To Oil or Not to Oil?

Recently I talked about a young woman with flawless skin. I mentioned how I found her online and her skin was so flawless, she was glowing! I talked about how bad I wanted that glow. How I couldn't even imagine having skin so pretty. I talked about how she made a video describing her entire skin routine.

Not the same skincare routine

I realize what she does and uses are going to be different from my own products and processes because our skin is not the same. Living with eczema makes buying products much harder. I can't just go out and purchase something with fragrance. I have to constantly be conscious of what I'm using on my body in addition to what I'm putting inside of it.

Trying something different

I realize that it's very likely that I will never have "decent skin" - at least not according to society's standards. I'm different and it's okay, but I still want to try. I want to make an effort to improve my skin and it's appearance. If it works, GREAT! But if it doesn't, that's okay too. I'd rather try and fail than never try at all.

Exfoliation, then body oil

She talked about exfoliation. She talked about how much she loved it. I tried it. I've written about it a few times. Another major tip she had was about oils. She talked about how much she absolutely loved and lived by oils. How her body really thrives with the use of oils. How she loved the feeling of simply having oil on her body. She said she uses oil at all times. Everywhere.

Body oil 24/7

This was interesting to me. Of course, I've heard of body oil. I've seen body oil in stores. Maybe I've even used it on my elbows a time or two. I knew people used oil, but I never imagined anyone, myself included, actually oiling their entire body and keeping oil on their entire body for the entire day.

I don't love things on my skin

Personally, as you may or may not know by now, I don't love the feel of most things on my body. I don't like ointments. I don't like creams. I'm extremely picky when it comes to the soap I use. The sound of having to lather my body in oil was not an appealing one to me at all.

What's the harm?

It didn't sound comfortable, but I didn't want to not try. After all, growing up, I seemed to have tried everything. What's the harm in trying just one more?

So I did.

Testing it out

I bought the oil. It seemed decent enough. I used it for a few days. Every time I got out of the shower I would oil down. Immediately. I didn't love the process of putting oil on. It was a little messy and didn't really feel natural to me, at least not during the application process.

The verdict

After I finished oiling down and began to get dressed I started to feel better. For the first time in a long time, I didn't feel dry.  Will I be oiling down in the future? It's likely. I'll probably never love the process, but it did feel good afterward and my arms seemed to enjoy the moisture that the oil managed to seal in.