Oil Masking Might Be The Answer for Dry Winter Skin.

 

With each passing day, I feel my winter anxiety increasing. I'm overcome with deep trepidation over the fact that my skin will soon become a parched mess.  The dry air also triggers my dermatitis which makes everything worse.  I was racking my brain on how to tweak my regimen to enhance my skin's moisture levels when I was introduced to a new technique that might be the answer to all of my problems. 

This beauty secret that I speak of is known as "oil masking."  I hope I've piqued your interest because you're about to be introduced to a new ritual that might bless your skin.   

Ok, so what is oil masking?  

Oil masking is basically the art of applying a mask on the skin that consists of oils or butters.  It's like any other form of masking:

-You apply the product.

-You allow the product to remain on the skin for a short period of time.

-You remove the product and enjoy glowing skin. 

It's the same technique that you'd use to apply a sheet mask or clay mask, except this time you saturate your skin with the ultimate nourisher.  Oils and butters are amazing because they are extracted from nutrient-rich fruits or nuts.  This means that they're loaded with vitamins, micronutrients, and essential fatty acids.   Typically, we use oil sparingly on our faces.  Unless you go to bed greasy, you're probably only using a couple drops of facial oil at a time. How much nourishment can your skin absorb from that?!  What if we could allow our skin access to more of the benefits that oils have to offer? 

"I love to oil mask when I need to heal and soothe the skin." 

The idea of Oil Masking comes from a Youtuber who does this regularly as part of her routine.  In order to oil mask properly, we need to adhere to a few rules:

//pre-cleanse the skin 

//mask with your favorite oil or butter.

//cleanse to remove the oil mask.

It's important that we follow these steps carefully to keep our skin from freaking out.  Pre-cleansing makes sure our pores are clean to prevent them from getting clogged.   Once the skin is clean, we use an oil or butter that our skin already likes.  Only use oils that you've used successfully in the past.  If your skin doesn't like heavy oils, may I suggest an ultra light-weight option like hemisqualane? 

You definitely should try masking with oil first before you experiment with applying butter.  Oil masking is also a good alternative if you don't feel comfortable wearing heavy oils on your face overnight for fear of how your skin might react.  

But enough of my yapping, check out more about how to oil mask successfully directly from the Youtuber herself.