DIY Spa Facial in 6 Simple Steps: Step 1, Cleanse

A spa facial is such a luxurious treat and depending on where you live and what type of facial you choose, the price range can be anywhere from about $60 to $200. For most of us, this isn’t something that would happen once a week or maybe even once a month. For some, this just isn’t in the budget at all. But if you have about 45 minutes to an hour, you have enough time to give yourself a spa quality facial. You just might like it so much you’ll want to schedule it on a regular basis, or maybe invite a few girlfriends over for a Facial Night.

The first step is to cleanse your face. You can use whatever product and method you normally would use, or you can try the Oil Cleansing Method. This method has been around for a few years, and before the widespread availability of soap, it was the only method of cleansing the whole body in ancient times. The basic premise of the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) is that oil is highly effective in dissolving oil, dirt, and grime. After the oil has done its job to cleanse away the grime, it’s steamed and wiped away, leaving the skin clean, soft, and hydrated.

A single oil can be used, such as olive, coconut, or jojoba, but some prefer a combination of oils. Here’s a rule of thumb for different skin types:

▪ Oily Skin – blend 30% castor oil with 70% olive or sunflower oil;

▪ Normal or Balanced Skin – blend 20% castor oil with 80% olive or sunflower oil;

▪ Dry Skin – blend 10% castor oil with 90% olive or sunflower oil.

As you can see, a greater amount of castor oil is used for oily skin and less for dry skin. You can customize your own blend to adjust up or down, depending on what works best for you. You can also substitute other oils for any of the oils but keep at least 20% of the blend as castor oil. Other oils that might work better for you are sweet almond oil, rice bran oil, apricot seed oil, or grapeseed oil. (Grapeseed oil is very light and also has astringent or drying qualities, which might be good for a person with very oily skin.)

To cleanse your face with oil, begin by pouring about ½ to 1 teaspoon of oil into one hand. With your fingers, spread the oil over your face and massage with light, circular motions. Leave it on for 5-10 minutes, then take a facecloth and soak it with hot water; wring it out and while it’s still hot, place it over your face and keep it there for about one minute. Remove the facecloth and use it to gently wipe away the remaining oil. Your face will feel clean, soft, supple, and refreshed. If it feels a little dry, take a drop or two of the oil mixture and massage it on your face, concentrating on any dry spots, and leave it on. If your face still feels dry, decrease the amount of castor oil the next time you cleanse your face.

An easy way of mixing your oils can be done by converting the percentages into grams. A kitchen scale that measures in grams can be used to weigh the oils in the correct percentages. Example: I want to use 20% castor oil and 80% sunflower oil. So:

(20%) 20 grams castor oil

(80%) 80 grams sunflower oil

The next day, I want to decrease the castor oil so I can add 5 to 10 grams of sunflower oil (1 teaspoon = 5 grams) to my oil blend.

If you don’t have a kitchen scale you can use one teaspoon for every 10% of each oil. For example, the blend for oily skin is 30% (3 teaspoons) of castor oil and 70% (7 teaspoons) of olive oil. Mix and store your cleansing oil in a small bottle with a lid. It can take some trial and error to find out what works best for your skin, but the suggested blends are a good place to start. Start out with smaller amounts first until you find a blend that you love. Then you can mix up a bigger batch.

If I want to enjoy some nice Bulgarian lavender essential oil in my blend, I’ll use a 0.5 to 1% dilution since this is going to be used on my face. (Facial tissue is more sensitive than other parts of the body.) So I take the total weight of oils, 100 grams, and divide by 100, which gives me 1 gram. A gram is roughly equivalent (pretty close) to one milliliter, or just under ¼ teaspoon. It’s also about 20 drops if you are using a medicine dropper. Now I’m no math genius, but that was some super easy math, wasn’t it?

Be sure to have a clean glass bottle with a tight fitting lid to store your cleansing oil. 100 grams is a little over 3.5 ounces, so a 4 ounce bottle is big enough to hold that much. Also make sure that you never get any water inside the oil bottle, because bacteria can grow with the addition of water. When your bottle is empty, wash it thoroughly with lots of soapy hot water and allow it to dry completely before mixing up another batch of cleansing oil – even a very tiny amount of water can launch bacterial growth.

This is the first step of a facial, but it’s also a way to cleanse your face that may work much better than using soap or liquid cleansers. Next we well explore the benefits of exfoliation with Step 2: How to Exfoliate. (Hint: you want to be careful with that delicate facial tissue, so no harsh exfoliates on the face, OK?)