The Oatmeal Cleanser Experiment: Day 1

Yes, you read right!  I have been inspired by two YouTubers to try this for myself, using oatmeal as a cleanser!  




This is the oatmeal I used, right out of my cupboard!

  As you may know by previously reading my blog, I recently tried the Clarisonic Mia.  Unfortunately, that product was just not for me.  A common side effect for using the Clarisonic is skin purging.  Skin purging is basically your skin getting rid of the excess "junk" and sebum that you have in your pores which = BREAKOUTS.  Since trying out the Clarisonic, my skin has been in the purging stage for I would say close to more than 2 months now.  I am a skin care freak and my skin being THIS bad absolutely KILLS ME!!!!  This doesn't happen to my skin and its embarrassing when nothing you do to take care of your skin is working.  For the past few months, my skin has turned from combination acne proned skin to so slick and oily that I just look I've been dipped in grease.  It's not a cute look if you know what I mean.  I was catching up on some beauty videos, and I saw Saaammage (YouTuber) had posted an updated skin care routine.  She has mentioned in previous videos how she uses oatmeal as cleanser, but I didn't think too much about it.  She also mentioned that the reason why she started using oatmeal was because of BubzBeauty, another guru that I love watching their videos.  After watching both of their videos, I was ready to try this new remedy!  Now, since this is only day one, I can't give a full review on what I think about oatmeal as a cleanser.  But, I will share with you how I feel after my first try!

I personally really love oatmeal.  I love to eat it and I like the smell and texture oddly enough.  I took enough oatmeal to cover the palm of my hand.  Clenching the oats in my fist, I held my hand under warm water to saturate the oats to make them soft and create a milky cleanser.  Taking the wet oats, I gently rubbed them on my face in small, circular motions.  Again, I feel a little strange liking the smell of oatmeal, but I really didn't mind it at all.  The oats gently exfoliated my skin and I could feel that the texture of the oats was really getting my skin clean.  The obvious downside to using oatmeal as a cleanser is that you have chunky oats all over your face!  Not too sure that my sink enjoyed all those oats :)  After rinsing off the oatmeal from my face, I immediately noticed that my skin felt clean, tight, refreshed and suprisingly brighter!  After cleansing my face, I immediately follow with my moisturizer and I noticed that it felt like my moisturizer sank in to my pores much more than normal, which means that the product is working better for the skin!  Now even though again, the mess I can see would be hard for some people to look past, so far I am willing to continue with this new skincare change to see how my skin progresses over the next few weeks of using the oatmeal.  I will be checking in to give updates on how my skin has changed due to the change of using oatmeal as my new cleanser.  I hope you follow me on this journey for what I hope to be a great new skincare breakthrough for me!



Until next time,

Always,
Aimee


**Here are the videos mentioned in this post**

Holy Grail or Epic Fail? The Clarisonic Mia

The Clarisonic Mia has been a product that I have been drooling over for the past 2 years or so.  I have been watching YouTube beauty videos for almost 3 years now and I have seen so many gurus completely rave about this product. I am also a skincare freak so I thought this would be the perfect product for me.  The Clarisonic claims to be a deep cleaner tool to get all of the excess dirt and oil out of your pores.  It also says that it reduces your pore size, helps eliminate acne, reduces fine lines and can minimize redness.  Sounds awesome right?  Well, after reading many many reviews and seeing how literally everyone was still raving about this product, I decided to take the leap of faith and go to Sephora and get one for myself.  The first time I used the product I was in heaven!  My face was so soft and smoothe it was unreal.  I really thought that I had found my new holy grail product for my skin.  Boy was I wrong.  I have sensitive, combination skin and I have never had issues with acne or breakouts really and that is simply due to the fact that I am such a stickler about my everyday skincare routine.  The Clarisonic was the only part of my routine that changed in my life and I have never had such a problem with breakouts as I have had since using the clarisonic.  My breakouts and acne wasn't getting any better when using the Clarisonic and it was just making it worse.  Everyday it seemed like I had more and more breakouts, and they were getting almost to be cystic like, which of course made me FREAK OUT!!!! The reccomendation for using the Clarisonic is once a day and boy has it made my skin so flakey and peely. Even for just using it once a day, if that!  And all the while my face is looking like a snake shedding while making my face produce so much excess oil that I looked like a disco ball all day! And that is not a cute look for anyone.  I called my local Sephora to ask them if they had any suggestions for me because I was so convinced that this product should be so amazing, so there had to be some sort of solution (or so I thought).  I was told that the Clarisonic makes your skin get worse in order to get better.  Well that does make sense as far as skin care goes, but a month of getting worse?  I was skeptical at this point.  I got online and read some more reviews and found on Amazon that out of 161 user reviews, only 7 other people had the same experience I did.  Other reviews that had the same experiences I had gave the recommendation of returning the product because it wouldn't get any better.  So unfortunately, the Clarisonic just was not meant for my skin.  Thank goodness for high end stores that have amazing return policies, I was able to get my full money back.  (you get what you pay for).  I must have seriously looked like such a goof because the whole time all I could tell the cashier was how sad I was for having to return the Clarisonic.  All skin care products and tools are not created equal.  So just keep that in mind that just because something works for someone else, doesn't necessarily means it will work for you too! So in conclusion, while the Clarisonic didn't work for me, it's kinda one of those products that you just have to invest and take a leap of faith and try it out for yourself to see if it will work for you.  Hope my thoughts helped you in some way!

Until next time......


Always,
Aimee :D