Essential Oil Facial Cleansing Ritual
This is a beautiful skincare regime that will be a beautiful daily experience that will do wonders for your skin. Make it a twice-daily ritual and you will find yourself looking forward to it in more ways than one!
First, prepare the bathroom.
You need a clean bowl (or basin). It’s easier to keep a bowl clean on a day to day basis when you have children or family members around, so I recommend that. Make it a large ceramic bowl if you can – plastic is just not the same experience.
Half fill your bowl with warm water (not hot) and place a soft flannel or facial compress in the water.
Compress your face (that means wring the water out and wrap the warm wet flannel around and over your face – press gently on the skin.
Next, place two drops of each of the essential oils in the basin and agitate the water:
Normal to dry skin: lavender essential oil, bergamot essential oil, mandarin essential oil. For mature skin or super dry skin, I also recommend one drop of sandalwood essential oil, but it’s an expensive essential oil, so let’s make it optional for now (I do recommend it)
Inflamed, congested or irritated skin: chamomile essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, lavender essential oil, juniper essential oil.
Immediate after agitating the water, submerge your flannel again and allow it to rewarm, then repeat the compress process.
Repeat this 3 or 4 times.
Gently pat your skin dry and mix the following essential oils in a spritz bottle:
- Lime essential oil
- Orange essential oil
- Ylang ylang essential oil
- Lavender essential oil
Shake well and spritz into the air. Lift your chin [with your eyes & mouth closed] to allow the spritz to fall back on your skin and allow the mist to settle on your skin. This is beautifully refreshing.
Next, pat your moisturiser gently into your skin. You can use any moisturiser and just add a drop of essential oil – if you have broken capillaries lemon essential oil is a good choice, if your skin is inflamed – use lavender and for mature skin, sandalwood if recommended.
Just be aware that lime, lemon and orange essential oils are photosensitive, so do not go directly out into the sun after this ritual – allow at least an hour before you hit bright sunshine. Early morning sun should be fine.