So you know how moving to London screwed up my hair? Well, it also screwed up my skin.
It got super-oily, yet super-dry, and all these little pimples cropped up around my hairline and above my eyebrows.
The moral of my story is: moving to London makes you ugly.
But for eight months, I’ve been using rose hip oil, and it’s really made a huge difference to my face!
I discovered it in Spain when I was travelling with my good friend Lauren. Even after we stumbled home drunk from our nightly sangriathon, she never skipped washing her face and applying rose hip oil before bed. (I, on the other hand, would high-five myself in the morning if I had bothered to take off my shoes.) This explains why she has such lovely skin.
I ignored all the hype about rose hip oil because I have oily skin and didn’t want my face to become the new place where BP discovers oil. So I was amazed when Lauren told me that it’s in fact a dry oil, which is absorbed readily by the skin, leaving no greasy trace of its existence with 10 minutes of applying it.
She kindly let me use some, and to my delight, I discovered it was true. Rose hip oil may be an oil, but it behaves more like a serum.
On my return from Spain, I read rave reviews online and then bought some from my local health food store. After a month of using it, my friend joked that I must be pregnant, because I was glowing. Though I had also just eaten an entire bowl of Pho soup.
But a few days after that, a stranger told me I had beautiful skin. Boomtown.
So now I’ve detailed the external validation I’ve received, here’s what I’ve noticed that rosehip oil has done for me.
- cleared up some scars
- lightened my freckles
- lightened the dark circles under my eyes
- lessened breakouts
- reduced facial greasiness
- solved the Arab-Israeli conflict
OK, maybe not the last one. But I can attest to everything else 100%.
It really is that game-changing, probably because it’s full of those healthy fats that you should be eating instead of Doritos. In fact, rose hip boasts a multitude of natural active ingredients that improve your skin: vitamin A for ageing skin, lycopene and beta carotene to battle against free radicals and oxidants that damage your skin, and omega 3, 6, and 9 to plump out fine lines.
So here’s how I use it.
Before bedtime and after cleansing, I spray my face with Avène Thermal Water Spray (yes I realize it’s canned water. But it’s fancy canned water. From France. So there.)
Once the water has dried I put two drops of the magical oil in my palms and gently rub it into my face until it’s all absorbed. Then I go to sleep and dream about Chris Hemsworth giving me a pedicure.
If I’m about to fly anywhere or it’s a particularly dry wintery day I also mix one drop of it into my daily moisturizer and use that too.
I use Trilogy Certified Organic Rosehip Oil but I’ve heard that cheaper ones are just as good. But you only need about one or two drops each time you use it (the bottle comes with a dropper applicator), so with nightly use, one 30ml bottle should last you about three or four months. It’s a pretty good value for all the great skin compliments you’ll be getting.
Have you tried rosehip oil? Are you as obsessed with it as I am? Do you also have weird foot dreams about Chris Hemsworth?