Oil Cleansing Method

A few months ago, some of you may, or may not, remember that I blogged about the Oil Cleansing Method .  As you may recall many other bloggers had been trying out the OCM and most had been loving it! I had read though that purging periods may occur so I decided to wait until after the weddings and family functions we had coming up to give to OCM a whirl.  Well, now that all of those functions have come and gone I took the plunge. I will continue to update you on my thoughts and an overall review of the OCM. 

To start I will begin with describing my skin type.  I am one of the lucky ones as my sister would say.. I really don't have horrible skin. Do I occasionally break out? Yes, but my typical breakouts only consist of one to three pimples and they always happen around my time of the month. I do have large pores and many blackheads around my nose and chin.  The blackheads were my main concern along with minimizing the size of my pores. So when I started the OCM last night starting with the basics, castor oil and sunflower seed oil, seemed to make the most sense for me.  Some other bloggers have said that they have also added lavender oil to help with acne.  I chose to stick to the basics to begin with because as previously stated I really don't suffer from bad acne but at a later date I may add lavender oil too.

I started with a 10% castor oil and 90% sunflower seed oil blend. I did this because I typically have dry skin with oily skin late in the day in my t-zone.  Overall though I'm not prone to oily skin. I poured a quarter size drop of the blend into the palm of my hand and slowly started working the oil into my skin. I focused on my trouble zones - my nose and my chin. I continued to rub the oil in for about 5 minutes. I then took a hot washcloth and put it over my face and allowed it to cool. I did not scrub my face at all. Once the cloth was cool I then began massaging the oil back into my pores for another 2 minutes and repeated the cloth move again then repeated these two steps.  The oil was completely absorbed into my skin and the washcloth. I did not feel like my face was still oily. 

Today, I have noticed less blackheads, smaller pores, and my face is not oily at all this afternoon. So far I am VERY pleased with what the OCM has done for me already and I will continue to use it.

At this point and time would I recommend the OCM to others? Absolutely.

Have you tried the OCM? What were your thoughts?

* I have not been paid to advertise or write a review on behalf of the OCM. I tried this method on my own accord and this review is based on my own personal experience.*

I'm Super Excited!

Today has been a pretty crappy day.. My favorite Dr in my office is leaving us tomorrow and the owners let my assistant go.. Meaning that the two people who keep me sane in this work environment are no longer going to be working with me.  

However, after reading Sarah Elizabeth's post today I am super duper excited about our upcoming wedding and the fact that we decided to hire a Videographer. Watching that video only reinforced my decision to not skip this for our wedding. :)

Hope you all have had an awesome Thursday and I hope that after reading Sarah's post all your brides to be figure out a way to make video possible if you can in any way shape or form! :)

Wedding Wednesday - Vows

It's my favorite day of the week in blogland - Wedding Wednesday. I'm not sure why but I'm just wedding obsessed lately. Oh, I guess it might be because I'm only 8 months away from my own big day! ;)

This weekend my soon to be BIL got married to my soon to be SIL and their wedding was our big mile marker. We knew once their wedding passed ours would be the focus and this is SO exciting! I'm so stinking blessed with my soon to be in-laws. All of Mr.'s siblings are amazing! We all get a long so well and I can not be more excited to marry into his amazing family!

So, with that being said my soon to be BIL & SIL had a beautiful ceremony. They had an awesome chaplin (who we are now trying to get officiate our wedding too) he was super friendly, personable, and served in Iraq with my BILTB last year. Their vows were personal to them and their readings were beautiful. It was perfect for them.

I too want Mr. and I to have our perfect ceremony. I have been researching vows for months! I have been watching bridal shows, stalking The Knot and writing down any lines I love and that we could incorporate. I know there are a traditional few lines I want us to use and few that I would rather substitute with something that I feel is more fitting for us. For instance I would rather use "in good times and in bad" than for "better or worse" and "as long as we both shall live" instead of  "until death do us part".  There is one very popular line that I am hearing people are wanting to use, myself included, Bethenny Frankel used this line in her vows when she wed Jason Hoppy,  "From this day forward, you shall not walk alone, my heart will be your shelter, and my arms will be your home". I feel that this line is so beautiful and so true to the commitment you are making when you become husband and wife. You really are promising that not matter what happens you're not alone anymore. I have him to lean on in tough times and he has me to lean on as well. However, this is true for the great times too. We will always have great times and memories to share with each other.

Now, for the readings.. If you remember this post  I talked about my MIL having an issue with our plan to wed outside of the Catholic Church. Thank goodness that is resolved for the most part but Mr. and I really wanted to incorporate religion in our ceremony for various reasons.  First and foremost we are both believers in God and we both have, and want to continue to have, a strong relationship with the Lord. Therefore, incorporating Biblical readings is very important to us. However, this is an area where I don't have a verse from the Bible jumping out at me when I think about it. When I think about Bible verses John 3:16 pops into my head and then I start singing "John 3:16 says that God so loved the world he gave his...".....  Do you see the issue that I am having? While I do have a relationship with God and I do believe that the Bible is the word of the Lord I haven't gone to church since I was young. I talk to God daily, I pray, I thank Him for all that He has blessed me with but I don't read His word as often as I should.  This is something I am working on for me. So many of the amazing blogs that I read are written by women who have relationships with God and who read the Bible, so today I am reaching to you, what Bible verses speak to you on marriage? What readings did you use for your own ceremony? Are there readings you've heard recently at a wedding that were beautiful and meaningful?

Did you stick to the traditional vows? Did you put your own spin on the traditional vows or perhaps write your own? Did you have a reading? Was it Biblical or was it just one that spoke out to you on love?

Happy Wednesday :)

8 months

EIGHT  MONTHS

We are 8 months away from being MR. and MRS. VID! 

 

Happy Tuesday! I'll be back tomorrow with a Wedding Wednesday post.

Wedding Wednesday!

Hello lovies :) It's that time again - Wedding Wednesday!! 

I am happy to report that I have some exciting things going on this week. On Monday I posted about videography well we BOOKED a videographer on Monday night. He's phenomenal. I LOVE him and his work. He sat down with us at 7 and we didn't leave until after 9. He showed us so many videos and really gave us a feel of what he does. Each and every video was different and it was just amazing. The Mr. even left and said "ya, that's pretty cool!"

So we both left happy and impressed. 

A few weeks ago I talked about an awesome florist.. Well we've decided to meet with a few more. Even though this lady nailed my vision she was a bit costly. I've heard nothing but wonderful things about two other florist and we'll be meeting with both of them soon. 

Last week I booked our chairs and dance floor. The guy looked at me when I told him our delivery date and said "You do realize you have like 9 months, right? I've never seen someone reserve this so early!" 

I have also gotten our hotel blocks out of the way. 

In just a few weeks we'll be sending out our Save the Dates! YAY. I'll post pictures of the final product! 

Now, the next big vendor is our officiant! Yowza.

Happy, happy, Wednesday!