How to Clean Your Face Naturally with Oil. A photo tutorial with all of the oil cleansing details. Clear-up acne and moisturize the skin!

Hang around this little corner of the internet for long, and you’ll quickly learn I love homemade remedies. Now, please hear me out. I’m not a snobby anti-bleach or even anti-Tide woman. I’m simply a mom on a mission to simplify my home, saying “good-bye” to the expensive (and mostly toxic) store-bought products for effective (and many times cheaper) homemade versions.

I’ve loved ditching my store-bought laundry soap for homemade soap that actually works! My homemade  body wash brightens my mornings, and the lotion waiting on the counter nourishes my skin, leaving behind a healthy glow. My super-simple astringent  has wiped away years of adult-acne troubles. Then, there’s my homemade foundation powder.

While sharing homemade beauty recipes, I often mention using oil to wash my face. Truthfully, I never thought anyone would be interested in the idea of a simple, one-ingredient face wash: oil. But, I was wrong. Today, I’m inviting you in my bathroom and sharing how to achieve clean and healthy skin with the oil cleansing method.

I understand cleaning your face with oil feels counterintuitive. Trust me, I get it.  Using oil is actually one of the most practical methods for cleaning the skin. To keep things as minimally-boring and non-text-book-like as possible, here’s the important fact: oil dissolves oil. Applying oil to the skin washes away dirty (bad) oils and replenishes the beneficial ones. It’s really that simple.

how to clean your face with oil
4.41 from 5 votes

How to Clean Your Face Naturally with Oil

I understand cleaning your face with oil feels counterintuitive. Trust me, I get it. Using oil is actually one of the most practical methods for cleaning the skin. To keep things as minimally-boring and non-text-book-like as possible, here’s the important fact: oil dissolves oil. 
Kristin Marr
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course DIY
Cuisine Body
Servings 1 OZ

Ingredients

nourishing oil, choose one of the following

Instructions

  • I've had success using a straight nourishing carrier oil, but tend to switch back and forth between a blend of castor and nourishing carrier oil and straight nourishing carrier oil.
  • Here are a few ratios for creating a blend: oily skin 50% castor oil/ 50% nourishing carrier oil, dry skin 25% castor oil/ 75% nourishing carrier oil, combo skin 30% castor oil/ 70% nourishing carrier oil.
Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!

How to Clean Your Face Naturally with Oil. A photo tutorial with all of the oil cleansing details. Clear-up acne and moisturize the skin!

How to Clean Your Face Naturally with Oil. A photo tutorial with all of the oil cleansing details. Clear-up acne and moisturize the skin!

How to Clean Your Face Naturally with Oil. A photo tutorial with all of the oil cleansing details. Clear-up acne and moisturize the skin!

Tried and True Notes:

1. During the first couple of weeks you may notice an increase in break-outs. Don’t panic! This is normal. Think of this as a skin “detox,” a cleansing of all the yucky dirt trapped in your precious pores.

2. Experiment with various oils and ratios. I started using straight castor oil a couple of years ago. Bad idea. I quickly switched to sweet almond oil mixed with castor oil. I also experimented with straight sweet almond oil. Today, I use jojoba oil and go back and forth between straight jojoba and a combo of jojoba and castor oil.

How to Clean Your Face Naturally with Oil. A photo tutorial with all of the oil cleansing details. Clear-up acne and moisturize the skin!

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54 Comments

  1. Hey Kristen!

    Absolutely love your blog! I have a question though. How many times do you cleanse daily? And with what do you follow up with? Could you please post your daily skincare routine? It would be extremely helpful ?

  2. 5 stars
    I love your diy skin care.. plez can you tell which diy cleanser and moustrizer can i use for acne brone ??? And which oil is the best ??

  3. Thank you very much for getting back to me so quickly. I ended up making the green tea scrub with the olive oil because after commenting to you. I looked & I don’t have very much coconut oil left. Between giving it to the dog & using it as a skin cleanser. I go through it rather quickly. I also make my own dog treats & they always have coconut oil in them. I don’t know who is more spoiled. My 4 kids & my husband or my dogs. If you ask my family they would definitely say my dogs. But I REALLY digress. Anyway, the green tea scrub with olive oil worked great. The next time I make it I will use coconut oil. Thanks for the recipes. I’ll try some more too. When I have more time.

  4. I stumbled onto your site looking for a good sugar scrub recipe. When I took a shower yesterday I noticed tons of dead skin in the tub after my shower. Time to sugar scrub my body to get the dead skin off. I love all your recipes & am going to try the green tea sugar scrub. But I did notice in all your recipes you don’t use coconut oil. I have used this, especially on my face to take off makeup. But on my whole body for about 2 yrs. now. I love it!! Also put it in my dogs food because it’s GREAT for their skin & coat as well. My question is, how come you don’t encourage the use of coconut oil as well? I was thinking of replacing the olive oil in your recipe with coconut oil. Is there some health reason why you don’t promote the use coconut oil as well. Or is it another reason? Very curious to hear your response. I will hold off on the oil in the recipe until you respond. As I have both oils I can use either one. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with us.

    1. Hey Cheri,

      I love coconut oil, and I think it’s a great oil for cooking and body-care. Personally, I’ve found that my skin doesn’t love coconut oil in large amounts, so I pretty much only use it in a few recipes, like my after-shave “lotion” and deodorant. As a cleansing oil or moisturizer, my skin isn’t a big fan of using coconut oil for a prolonged period of time (my skin breakouts and feels really dry). I think this probably has something to do with my European ancestry, since my ancestors were more accustomed to animal fats and such versus something like tropical coconut oil, but that’s just my theory. If your skin tolerates coconut oil, then I’d encourage you to stick with it. Do what works for your skin :). Over the years I’ve discovered, through many comments on the blog, that many people love coconut oil for their skin and use it, and others don’t. I think it’s just a personal preference. You could sub coconut oil for many of the oils called for in my recipes, except if the DIY is a liquid product (like a face wash).