Online Goddess

We’re having a bit of a heat-wave here in the UK at the moment and, unfortunately, it’s doing my poor skin no good at all. The rash I suffered with last summer is trying to come back, thankfully I still have my tea tree and eucalyptus cream to keep it at bay. I’m absolutely terrified of it being really nasty like it was last year as it took several months to ease off.

The heat is affecting my hair too. Though the vinegar rinse is successfully keeping dandruff to a minimum, my hair is greasy and limp within hours of washing. I don’t really want to wash it every day, but I’m not sure what else I can do. Any tips from readers familiar with this predicament would be greatly appreciated.

My acne is slowly improving. I think my body is finally getting used to being back on the pill – it’s taken about 6 weeks. The old acne marks are taking their time fading however, so I’m having to wear make-up whenever I go out and this frustrates me somewhat. The good news is that it hasn’t messed up my periods though (a common complaint from users with this particular pill), I started my last one bang on time.

I shall trudge on as always. And hope for a cool day sometime very soon.

I was browsing through some old emails today and suddenly realised that I’ve now been using natural skincare products for a whole year! I’m amazed how quickly the last 12 months have passed and I’ve learnt so much about my skin. It’s been a fascinating journey for me – I’ve gone from trying out all manner of new products to finally settling on a few basic essentials that really suit my needs.

Though I still suffer from a few skin problems, I feel that I understand them a lot better and am more positive about keeping them under control. I can confidently say I won’t be returning to mainstream, synthetic products.

Anyway, just thought I’d mention it as it’s a pretty important milestone for me. :) I’ll be updating more frequently in May, thanks to my shiny new internet connection which was activated yesterday!

In my early 20s I switched from the mini-pill to the combined pill in the hopes it would improve my acne. I ended up quitting after trying two different brands unsuccessfully and never got around to going back on the mini-pill. Until three weeks ago that is.

Well I expected to have a few issues with my skin and that’s certainly what I got. In fact, I’ve been experiencing the whole range of typical PMT symptoms – increased acne, overly flaky scalp, a very short temper and incredibly tender boobs.

To counter the skin problems, I’ve been using plenty of apple cider vinegar in my hair and face care routines.  Even so, I’m noticing greasiness returning after only a few hours. Not a lot I can do about my temper, other than try to bite my tongue before I say things and for the last concern I just have to make sure I’m wearing my most comfortable bras. :D

Generally, I’ve been trying not to worry about all this. I’m adding a new hormone into my body and it’s understandable that I’m going to have some balancing issues for a few weeks. But two days ago, something happened (which may be totally unrelated) that made me freak out a bit. I had a tiny little whitehead appear just under my lip and upon gently squeezing it, an enormous purple bruise suddenly appeared right underneath!

I can only assume the spot I squeezed was close to a capillary or something. I have never ever had bruises on my face and it was quite upsetting to see this prominent blotch on my chin. Applying a liberal amount of concealer didn’t manage to cover it either, so I skulked around indoors all day with no intention of being seen by anyone.

Thankfully, it’s already started to fade, but it’s certainly made me think twice about popping any more spots. Which I guess can only be a good thing really. :D

So, I shall continue to hang in there and hope my body adjusts to the mini-pill soon. Wish me luck!

During my journey of natural skincare discovery, I have tried several products that didn’t work for me as I’d hoped. Rather than stash them away in a cupboard to be forgotten about however, I experiemented a little and found that while they didn’t serve their original purpose, they provided benefits in rather different ways.

The beauty of natural products is that they are so safe and gentle you don’t have to worry about using them on varying parts of your body. I thought I’d share a list of items I regularly use in this manner:

• Anita Grant’s Ylang-Ylang & Kelp Babassu Shampoo Bar:  I was really hoping this would be a nice shampoo for me, but it made my hair sticky and heavy. Not too surprising as it’s designed for thick, curly hair which is the total opposite of mine, but I thought it sounded nice. I have found it makes a fantastic soap and use it all over my body – it exfoliates gently and the ylang-ylang and kelp prevent oiliness.
• Pure Nuff Stuff Shampoos, Shower Gels and Handwashes: I do actually use these as intended, but I’ve also found they are interchangable. So if I like the sound of a certain shampoo, but want to use it as a bodywash, I can do.
• Essential Care’s First Aid Repair Lotion:  I also use this as intended, but in addition it makes a nice moisturiser if I’m feeling particularly oily. It’s also great at drying out acne and sometimes even prevents a spot appearing if I apply it early enough.
• Akamuti’s Kalahari Watermelon Body Oil: As well as being a gorgeous massage oil, it’s useful after shaving to prevent itchiness. Is also wonderful used as a bath oil leaving my skin baby soft after drying.
• Anita Grant’s Carrot & Wheat Germ Cleansing Oil:  Though my OCM attempts were unsuccessful, I’m currently using this twice-daily on the stretchmarks behind my knees. I’ve only been using it for a couple of days, but it might help and at least enables me to use a product I had 95% of left and no idea what to do with.
• Pure Nuff Stuff’s Afterscrape Balm:  Great for general itchiness and not just after shaving. I’ve even tried rubbing some onto my underarms as a deodorant and it was quite effective.

So don’t go throwing out those expensive goodies you can’t use. Think about how else they might be useful and experiment. Even if something is totally wrong for your skin-type, chances are it will come in handy somewhere along the line. Even though my skin is generally oily, I still get the odd dry patch sometimes.

Also bear in mind that hormones affect our skin and so you might find that some products work better at certain times of the month. If possible, give yourself a few weeks to thoroughly try out a product before dismissing (or praising) it.

In the unfortunate event that you have products which still offer no useful purpose, consider giving them away to friends and family. I gave half a dozen items to a friend the other week and, while she didn’t like all of them herself, her family soon snapped them up with gusto! :D

I’ve been considering trying Aubrey Organics’ Calaguala Fern Leave-In Texturizing Treatment for a few months, to complement the matching shampoo I’ve been using. This is something Pure Skincare don’t currently stock, so I had a quick look around and found an eBay store exclusively selling Aubrey Organics products: iloveaubrey0rganics

They have quite a range and, even better, their prices are cheaper than retail! I was getting low on toner and shampoo I decided to order them too and, as I’d spent over £15, was entitled to a free bottle of Sparkling Mineral Water Complexion Mist. If I spent just over a pound more, I would qualify for free delivery too, so I topped up my order with a bottle of Aloe Vera.

I ordered on Saturday, the goods were sent out promptly on Monday and arrived early Tuesday. There were several samples included, a natural ingredients guide, a product guide and even a tote bag. All very well packaged in a cardboard box with lots of brown paper wrapping. I was expecting the products to perhaps be close to Use By date given the cheap prices, but none of them expire until 2009.

I really like the Complexion Mist too, so I may be ordering some more of that in future. I’ll give my mum the Rose Mosqueta samples and she’ll probably love those. :D

The store changes offers periodically, currently they’re giving away a soap bar when you spend £30 or more. I don’t think they’re doing free delivery at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll do it again at some point.

Yes, it’s true, I’ve decided to give up my OCM routine. I’ve definitely overloaded my face too much and need to give it a rest and time to calm down. It’s been about 5 days since I stopped using it and already the pimples that wouldn’t go away are drying up and healing.

My period started two days ago, but I’ve only got a couple of the usual hormonal bumps. After the explosion of pimples from the OCM, this is actually heaven – I never thought I’d be saying that! I guess it just goes to show how everything is relative and while I might view my PMT acne as bad sometimes, it could certainly be a lot worse.

Anyway, I’m really sorry to report such a negative outcome. I’m not saying the OCM doesn’t work, I just think I went about it wrong. I still stand by my earlier advice that the right oils can make all the difference – perhaps one day I’ll try again and use the sunflower oil that Kloggers and Helen suggested in a previous post.

Interestingly, I think the Camellia & Copaiba oil I’m using as moisturiser may be doing a bit of OCM on it’s own and perhaps the combination of this and the other oils was simply too much. This is one product I will be sticking with, as I still don’t need to exfoliate, my skin is rarely greasy and it doesn’t aggravate my acne.

Well this is very weird. For the last couple of days, my face has been much oilier than usual. I don’t know if it’s the OCM doing some kind of rebalancing, but I’m going to have to quit using my Camellia & Copaiba oil for a few days to see if it dies down. I’ll be gutted if I have to stop using it permanantly, especially as I forked out £20 for a full-size bottle only three weeks ago.

Not only am I oilier, but my skin feels a bit rough too, like I need to exfoliate. My acne isn’t giving up either, although at least the whiteheads are small and I’m not getting the nasty boil-like bumps I tend to suffer from. I’m going to try using my facial cleanser after the OCM just to make sure the oils are definitely being removed – it’s very gentle (and all-natural of course) so it shouldn’t do any harm. I also tried using the Angel Face Scrub yesterday with apple cider vinegar instead of water, but I applied the Camellia & Copaiba oil straight after so I may have negated any positive effect. Will try that again tomorrow I think.

I also bought some Agnus Castus (chasteberry) capsules from Holland & Barratt today. Not sure I should be starting these in the midst of a skin crisis, but they’re supposed to help with hormonal problems and I’d like to get them well into my system before my period starts.  As my acne does seem to be primarily hormonal, I’m hoping they’ll help. I’m trying to increase my water intake too – so far that’s just resulted in lots of trips to the loo!

Apologies for the lack of recent updates BTW. I’ve had speed issues with my ISP all week and dared not use the computer lest I throw the cable modem at the wall in annoyance.

About three weeks ago, I decided to start the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM). I haven’t posted my progress until now as I wasn’t entirely happy with the products I was using. Firstly I had trouble sourcing castor oil, then I didn’t feel particularly happy with my choice of secondary oils. I tried walnut and extra virgin olive oil and both felt too thick and greasy for my liking. I wasn’t experiencing the after-cleansing “glow” that many people report and my skin just didn’t seem any different at all, if anything it made it a tad oilier and I had a small breakout around the edge of my face.

I must admit, I started wondering if the OCM simply wasn’t suited to me. As I was deciding what to order from Anita Grant this month, I came across her Carrot & Wheat Germ Cleansing Oil which she markets specifically as an OCM routine and is labelled as being suitable for combination skin. Doing some research online didn’t really reveal anything about using these particular oils as part of the OCM, but being the curious shopaholic that I am, I decided to take a risk and try it. I plumped for the full-size bottle as I knew the sampler wouldn’t last me if I liked it.

I’m happy to say that I get on much better with this combination of oils. For a start, they are much lighter than the ones I had been using and generally feel nicer to apply. My face feels lovely and clean afterwards and my complexion is very even. I have had a couple of spots appear here and there, but they aren’t too big and seem to clear up reasonably quickly. I’m not going to let this deter me as I understand that any change to my routine can cause a few problems while my skin rebalances itself. I also bought a sample of watermelon oil (supposedly good for oily skin) and I add a few drops of that in as well – not sure if that plays an important part, guess I’ll find out when I’ve used it all up.

One interesting thing I’ve found is that I no longer need to exfoliate – the OCM does a great job of removing build-up which is much kinder to my skin. I don’t need to scrub my face at all and I’ve even quit using my regular facial cleanser. The OCM does the lot!

I used to moisturise up to three times a day, but now I only do so after the OCM. The other two times (morning and evening) I just tone and nothing else. So althought the cleansing oil wasn’t exactly cheap, it looks like it will definitely save me money in the long run.

Overall, I’m very happy with the OCM so far. I can’t stress enough how important it is to find the right oils for your skin – please don’t give up if it doesn’t work the first time, just try a different product. Also, I do want to point out that although castor oil is considered to be the definitive ingredient in the OCM, it may not suit everyone and you can still achieve wonderful results without using it.

I’ll continue to update on my progress as I settle further into my routine over the coming weeks and months.

Update: I’m afraid things haven’t worked out too well – see the post I’m Quitting The OCM for more info.

I’m so happy, my package from Anita Grant arrived this morning! I was a little worried as the status of my order still says Confirmed instead of Shipped, so it was a lovely surprise to hear the postman knocking on my door.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I bought a full-size bottle of the Camellia Copaiba Bath & Body Oil which is one of the large pump bottles you can see in the picture. The other is a Wheat Germ & Carrot Cleansing Oil which I’m intending to use for my oil cleansing regimen. The two smaller bottles are samples of the Camellia with Ylang-Ylang and Lavender (for my stretchmarks) and Watermelon Oil which I may also use as part of the oil cleansing process.

The block of what looks like marble is actually a shampoo bar – Kelp and Ylang-Ylang Babassu to be precise. Can you see a bit of a ylang-ylang theme here? :D It wasn’t intentional, but it is a favourite oil of mine. Finally, I have a Lemon Lippy Pucker, and delicious it is too.

I’ll no doubt be telling you all how I get on with them at some point in the future, so if you’re interested in these products then please check back over the next few weeks. Alternatively, if you have any direct questions, I’ll be happy to answer, just pop them in the comments area. :)

Sunday was Mother’s Day here in the UK and I had planned to visit my mum and my nan. The day before, I had an acne breakout, so that evening I used my First Aid Lotion from Essential Care instead of my usual Camellia & Copaiba oil. This does a good job of drying out the spots thanks to the tea tree and although it doesn’t make them disappear overnight, they do look less red and glaring.

On the day itself, I discovered why I’d had the breakout (and why I’d been cranky for a few days) – my period started. It couldn’t have waited one more day, oh no, it had to come about three days early this month. I tend to get nasty stomach cramps, plus the usual discomfort for the first few days, so it wasn’t much fun driving around and putting on a happy face for my relatives.

On the plus side, my mum liked the two moisturisers I gave her and the big box of Milk Tray. :D