Beat those blemishes – the natural way
If you suffer from skin problems like acne, you’ve probably spent a fortune on lotions and potions that promise to turn your life around. Unfortunately, they don’t often work, and you just end up scouring the shelves of the chemist for the next miracle cure once again.
This vicious circle of try, fail, try again, can get tiresome, so perhaps it’s time you came up with your own miracle cure. And hey, if it doesn’t work, at least you didn’t spend a fortune!
How to make your own cleanser
This is really easy to do. All you need is:
- Olive oil or sunflower seed oil (organic, preferably)
- Castor oil (you’ll get it in natural food shops)
- A clean, empty bottle
While applying oil to oily skin may sound absolutely ludicrous, it actually makes perfect sense. Like cancels like, so if you put good oil onto your face, your skin will stop producing so much of it itself.
Both sunflower seed oil and olive oil are good for moisturising your skin. Some people prefer sunflower seed oil as it absorbs into the skin more quickly, but since you’ll be washing it off anyway, it doesn’t really make a difference.
Castor oil has many anti-bacterial qualities, but if you used it on its own, you’d be shedding skin for days. This is why you only need about a teaspoon of castor oil for every seven teaspoons of olive or sunflower seed oil. Of course, it depends on your skin, so you kind of have to try it a couple of times to get the ratio right.
For an extra kick, you can add a few drops of patachouli oil which is great for reducing swelling, speeding up the healing process and fighting infection.
Using your home-made oil cleanser is really easy too, just follow these steps:
- Splash some warm water on your face to open up your pores
- Put about half a teaspoon of the mixture into your hand and massage it into your face
- Leave it for a minute or two to sink in
- Wet a clean face-cloth with warm water and get to work washing the oil off (it won't just rinse off with water)
- Splash your face with cold water to close your pores back up
See? So easy! You can use sunflower seed oil as a moisturiser too, but do not do this if you‘re going to be heading outside, as it will attract the harmful rays from the sun, which won’t do your skin any favours at all.
Good luck!
