Photo Credit: 96dpi

I have found that one of the most beautiful ways to love myself is to care for my body with great reverence. I consider my body a divine temple – that’s why I eat healthy, exercise, and care for my skin. One of my favorite luxurious skin care rituals is to literally bathe myself in oils – cleansing and moisturizing my face and body.

Oils for Travel

Jed and I have been on the road traveling frequently lately, sometimes having to take off at the drop of a hat. I am always seeking to simplify my travel needs and lighten my packing as much as possible. That is why I am so grateful to have discovered the use of oils as ‘all-in-one’ skin care. I use a more extensive skin care regimen at home, but whenever I travel, all I do is pack my bottle of Best Skin Ever. (I love all the scents, but my current companion is Vanilla.) I am able to cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize with this glorious blend of oils all in one bottle. Joy! (See below for instructions)

Why Use Oils on the Face?

It may seem mysterious or even unnerving to use oils on the face. It certainly felt this way to me when I first learned about this method. I had oily skin and breakouts for so long that it seemed counter-intuitive to put more oil on my face! Yet, the truth is that oil dissolves oil. Your skin naturally lubricates itself with oil, and produces excess when dried out. If using oil weren’t the appropriate care for our skin, our bodies would not produce it at all. There is nothing to fear in applying oils to your face!

Pure Cold-Pressed Plant Oils will not clog pores or cause blemishes. Blemishes of all kinds can be caused by a plethora of things including diet, toxicity, hormones, bacteria, candida overgrowth, liver congestion, etc. Your skin naturally produces oil because it it ensures it proper functioning. Your natural oils protect, lubricate, heals, and moisturizes your skin. Skin that is functioning as it was designed to will be clear and glow with radiance.

Using oils to moisturize is the perfect way to achieve absolute purity. A pure oil is not blended with any water-based substance, no preservative is needed, and no solubilizers or stabilizers are necessary. Pure Cold-Pressed Plant Oils contain the highest level of active, alive nutrients for skin. They are very efficiently assimilated through skin because they are naturally absorbed and can penetrate deeper the lotions, creams, etc due to the natural composition of the skin. Oils also do not require heat to blend. The Cold-Pressing process ensures that all of the nutrients naturally present in the plant  ingredients make it into the oil. Like cooking food, temperatures  exceeding around 110º F destroy enzymes, vitamins and alter or deactivate many other beneficial nutrients in the product ingredients. A facial oil leaves skin with a renewed look of health and dewy, youthful beauty.

Our Facial Oils: Ultra Restore, Ultra Sapphire, Best Skin Ever

Daily Cleansing with Oils

Simply moisten a wash cloth with warm water, add a few squirts of our Best Skin Ever and gently massage cloth over face. This removes the dirt of the day and exfoliates. Finish with a spray of Rosewater. Add another squirt of Best Skin Ever for more moisture or use your favorite moisturizer.

Deep Cleansing with Oils

(The following information comes from Stephanie Strauss of The Beauty Bottle, LLC)

The basic concept of this skin care and cleansing method is that the oil used to massage your skin will dissolve the oil that has hardened with impurities and found itself stuck in your pores. The steam will open your pores, allowing the oil to be easily removed. Should you need it, the smallest drop of the same oil formula patted over damp skin will provide the necessary lubrication to keep your skin from over-compensating in oil production.

First and foremost, this is typically done in the evening, prior to bed. There should be no need for deep cleansing in the morning if you’re waking up with skin cleansed the night before. In the morning, a quick wipe with a warm washcloth should suffice. We don’t want to over-cleanse our skin as this will serve only to irritate and cause more oil production. The objective of using this method is to deep clean while balancing our skins oil production at the same time.

Instructions

1) You’ll need a soft washcloth, your oil blend, and hot, running water.
2) Pour a generous amount of Best Skin Ever into the palm of your hand. Roughly, the size of a quarter, but more is acceptable. Rub your
hands together to warm the oil and smooth over your face.
3) Begin massaging the oil into your face. This will remove makeup, dirt, and other impurities, so there is no need to use a makeup remover or wash your face prior to the massage.
4) Using slow, firm motions across the skin, massage the oil deeply into your pores. Take your time and focus on your problem areas. You
want the oil to work into your pores so that blackheads and the like can be dissolved and steamed away.
5) As you’re massaging, let your mind drift off to something calming and breathe deeply. Take this time to relax and release some of the stress that your body is harboring. Sit down, breathe deeply, and take your time. Give the oil enough time to work on dissolving the impurities in your pores and give yourself enough time to unwind.
6) Once you’re satisfied that your pores are saturated and you’re feeling calm, pick up your washcloth and soak it in clean, steamy water. We want the water to be warm enough to open your pores and remove the oil. Cool water will not open your pores, nor will it remove the oil efficiently. We’re not scalding our skin, we’re steaming to coax our pores to release the oil carrying the impurities. We’re essentially steaming our skin as an esthetician would, but without a steam machine.
7) Hold the washcloth to cover your face. Allow it to stay until it cools. You will feel your pores releasing the impurities. Wipe the oil
gently away and rinse the washcloth well in hot, running water. Hold the washcloth to your face again, allowing it to cool. Wipe gently, rinse well, and repeat two or three more times. Avoid any temptation to scrub, as you’ll find it’s completely unnecessary and your skin will be soft, smooth, and free of flakes without the additional manual exfoliation and irritation that will result. Impurities, dead skin cells, and bacteria will be gently swept away.
If your skin feels tight, take a tiny drop of Best Skin Ever, rub it between your clean, damp palms and pat it onto your damp skin. Gently massage any oil residue into your skin so there is no film of oil left sitting on the surface. Your skin should now glow!

This deep cleansing method should be done regularly, but not too frequently. You’ll know if you’re deep cleansing too frequently by the dryness that your skin will exhibit. Don’t be surprised if you find you’ve unblocked an oil flow for the first few days. Once you remove the plugs from your pores, they will begin functioning properly again. Perfect skin won’t happen overnight and while it may take a few massages to achieve your goal, you should notice a huge difference in your skin after the first deep cleansing massage. Give your skin a few days to adjust and adapt to being clean and clear of blockages; understand that the new oil coming from your skin is actually a good sign and will balance out very shortly. You’ll find redness and irritation subsiding. You’ll find your skin losing that “congested,” and thick feeling.

Photo Credit: BotheredByBees

I am currently spending a lot of time writing an article about veganism and cruelty-free living, especially in the arenas of food and skin care. I am attempting to cover as much as possible, without going on for days. I would love to address your questions and concerns. Please share them in the comments below.

In the meantime, here are some quotes to inspire consideration:

“Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” -Albert Schweitzer

“Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind.” -Albert Einstein

“Animals are my friends…and I don’t eat my friends.” -George Bernard Shaw

“If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.” -Albert Einstein

“I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.” -Gandhi

“If man wants freedom why keep birds and animals in cages? Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places! I have since an early age abjured the use of meat.” -Leonardo-da-Vinci

“Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling: killing. By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel.” “As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.” -Leo Tolstoy

“How can man be possessed of kindness who, to increase his own flesh, eats the flesh of other creatures. As those possess no property who do not take care of it, so those possess no kindness who feed on flesh.” “Like the (murderous)mind of him who carries a weapon (in his hand), the mind of him who feasts with pleasure on the body of another (creature), has no regard for goodness.” “Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. To harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.” -Red Indian Chief (1854)

“We pray on Sundays that we may have light/To guide our footsteps on the path we tread;/We are sick of war, we don’t want to fight,/And yet we gorge ourselves upon the dead.” -George Bernard Shaw

“My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension” “Flesh eating is unprovoked murder.” -Benjamin Franklin

“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.” -Henry Thoreau:

“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being” -Abraham Lincoln

Genesis 1:29 “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”

“There will never be any peace in the world as long as we eat animals.” -Isaac Bashevis Singer

“Not having known anything better does not alleviate the suffering of the animal. Its fundamental desires remain and it is the frustration of those desires that is a great part of its suffering. There are so many examples: the dairy cow who is never allowed to raise her young, the battery hen who can never walk or stretch her wings, the sow who can never build a nest or root for food in the forest litter, etc. Eventually we frustrate the animal’s most fundamental desire of all – to live.” -David Cowles-Hamar.

“In all the round world of utopia there is no meat. There used to be. But now we cannot stand the thought of slaughterhouses. And in a population that is all educated and at about the same level of physical refinement, it is practically impossible to find anyone who will hew a dead ox or pig. We never settled the hygienic aspect of meat-eating at all. This other aspect decided us. I can still remember as a boy the rejoicings over the closing of the last slaughterhouse.” -H.G. Wells

“There is something so very dreadful in tormenting those who have never harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power, who have weapons neither of offence nor defense, that none but very hardened persons can endure the thought of it” -Cardinal Newman

“There will come a time…when civilized people will look back in horror on our generation and the ones that preceded it: the idea that we should eat other living things running around on four legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing them! The people of the future will say “meat-eaters!” in disgust and regard us in the same way we regard cannibals and cannibalism” -Dennis Weaver (actor)

“Awareness is bad for the meat business. Conscience is bad for the meat business. Sensitivity to life is bad for the meat business. DENIAL, however, the meat business finds indispensable.” -John Robbins, Diet for a New America

“When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble.” -Buddha (563? – 483? B.C.)

“Cruelty to animals is as if humans did not love God.” -Cardinal John Henry Newman

“…many vivisectors still claim that what they do helps save human lives. They are Iying. The truth is that animal experiments kill people, and animal researchers are responsible for the deaths of thousands of men, women and children every year.” -Dr. Vernon Coleman, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, UK.

“We stopped eating meat many years ago. During the course of a Sunday lunch we happened to look out of the kitchen window at our young lambs playing happily in the fields. Glancing down at our plates, we suddenly realized that we were eating the leg of an animal who had until recently been playing in a field herself. We looked at each other and said, “Wait a minute, we love these sheep–they’re such gentle creatures. So why are we eating them?” It was the last time we ever did.” -Linda and Paul McCartney

“To be non-violent to human beings, [but] to be a killer or enemy of poor animals[?] In this age there is always enmity against animals, and therefore the poor creatures are always anxious. The reaction of the poor animals is being forced on human society, and therefore there is always the strain of cold or hot war between men, individually, collectively or nationally… “The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter; only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh, and not even all of those, because horses, cattle, and sheep live on grass. As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.” -Pythagoras

“To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body.” -Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)

“I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence.” Mahatma Gandhi

“The human body has no more need for cows’ milk than it does for dogs’ milk, horses’ milk, or giraffes’ milk.” -Michael Klaper, MD

“In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy better health in comparison to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.” -T. Colin Campbell, PhD Professor of Nutrition, Cornell University (letter dated 3/29/98)

“If you step back and look at the data, the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero.” -Walter Willett, M.D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, director of a study that found a close correlation between red meat consumption and colon cancer.

“When we kill the animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings.” -William C. Roberts, M.D., editor of The American Journal of Cardiology

“The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of `real food for real people,’ you’d better live real close to a real good hospital.” -Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington, D.C