The Face Wash Experiment

**edtied to add suggestions for dry skin, cost, and picture**

Ok, so this wasn't my first natural experiment, but it was the first one I made using the oils. I'll get into the other experiment later :) I have determined that Castile soap is my new best friend. If you don't know, Castile soap is an oil based soap, organic & fair trade. A little history: I have had extremely oily skin as long as I can remember. Frequent break outs like I'm still a teenager. Annoying. I looked into the oil cleansing method, but I wanted to try something a little more like what I was used to. So I found a recipe and tweaked it (of course...I can't follow directions). Here is what I came up with -

Ingredients:

-2 oz Castile soap (I bought the sample size bottle of Dr. Bronner's lavender...what can I say, I was skeptical)

-1 1/2 cups of hot water

-1/2 cup witch hazel (like I said, my skin is oily. You can do 2 c. water instead if needed)

-15 drops of essential oils (I used frankincense for anti aging, tea tree or melaleuca alternifolia for breakouts, and rosemary for oiliness - 5 drops of each)

**for dry skin - omit the witch hazel. Add a little bit of honey or natural aloe vera. See below for moisturizer suggestions. 

Directions:

Mix it all together....and you're done! 

*note* it will kinda separate each time. I put mine in a large container & swirl it around with my finger before each use. Also, it is not sudsy...there are no detergent ingredients in here so it won't produce suds like a soap. I didn't think I'd like that, but....well, I'll get there in a minute. I've been using it for about a month, and have given some away, and I'm pretty sure it's going to last me forever. I just put a little on my hands and rub in, rinse off. I haven't tried it yet, but I imagine this would be awesome in a foaming dispenser. 

Cost breakdown:

-Castile soap - $2 for the travel bottle. I have since wised up & bought a large bottle, so the cost per ounce would be cheaper

-witch hazel - $1.30 for the bottle, and I only used a small amount (less than 1/4 of the bottle)

-essential oils - depends on what you use. I already had these for other things, so really that part didn't cost me anything

-water - depends in where you live, but still probably not enough to make this more expensive than the face wash you typically buy. 

Review: 

Although I was *extremely* skeptical, I am totally in love with this face wash! It smells very clean, and my skin is insanely soft after washing. Breakouts have been minimal. The minimal suds took a few trials to get used to, but now it doesn't bother me. 

Added bonus:

I don't typically put moisturizer on my face because it is so oily and I've never found anything that didn't make my skin glisten like snow in the morning, but I started to after using this. My face was not dry by any means, but I'd heard about coconut oil being great for skin. When I realized I put that on at night and my face wasn't dripping with oil in the morning, I kept it up. BUT - after doing further research, I discovered that coconut oil is not noncomedogenic (which means that it can clog your pores), I switched over to grapeseed oil with a drop of frankincense and either rosemary or grapefruit (which has astringent properties, but you have to be careful in the sunlight) added (depends on my mood honestly). So that's my first little experiment! I have tons more lined up...from shampoo to laundry detergent to steam cleaning solution and everything in between, but I definitely want to use them before posting about them, so patience is appreciated!