Using oils on your face is scary for a lot of people. I get it.

After years of believing what the mainstream cosmetics companies drilled in to us growing up, at first I was petrified to use my Face & Body Elixir (a blend of organic plant oils) on my face.

As a sufferer from hormonal acne on and off since my 20’s, I spent a lot of time and money seeking solutions and treatments to my ugly breakouts. Just like most people, the propaganda I had consumed from the large cosmetics companies over the years was well entrenched in me. And at that stage, I was a true believer that oil was bad for my skin.

So, when I first considered using my elixir as my face moisturiser in my early 30’s, I was truly afraid that it could make my acne worse and that it could cause my skin to breakout even more than it already was.

How wrong I was.

"the long-term results of making the switch to my elixir are absolutely fantastic, so fantastic that I will never make the switch back"

Since having the guts to start using my elixir on my face, my skin has never been better. Don’t get me wrong, I still do get the occasional pimple now. But instead of having a chin and jawline full of breakouts that seemed to always spread and never go away, I now only get one or two pimples a month (generally around that time of the month). Further, the few pimples that I do get now are completely gone within just a couple of days.

While the long-term results of making the switch to my elixir are absolutely fantastic, so fantastic that I will never make the switch back, there was a short period of time during the initial switch phase that wasn’t so pleasant... This phase is what the beauty care industry these days likes to call "Skin purging.”

What is Skin Purging

Currently, skin purging is being discussed as a reference to what some people experience when switching from one skincare product to another. Often, this is because newer product encourages the skin to renew itself at a faster rate than the previous product did.

In some cases, and at much distress to the person undergoing the purge, it can result in excessive breakouts, pimples or other blemishes as the impurities contained within the layers of the skin are also pushed out quicker than before.

My skin purging journey

For me, I was using a combination of moisturisers, retinols and vitamin C serums prior to making the switch to my elixir. Retinol and vitamin C are known catalysts in the skin turnover cycle (they also occur naturally in some ingredients I use in my elixir). This meant that my skin was already turning over at a faster than normal rate.

But, because these man-made chemical laden products also contained many other less-than-ideal “filler” ingredients, when I did make the switch to my all natural and organic elixir, my skin still reacted and “purged” out all those stored impurities. It’s worth noting, that what my skin began to purge during this process was nothing new, just the sudden appearance of everything I used to keep pushing down/hiding with the products I was using. This is the difference between purging and breaking out or reacting. 

What was also evident to me during my skin purging phase was how much younger, healthier and vibrant my skin felt almost straight away. Yes, it was being freed from all the toxic gunk it had been accumulating for years, but it also became obvious to me during this phase that my skin had not been receiving the proper nourishment it needed for many years prior either.

Thinking back to this, it makes sense to me now that all the man-made chemical laden products I was using weren’t actually providing any nourishment to my skin. After all, they were only designed to strip and turnover my skin at a faster rate, not nourish it.

Continuously stripping my skin of the nourishment it craved, also meant that my skin was working overtime to produce more of its own oils (sebum) to keep itself hydrated. Understandably, this only added to my acne battle.

During my skin purge, however, I could see my skin becoming healthier and plumper as my elixir was finally providing it with the proper nutrition it needed. And, as my skin cells were getting healthier and fatter, they began to push out all the gunk that had been storing between the cells for years (in the form of pimples) as there was simply no room for it now. This is exactly how skin purging should work.

Another bonus when you purge your skin using oils is that once the skin is adequately nourished, and all the gunk has been purged, your skin has little need to produce any of its own oils. This means that the skin stops overproducing its own sebum, and this also helps to end the vicious acne cycle.

The skin purging process for me ended up lasting about two to three weeks, and in all honesty, it wasn’t nearly as bad a I was expecting. Once the stored-up gunk contained within my skin came out, it was gone for good. Plus, the breakout’s I experienced during the skin purge were different. My pimples weren’t spreading like they tended to before, rather, once they had popped and healed, they too were gone for good.

My fears of going through the skin purging process eased quite quickly when I began to realise that my skin wasn’t actually getting any worse, instead it was getting much much better.

My skin today

Today, after solely using my elixir on my skin for a number of years now, my fears have reversed. Instead of being fearful to put oils on my skin like I was in my 20’s, I’m now fearful if I have to put normal everyday creams, lotions and moisturisers on my skin and that they’ll just clog it up again. Naturally, I avoid all these products now, which is fine because I don’t have a need for them anyway as my elixir has replaced them all.

I love my Face & Body Elixir, and I love how versatile it is. It’s not only simplified my skincare routine, but it’s also given life, youthfulness and health back to my skin. I don’t worry about pimples or imperfections anymore, and apart from the one or two pimples I sometimes get each month, I rest easy knowing that my elixir is feeding my skin with the nutrients it needs to maintain its health and youthfulness each and every day.

Oasis Black – born in Morocco, made in Byron Bay.