Oil? I'm already oily!

For those of you who don't know me well, I'm a pasty, oily-skinned, fine-haired, acne-prone (oh yeah, even the backne) white person.  Everything on me turns red, red, red, from hair dyes and makeup to having too much iron in the water.  I have red bumps all over my arms and legs, and usually have a rash or five somewhere due to something unknown.

At least, that used to be me...

My whole life I've looked for the magic facewash, 3 step program, bodywash, etc. that would clear up my ridiculously finicky skin.  I believe I have tried almost every product under the sun, all natural stuff included.  Then someone put me onto parabens.  (Thanks, mom!)  I've been avoiding those nasty suckers for 3 weeks now, and my skin looks the BEST it's ever been! Look at my brand new face!

Parabens are loaded into your cleaning products.  They are mostly in moisutrizers, but they have a nasty habit of sneaking into your laundry detergent and other soaps, too.  I even found it in my face powder!  Eeps!  So, as things have been running out around the house (sometimes with help into the garbage can), I've been replacing them with sulfate and paraben free products.  Okay, I've been going a lot farther than that... they're as chemical free as I can get them!  And the results speak for themselves.

I chose sesame seed oil because it is fairly cheap, but still better for your skin than mineral oil.  I've actually just started coating up with this in the shower to replace my lotions altogether.  Seriously.  Best.  Skin.  Ever.

That's right, I have replaced ALL of my lotion with oil.  Even my face lotion.  At first I was using sesame, and my skin soaked it up.  While that initially actually cleared my skin of acne, I started getting it again after a few weeks.  My brother recommended jojoba oil, and I've started applying that with a cotton ball. On days when my face is drier, I just don't rinse the excess oil off.  My face looooooves it.

Some of the oils I've tried are coconut, mineral, Alba (it's a mixture, and heavenly, but too pricey for regular use), sesame, olive, canola, and jojoba.  The sesame for my body and the jojoba for my face were the most economical options that didn't give me acne.

Switching to oil was... weird.  I like the thicker consistency of lotion better.  To help facilitate the change, I started using Gold Bond Ultra Healing lotion.  The stuff is wondrous.  Not as chemical free as I'd like, but free of the big offenders that are in most store-bought brands and way, way better than any of the natural brand products I've tried.  Anyway, I used Gold Bond on days when I didn't want to be bothered by oil or forgot to put it on in the shower.  Now that I've adjusted to oil, though, I hardly use the lotion any longer.  The long winded point I'm trying to make here is this:  Make this change as easy on yourself as possible.