Olive Oil, Beyond the Kitchen

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Whatever your skin type, cleansing should be a regular part of your beauty regimen. Cleaning away the contamination from exposure to the environment, as well as the makeup you’ve applied, is essential to preventing inflammation and breakouts.

Using natural, or organic products is the way to go when choosing a cleanser for your face. Since organic products don’t have harsh chemicals added and haven’t been grown with chemicals, they are much less likely to irritate your skin. Since the whole purpose in cleansing your skin is to clean out the pores and reduce the likelihood of inflammation, it would only be counterproductive to use a product that may cause inflammation.

Not all natural ingredients are created equally. Olive oil has long been promoted as being a healthy alternative to cooking with hydrogenated oils that can build up in your arteries. Olive oil is a natural oil with antioxidant properties that help prevent illness and premature aging. But is it good for your face?

Olive Oil facial cleansers are praised by some, and greatly criticized by others. The philosophy behind these products are that if you put a facial on your skin with olive oil as an ingredient, the oil will stick to the dirt that is embedded into the pores. When you wash away the oil, then you wash away the dirt. The result is skin that is clean to the pore!

Critics have a different idea of how it works. They claim that residue from the olive oil sticks on your skin after you wash it off. This leads to dirt being attracted to the oily surface and increasing the buildup on your skin and in your pores.

Who’s right? Maybe both. Olive oil is a natural ingredient that contains antioxidants to improve your health. Whether or not those antioxidants can actually penetrate the skin’s surface is another question.

Olive oil has been used for years to moisturize hair. It has worked well for dry hair and oily hair, alike. It rinses clean and leaves hair shiny and smooth. There is no reason to believe, then, that it would not work on any skin type which is exactly what many companies that produce these products claim. What is important for you to know is, what other ingredients are in the olive oil facial cleanser besides olive oil.

Just because olive oil is listed as the key ingredient in a cleanser, that doesn’t mean the product itself is natural. It could contain alcohols or harsh chemicals that will dry or irritate skin, diminishing the benefits you would normally get from the olive oil. Unnecessary fragrances can also cause irritation, so look for unwanted scents as ingredients, as well.

Olive Oil facial cleansers should be 100% natural to give you the full benefits of using the oil. If you have oily skin, use an astringent that is appropriate for your skin type afterwards to remove any residue. Otherwise, make sure to rinse well after using your cleanser to remove all traces.