Coconut Oil Face Cleanser

Another Visit to Carly's Beauty Shop

Logan spent the morning playing in the moon sand with his friend Zachary (almost 3yrs old). I do say Zachary rather enjoyed the moon sand experience as much as Logan always does. Great sensory play! All the extreme playing has led to a wonderful morning nap. Which means yet another nap time experiment.

Nap time at our house is turning into an everyday adventure. Pinterest is inspiring project after project!

Today I made and used a Coconut Face Cleanser, inspired by a pin that led me to a LiveStrong.com article on How to Use Coconut Oil on the Face. I include my own secret ingredient in my recipe below.

Coconut Oil Cleanser

Ingredients:

• Coconut Oil
  (Kroger- same aisle as the vegetable oil)
• Castor Oil(Kroger- pharmacy section same aisle as the laxatives)
• Vitamin E(Kroger- pharmacy section with the vitamins)

Recipe:

Mix equal parts coconut oil and castor oil (microwave for 30 seconds if your coconut oil is too firm). Add 3-5 drops of Vitamin E (that's my secret ingredient, Vitamin E is GREAT for your skin!!). Stir until all your ingredients are well blended.

Use:

• Bring a medium pot of water to a boil.
• Rinse your face with warm water and pat dry.
• Massage a thin layer of your new cleanser onto your face using a circular motion.
• Place your pot of steaming water (or carefully transfer the hot water to a heat proof bowl) in a place where you can easily cover it and your head with a towel.
• Drape the towel over your head and the bowl, keep your face hovering a foot or two over the water while the steam works it's magic on your pores for 5-10 minutes
• Wipe away remaining cleanser with a warm wet wash rag.
• finish with a warm rinse and pat dry.

Now, I don't know about you but I was pretty nervous about puting all these ingredients that contain the world 'oil' on my face. It's been drilled into my head that oil is bad, 'always use oil free eye make up remover', 'oil causes break outs', ect. But when I looked up some facts about coconut oil I learned how good it is for you!

What OrganicFacts says about using coconut oil on your skin:

"Coconut oil is excellent massage oil for the skin as well. It acts as an effective moisturizer on all types of skins including dry skin. The benefit of coconut oil on the skin is comparable to that of mineral oil. Further, unlike mineral oil, there is no chance of having any adverse side effects on the skin with the application of coconut oil. Coconut oil therefore is a safe solution for preventing dryness and flaking of skin. It also delays wrinkles, and sagging of skin which normally become prominent with age. Coconut oil also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin infections. Therefore coconut oil forms the basic ingredient of various body care products such as soaps, lotions, creams, etc., used for skin care. Coconut oil also helps in preventing premature aging and degenerative diseases due to its antioxidant properties."

The LiveStrong article I referred to earlier states that coconut oil has antiviral and antibacterial properties (which is awesome!) but apparently the coconut oil will purge the bacteria out of your pores which can cause an initial break out. Once that break out has passed your looking at skin that is more beautiful than ever before!

My conclusion:

I very much enjoyed this product and will continue to use it, time allowing, once weekly-ish. I do prefer the way my skin feels after my daily scrub over this cleanser so I will use it following the coconut cleanser.

Check out a few other blogs that talk about cleansing with oil products like this one:

Healthydiaries.com
How to Use Coconut Oil on the Face