So maybe you’ve read my previous post on how needing new moisturizer helped me figure out that olive oil is an excellent addition to skin care routine, and simultaneously made me re-adjust my perspective on beauty care products.

This post is about the health and beauty aspect of using olive oil, and why I recommend it for those who have problem skin that is dry/oily/prone to break outs.

What I Was Working With
My skin is notoriously shitty come winter time–one entire winter it was so bad that I had cuts on either side of my mouth from just opening it to eat! I also tend to scratch my legs a lot while I’m asleep (err, half-awake?) and this caused a lot of scrapes on my legs.

As for my face, I have always had skin problems. It cleared up after I went to a dermatologist, but coming to Japan seem to undo the progress that was made, most likely due to the pollution and crappy dorm water.

The Results
After doing some research online, it became clear to me that maintaining a balance of oils was important to healthier skin. It is weird to think that in order to combat oily skin, you should put oil on it. But I was fed up with everything else I tried, and so experimented with a bottle of pure olive oil that I grabbed from my cooking cabinet.

When I first used the olive oil on my face, I noticed a difference immediately. My face wasn’t dry after washing it, and the olive oil made it feel natural and smooth. I was a little alarmed by the smell, but it subsided immediately after it has been absorbed and I haven’t noticed a thing after that.

During the first few days, my skin got noticeably oilier quickly, but it evened itself out after that. Red spots that were around for weeks began to fade after a couple nights’ sleep with the olive oil regime. Make up was easier to put on, and washing my face felt better because my skin seemed to retain its oils. Using it on my body after a shower, my skin felt so much nicer, and any nighttime scratching done to my legs caused little to no damage.

Not Yet Perfected
I am still new to using olive oil, so I can’t be sure of the long term affects of using this. But at this rate, I am confident that it will remain a staple in my skin care routine. Right now, I am not using the very best organic extra-virgin olive oil, as I want to use this one up before I go out and buy some. I also still get spots, but they are short-lived and leave little to no redness.

I know that you can use olive oil for your hair as a mask, but being in a dorm makes it hard to test this out. I’d assume that the rich and fatty properties of the oil would make it ideal for giving your hair shine, but until I can try this out, I won’t say for sure Anyone who has tried can let me know it went.

Conclusion
I highly encourage those who are at their wit’s end about their skin to give olive oil a shot. Try it for a month and see if your skin doesn’t get any better. Keep in mind that in my case, my skin was already in the processing of balancing itself out (read: freak out and then calm down), so depending on your situation you might find that you break out a lot before you start to see any improvement. If it worked for someone with skin like mine (see above), I don’t see why it can’t work for everybody else.

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