Oils for your Face aka Inexpensive, Natural Moisturizers

So, I've been experimenting with moisturizing my face. Up until this point I have always been super bad about putting any kind of moisturizer on my face. Now, I realize I can't take my skin for granted, especially when I abuse it with oxygen blocking makeup, picking my skin, and washing it once, sometimes twice, daily even with gentle Jason's Organics soap.

So my fail safe? Go natural. As natural as I can get, which, in this case, is a pure oil. For the past six months or so I've been using Central Market organic olive oil which has been fantastic. Doesn't clog me up or break me out, and keeps me moisturized all day. The only exceptions having nothing to do with the olive oil, is when I eat too much chocolate, stress out over a situation, or pick at my face too much usually from those stressful situations. The nice thing is I don't break out horribly from my period anymore, which is an unexpected and very grateful for benefit.

I've been wanting to experiment with other oils just for variety. The other day I picked up NOW's Sweet Almond Oil for $4 at my local grocery store, HEB.

The reviews and results of which I LOVEd. The texture is so lovely and silky, making my skin feel the same. However, when I woke up after day two with "the crack" as I like to call it highly visible. For me, "the crack" is the space between my eyebrows - I first started noticing the vertical wrinkle after my first year of school combined with living in no man's land of which I cried nearly every day, and hard. Hells no, I slapped that olive oil right back on as fast as I could which has kept "the crack" at bay for the last six months until I recently started furrowing my brows to play Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends on my iPhone combined with experimenting with this sweet almond oil. *hangs head in shame*

On to experiment number two, Rose Hip oil. I originally wanted to try jojoba oil. However, after my initial research for "jojoba oil for wrinkles", "sweet almond oil for wrinkles", and "oil for wrinkles" I came across Rose Hip oil. The rave reviews were so mesmerizing, when we drove by Whole Foods later I couldn't help but stop and pick some up. The version I found at Whole Foods actually has Vitamin E oil in it as well for $10.

Not sure yet if that's a good thing or not. When I stopped by HEB later, they had a pure essential oil version for $10 as well. May pick that up if I don't see as good as results as I'm wanting from this one. After night one, though, I woke up without "the crack" visible at. all. Good sign! My skin is a little puffy in the morning, though, so I reapplied just to make sure it didn't appear later. The other thing I noticed, and this may be tmi, is every blemish rose to the surface, making it easy to clear out. Also, anything that I'd irritated and inflamed by picking at it was less irritated and inflamed than the evening before, when it's usually just the opposite when I wake up in the morning. So far, so good.

Next up, if need be, is the pure Rosehip Essential Oil from HEB, then on to Apricot Oil, Jojoba Oil, Avocado Oil, whatever oils I can find and the elusive and oh-so-expensive Sandalwood Oil. There was a FIFTY-TWO dollar teeny tiny bottle of it at HEB, making me wonder what kind of wonders it may perform, or not perform.

The great thing about using pure, natural oils that I have discovered through my research is that they provide enough moisturization for your face that it stops overproducing oil as it has in the past. Not sure if this is true or not, but my own theory is that, one, God created it so it has to be good for you, number two, is that a pure, natural oil lets your own skin breathe and therefore keeps you from breaking out, and three, that since it doesn't have a big marketing scheme behind it trying to push it, it probably is more building and healthy for your skin than a chemical product. Also, I can't justify spending bajillions of dollars on chemicals for my face that will just end up breaking me out.

One site I have found helpful for reviews on different pure, natural products is makeupalley.com, although, I have to say, I have found googling the ingredient I am searching for along with the term "makeup alley" has given me more luck on finding what I need than using makeupalley's direct search box. Strange. If you set up an account with makeup alley, add me to your favorites.

Oh, and next step in skin care? Get the Clarisonic Mia. I'm debating returning my $150 of just bought Sephora makeup that I LOVE in a fakes it so well I feel pretty again way for the Mia so it's actually not fake and I can buy a less heavy, more natural makeup that will look just as good as the doesn't feel heavy but is cover it all up makeup does now.