Review: Fancl T-zone Clear Essence & My Hair Oil Concoction

I'm always looking for ways to smoothen and clarify my skin. I still have huge pores on my nose left over from when my skin was oily in my younger days. Even though my skin is drier now, the pores are still big and during pms, becomes oilier and looks very rough. I recently found that Fancl's T-zone Clear Essence is the solution. It's not as drying as the other brands of oil control gels, is mild enough not to irritate my skin and can minimise the pores. Nothing can close up the pores except a visit to the dermatologist for some special treatments I guess, so this is as good as it gets from a product. My Hair Oil Concoction is composed of a imprecise mix of half Camellia and half Jojoba carrier oil with drops of Basil, Lavender, Rosemary and Grapefruit essential oil I recently purchased from Yours Essentially. I dropped a little into my palm then picked it up with my finger tips and rubbed it into my scalp, then rubbed the rest onto my hair for "conditioning" purposes. I leave it on overnight and then wash my hair in the morning. So far I've done it twice, and I find it clears up my scalp (it feels less conjested and oily) and my hair is less frizzy. Not a bad result for an "experiment". I'm tempted to try DHC's Head Oil though. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Natural Beauty Experiments

Last night, since my skin was feeling agitated, I thought I'd use something else instead of my facial wash to cleanse my face. I did the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) with my Jojoba carrier oil and found my skin wasn't oily at all, despite using only oil and no soap. I didn't have any makeup on. It soothed my skin, leaving it moist and soft. However, I didn't feel it removed anything from my pores (as the method claims to do) but maybe it's because my pores weren't feeling clogged to begin with. This morning, nothing bad happened to my skin, but due to PMS, I feel my skin is a bit rough compared to non-PMS days. So, I can't tell if OCM did anything much positive for me. It's unlikely I'll do it again because I found using hot water and a towel inconveniently drippy and hotly uncomfortable. I badly want to go shopping, very badly, but I'm also feeling lazy and want to just veg out at home. Still, I need to move my butt to go get groceries. Ugh. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Planned Experiments with Organic Ingredients and Essential Oils

I normally obtain good results with natural skincare (I should do a review of the set of Sukin skin care which I have been using), including those that contain essential oils. This fact, together with my interest in trying out products from Yours Essentially, led me to purchase a few items recently. The well-padded and well-packed parcel from this Singapore-based webshop arrived today, a few days after I placed my order. In the package, was included 2 small sample packs from the seller and the following items I bought:

• Unprocessed organic Shea Butter
• Basil Essential Oil
• Lavender Essential Oil
• Rosemary Essential Oil
• Grapefruit Essential Oil
• Camellia Oil
• Jojoba Oil

For me to mix and to contain my own experimental blends:

• 5ml Amber Glass Bottle
• Disposable Pipette with markings (3ml)
• 50g Plastic Screwtop Jar

I read some good reviews about this webshop's products and also some good results from using oils and unprocessed shea butter at Viva Woman, so I was very excited to try these items. Besides what I read at Viva Woman, there are various benefits attributed to the items I purchased. I compiled a short version of what each item is supposed to, either taken from Yours Essentially (which contains more details) or other online sites. Based on my main concerns, the list is focussed on relaxation/calming, healing and hair/scalp care benefits.

• Unprocessed organic Shea Butter - Rich in Vitamins A, E, and F, Promotes skin renewal, increases the circulation, accelerates wound healing. Itchy skin, skin rashes, Eczema, and Dermatitis. Soothing nature, anti-inflammatory and rejuvenating effects
• Basil Essential Oil - stimulates and promotes hair growth. Relieves headaches, stress related allergies, and painful menstruation.
• Lavender Essential Oil - healing properties, calms and relaxes, prevents scarring and balances the skin, effective for headaches, migraines and insomnia.
• Rosemary Essential Oil - stimulating the hair-bulbs to renewed activity and preventing premature baldness.
• Grapefruit Essential Oil - Antidepressant, antiseptic, antitoxic, astringent, bactericidal, diuretic, restorative, stimulant (lymphatic, digestive), and tonic. Benefits people with hair-loss.
• Camellia Oil - Skin restructuring and moisturising properties. antioxidant, anti-aging Reported to diminish fine lines and pitted acne scarring, lighten freckles and reduces the appearance of pores. (Also, thanks to Yumeko's blogging about this product for use on hair, I'm keen to try this, so I bought the organic version when tsubaki oil was out of stock at Nisshio Pharmacy.)
• Jojoba Oil - has healing properties for damaged and breaking hair. Great hair oil, scalp cleanser. Reduce sebum production, protects the skin from harmful bacteria. Moisturises dry or flaky skin. Clears and minimizes pores while clearing skin of blemishes. Aids in the healing of psoriasis and eczema.

Some experiments that I intend to carry out:

• Body (Face?) Moisturiser - I intend to mix into Lavender, Basil and Camellia into the Shea Butter for calming effect and skin-healing purposes. I love shea butter formulations, as they always help alleviate my dry skin and allergies. Lavender too is a favourite HG essential oil. If this works, I won't need to spend money on commercial shea butter creams or lavender-infused creams anymore! But this shea butter is very stiff, I am not sure whether I should go about whipping it ... buy a cheap mixer just for this?
• Hair massage oil - I'm going to mix Basil, Lavender, Rosemary, Grapefruit, Camellia and Jojoba carrier oil. From my general internet reading, I found that massaging in essential oils can also help re-balance the scalp, increase hair growth/reduce hair fall, and also condition the hair shaft. There are various hair oil blend recipes that can be found online, most include Lavender and Rosemary essential oils with Jojoba as a carrier oil.
• Tension, headache, migraine and insomnia calming massage oil - I'll mix lavender, grapefruit and basil into the Jojoba carrier oil. I also have some other essential oils at home that I can mix in, including bergamot and chamomile, which are not available at Yours Essentially. If this works, I can stop buying the pre-blended stuff from various places like The Body Shop and Origins.

I'll do reviews later when I've carried out my experiments. © Copyright. All rights reserved.