In my quest to keep my dry and often dehydrated skin as supple as possible in the middle of this pandemic while also dealing with the drying effects of the heat inside my home, I had a miracle cure hiding among me all along.
Olive oil.
One of my favorite people, Lisa Eldridge, mentioned that some people she knows use olive oil as their moisturizer for their nightly facial massages and swear by it. Not too long ago I saw a news headline that said something about how Jennifer Lopez says her key to the fountain of youth has been olive oil.
It turns out that her take on olive oil is deceptive:
While I agree that olive oil is definitely not the fountain of youth for me, it has definitely become the fountain of moisture that I have been missing for nearly my entire 30’s, an I am really kicking myself in the ass that I had not tried it eight years ago.
I have gone through so many deep conditioning moisturizers that I have lost count. Hyaluronic acid alone isn’t even enough for me. Due to the amount of allergy medication I have to take on an almost daily basis on top of the fact that we are still dealing with winter conditions outside and moisture-sucking heating on the inside (due to COVID restrictions), my skin gets down-right dehydrated with a capitol parched nowadays.
One night I was applying layer after layer of hyaluronic acid and my skin was still dehydrated, I thought to myself:
“This is ridiculous. I need some heavy duty moisture because my face is sucking in so much so fast that I feel like my skin is the pimp and hyaluronic acid is the hooker I’m beating while shouting ‘Where’s my money, bitch?!’ There has to be something around here I can use to fight this.”
So I sat and thought to myself. I mean I sat and thought about it. Winny the Pooh level deep thinking. Then I watched a Youtube video by Lisa Eldridge I had listened to at least a dozen times and heard her say that she has friends who use olive oil for their nightly moisturizer/face massages and swear by it. I had nothing to lose at that point. The hell with it!
I went into the kitchen and got out our squirt bottle of extra virgin olive oil that we decant from the big olive oil bottle we buy in bulk (we use a lot of olive oil for cooking around here). I put about a teaspoon worth in the palm of my hand and started massaging it into my face.
Immediately I felt my pores taking such big gulps of moisture that all the olive oil I had applied and thought would be enough to use to massage my face for five or ten minutes got sucked up in seconds. That is how dehydrated my skin was. It was a serious wake up call. I could not believe in a 100 years that my face could be that thirsty! So I drizzled another teaspoon of oil into my palm and started applying. This time the oil was on the surface of my face to the point that I had to wipe the excess oil off when I was done with my massage routine. After I had gotten rid of the excess oil, I kid you not: my face felt like a whole different face. It was like I was back in high school and only needed a drugstore tinted moisturizer.
Here’s the kicker:
My skin is not only dry AF, it is sensitive as all get-out. I inherited the dryness from my Mom and the sensitivity from my Dad. I have spent a LOT of money going through skin care products due to the fact that this one made me break out, that one made me break out, this moisturizer and their mother were determined to make my skin greasy and full of tiny whiteheads overnight. I was jaded and somewhat depressed, I dealt with that many failures.
Olive oil doesn’t make me break out at all.
Do you know how much money I’ll be able to save from this realization??!!
While I don’t call olive oil a replacement for Botox by any means, it has still become a miracle for my very dry skin. I highly recommend that my readers with skin as withered and rough as my face can feel try a teaspoon of it instead of their normal intense moisturizer. The results for myself have been amazing.
Girls Who Wear Glasses 