it online to see if I can find a better deal), grape seed oil, sandalwood essential oil and eucalyptus essential oil. The sandalwood is actually to help prevent wrinkles and the eucalyptus is to help diminish blackheads and blemishes. I made a mixture that is roughly 85% grape seed oil, 15%  jojoba oil with about 5 drops of sandalwood and 3 drops of eucalyptus. It smells very minty. I made a small trial batch tonight and will start using it tonight, too. I will get back to you in a week or two to let you know how it’s going and what my results are.

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