Y’all, I meant to include this information in my post yesterday so that I could keep all of my health information in one monthly post, but I got in a hurry (it was Wednesday and I was on my way to meet my mom and bonus sister for lunch), and I completely forgot to include this. Anyway, if you missed my health/weight loss/2024 resolution update for the month of April, you can check that out here.
But in addition to the whole no sugar, weight loss, getting healthy progress I’ve made, I also started using the absolute best anti-aging, anti-wrinkle product that I’ve ever used, and I had to pass along this information. I know I’m not a lifestyle/wellness blog, and I never intend to turn this blog into that kind of thing. But I also know how much we women tend to spend on creams, potions, pills, collagen powders, etc., in an effort to turn back the hands of time (especially as time marches across our faces and leaves it’s boot prints behind as evidence 😀 ), so I didn’t want to forget to pass this along to you.
Let me back up a bit. At the beginning of this year, I was getting so unbelievably discouraged with my skin, and specifically the skin on my face, neck and chest. I mean, I know that I turned 50 years old last June, but it’s like I was starting accumulate a year’s worth of aging every month. I was getting so unbelievably discouraged seeing the wrinkles become more pronounced on my forehead, the crepe-like wrinkled skin under my eyes, etc.
I was buying every cream and potion that any influencer on Instagram told me I needed, and while most of them would work immediately to plump up my skin and diminish the look of the thin, crepe-like, wrinkled skin, nothing had any lasting effects that lasted more than a couple of hours.
Let me show you what I’m talking about. And just a warning, you’re about to see way more close-up pictures of my face with no makeup than you ever wanted to see. 😀 But let me start at the beginning of this year. This was me on January 28th of this year.
My face was definitely puffier then than it is now because I’ve lost 25.5 pounds since then. But I’m not talking about the puffy face. What got me down was mainly the dry, wrinkled, crepe-like skin is under my eyes. And I am, and have always been, a person who piles moisturizer on my face because my skin has always been so dry. Since I like natural products, I’ve always used coconut oil as my moisturizer. But when I started seeing this dry, wrinkled skin under my eyes at the beginning of this year, I also started buying products marketed specifically for use on that skin under the eyes. But nothing that I tried had lasting effects.
Here’s a close-up from that picture above. Even though I was constantly moisturizing, my skin always looked dry. And my goodness, that under eye area was really getting me discouraged.
And so that people don’t think it’s just a bad picture, or just bad lighting, or I was just really tired that one time, I’ll show you more pictures taken at other times in different lighting. Here’s another picture from January 31st. Again with the eyes. Ugh.
I was very glad that I wore glasses because at least that camouflaged the wrinkles some, but even at that, there was no hiding what was going on under my eyes. Even with my glasses on, my eyes were always looking so tired and old.
Even with the glare on my glasses (because I forgot to order them with the non-glare coating), there was no camouflaging this.
I had started using two different products pretty religiously at the beginning of the year. (Actually, one of them I started last summer after being influenced by an influencer. 😀 ) Here’s the “progress” after using one of those for months, and the other one for about a month. I took this picture when Matt was in the hospital at the beginning of February. I had hoped to see more progress after adding that second product, so this picture was really discouraging to me.
Here’s a closeup of my eyes from that picture above. I don’t really see any difference at all from using those products.
So at some point after Matt got out of the hospital, my face started breaking out at the corners of my mouth, and I started getting redness and itching on my neck. So with all of the issues I was dealing with, from the dry, crepe-like, wrinkled skin to the breakouts to the itchy red spots on my neck, I was throwing everything I could think of at my skin, from coconut oil and tallow for the dry, wrinkled skin, to Benadryl cream for the itchy redness on my neck, and all of the creams I had purchased.
When none of those were really working, I finally asked myself, “What do I have that I haven’t tried yet?” I went searching through my cabinets, and I came across one thing I hadn’t tried.
Castor oil.
I had purchased castor oil and a castor oil pack after I started following a lymphatic specialist on Instagram. She recommends castor oil packs for all kinds of things, and I had been using mine over my liver each night. And while I had read quite a bit about the amazingness of castor oil (if you haven’t looked into it, I highly recommend it), and I knew it to be useful for a very wide range of issues, I wasn’t sure about putting it on my face and neck. But I decided to give it a try anyway. It’s pretty thick stuff, so it’s not something that I would ever try to put on my face as a daily moisturizer before putting on makeup to go somewhere. But I started using it at night before bed. Each night after I prepared my castor oil pack and put it on, I’d put a bit of castor oil on my fingers and rub it all over my face and neck.
Y’all, I could not believe the change! I was seeing very noticeable differences in my skin in less than two weeks. That picture above that I took when Matt was in the hospital was taken on February 6th. This picture below was taken on February 22nd.
I know I look frightening. 😀 I had been working in the studio and was taking an afternoon Sonic break, so my hair was a mess. But that is my face with no makeup after less than two weeks of using castor oil on my face every night before bed.
Here’s a close up from the photo just above.
Here’s another picture just a couple of weeks later. This one is March 2nd.
Here’s another closeup…
And here’s one from this morning, May 2nd, about 45 minutes after I woke up.
And another close up…
I mean…y’all!!! I have bought SO MANY products over the last year to help with my skin. And the thing that gave me the most remarkable results was castor oil! Not only is it the most moisturizing thing that I’ve ever put on my face and neck, but it cleared up the red itchy patches, and has also done amazing things for the skin on my neck and chest, which had also started looking crepey and wrinkly. But unfortunately, I haven’t been taking progression pictures of my skin in those areas. My eyes are what made me the most self-conscious, so that’s what I’ve been tracking with progress pictures.
I know that all you can do is take my work for it (not only my word that these results came from castor oil, but also my work that I haven’t retouched any of the above photos), and people are generally pretty skeptical about claims regarding skin care, anti-wrinkle, anti-aging products, but I’m not even here to sell you anything. I mean, I’ll give you the link to the exact castor oil that I use, and it is an affiliate link.
But my results don’t have anything to do with the brand of castor oil that I use. You just want to make sure that it’s organic, cold pressed, hexane-free, and comes in a glass bottle. (Don’t use castor oil from a plastic bottle!!) So I’m not married to a specific brand of castor oil. I just want to pass along this information so that others can know the amazingness of castor oil. I’ll use any brand that meets those specifications. But I can assure you that I will be using castor oil on my face every single night for the rest of my life, and I will never be suckered into buying another expensive anti-aging miracle cream from another influencer or sparkly Instagram ad ever again.
I can’t get over this…
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
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