I have very sensitive skin. Most cleansers make me break out in what I call splotchies, as in this refrain my husband has grown used to: "No, I am not ready to go out. I'm still splotched." Recovery can take up to an hour, which mostly consists of us staring at each other while waiting for the red welts to go down. I've had to make do with boring, plain old bar soap, and while it causes less hives than an average liquid or cream cleanser, I started experiencing dry patches last month when the weather turned. I looked to my girlfriends for some skin saving advice. One suggested the Oil Cleansing Method. 

OCM has been kicking around my circle of friends for a few years now, but only after closely studying my girlfriend's vibrant, clear and unblemished face did I decide to give it a try. The basic premise is to combat oil with oil. Your face produces oil naturally and when you lather on the cleansing agents and chemicals to strip that oil away your face starts producing it at an even faster pace. So you become dependent on the cleansers to do the stripping job all over again, creating a vicious little cycle that is the reason for that oil slick on your nose come 3 PM. In short, your face pumps out the oil to catch up.

When you cleanse your face with oils, you're getting rid of the dirty, yucky stuff that's clogging up your pores and replacing it with good oil, because your skin needs it. I'm no scientist, but all of the reading and studying I did seemed to make sense despite my initial terror of slathering oil all over my already oily skin.

I started with two kinds: castor and extra virgin olive. You'll have to do a little work to put together the perfect blend for your skin type, and you can play around with the mixture until it feels right. Acne.org recommends three parts castor to one part EVOO for oily and acne-prone skin, one part castor to three parts EVOO for drier skin and one to one portions of each for those with "normal" skin.

I ended up nixing the EVOO after two sessions as it felt too greasy, and replaced it with grapeseed oil, which feels lighter and absorbs into my skin easily. I'm currently on a 25% castor oil, 75% grapeseed oil blend. According to the OCM gurus I've read, castor oil is the most important ingredient in OCM because it does the bulk of the dirty work in drawing out impurities from your skin. The secondary oil, be it olive, grapeseed, sunflower or any other natural cold-pressed vegetable oil acts as a transporter for the castor oil, delivering essential fatty acids to the skin.

Here's how to do this.

1. Bottle up your oils in a clean, reusable container.

2. Oil up before bed. Pour a quarter-size drop of oil into your hands and start massaging. Yes, massage the oil into your skin. It's going to feel good. Massage for one to five minutes.

3. Wet a clean washcloth with hot water. Not so hot that you'll burn yourself but not lukewarm either. Lay the cloth over your face until it cools. This is heavenly. Do this as many times as you like, rinsing and wringing the washcloth before reapplying.

4. Gently wipe any excess oil off of your face with the cloth after rinsing.

5. "Close" your pores by splashing cold water on your face.

I've been oil cleansing nightly for about three weeks and have noticed renewed vibrancy in my skin. Gross alert: I've even massaged out some of the visibly nasty stuff and none has popped up in their place. Excellent for the wallet, no red welts, and not a blemish since I began. As a bonus, OCM works as an easy make-up remover. If you have sensitive skin, want to save some money or just feel like trying a new regimen for your skin, OCM might be right for you.

Kiss Chemicals Goodbye! Don't forget to check out this slideshow for other ways to live chemical-free.

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