the oregano oil incident

Okay. If you know anything about oregano oil, disregard it during this post. Just so you can understand how this all went down.

So a few months ago, Casey was telling me all about oregano oil. She had read about it on the internet (where else do you get new information?) and it was apparently this miracle substance. Basically what I heard was that you drop some oregano oil in your mouth and you'll never be sick again. Sounds pretty good! She ordered some and when it finally came in, she realized she had bought the topical kind, not the kind you can ingest. So she re-purchased the right kind. And now we would have 4 bottles of oregano oil. And that would be fine because certainly we would use it all over time... mmm mmm mmm. If only I knew then what I know now.
When the second round of oregano oil came in we were pretty eager to try it. WHY??? Casey goes first. Two drops under the tongue. Her face... oh her face. I could tell it wasn't the most pleasant thing she had ever tasted. She may have even said something about how strong it was. Duh, it's concentrated oregano people. What did we think it was going to taste like? She proceeds to tell me to try it and of course I'm hesitant because of everything she just went through. But I figured that I could handle the intensity for a couple of minutes if it meant all these health benefits. Two drops under the tongue. It was okay, and then it wasn't.

SO. MUCH. OREGANO. It just started to spread further and further throughout my mouth and soon it felt like oregano was taking over my body. It was almost minty. But not the good kind of minty. Like a terrible terrible oregano mint. I think we drank lots of water to try to get rid of the taste but it took a while for it to go away. And then I had heartburn for the rest of the day. Terrible terrible heartburn. But, I must say, Casey's heart was totally fine. She told me that she had read that it caused heartburn in some folks. Thank you for that information, a little late. So we decided to give the oregano oil a break. I know right? Short lived. You'll soon find out that that is a common theme with Cavannah (Casey + Savannah.)

Well about a week or two ago, wheels started turning. You see, I have been having a hormonal acne problem. TMI? I thought, if oregano oil is so awesome and it's antiviral and antibacterial and anti-inflammatory and antibiotic and antifungal and apparently anti-everything bad, maybe I could put it on my face and it'd help it out. So I ran the idea by Casey and without hesitation she basically said it made sense. Because oregano oil is anti-bacterial. So, without hesitation, I went to wash my face. I think that it is safe to say that if Cavannah agrees so easily on something, we need to take a step back and do more thinking and more research. Just to be sure. So I washed my face, everything was great. I got my oregano oil out, couldn't tell you if it was the topical kind or the kind you ingest but I don't really think it mattered at this point. I dropped some in the palm of my hand and started applying it all over my face. I made sure every inch was covered. I will also add that my face now smelled like a pizza. That just ain't right. So I was moving on to the moisturizing part of the face washing ceremony and I felt like my face was tingling a little. Just a little. I started applying moisturizer and it intensified the tingling. So naturally I started telling Casey that it was burning a little. She brushed it off and headed to bed and within seconds, I was screaming. Well, maybe it was more of a yell. At that point, I hadn't reached my most dramatic self. It was reeeeallly burning. Like someone had set my face on fire. So Casey ran into the bathroom and she's just like ehhhhh... because let's be honest, there was really nothing she could do. But I just needed her to fix it.

She had an idea for me to use her plain face cream to soothe it. She brought it to me and I scooped almost a handful out and started piling it on my face. The layer must have been 1/4 inch thick. BAM. Most dramatic self enters now. It made it worse! I mean I have never in my life experienced the pain that was happening on my face. I was just yelling. Just yelling. Making no sense. Making no progress, not trying to find solutions. Just yelling. And of course Casey was laughing hysterically while trying to be nice at the same time. Heck, I was laughing. Because this was such a Cavannah moment. I looked in the mirror and my face was more red than it has ever been. I was almost crying. So I plop down in front of the bathtub, turn the water on and start pouring water on my face. I was rinsing my face off for a while but, it finally started to stop burning. And when the pain had gone, there I was, sitting on the bathroom floor, soaking wet, with Casey standing over me. This was a very "smh" moment. (That is, shaking my head.) So much laughter and relief. Then I realized that it was very likely that my face would look crazy in the morning. Because let's be honest, I had just given myself and accidental chemical peel of some sort.

The next morning, my face was fine. And the next morning after that, my skin looked better than it had in a long time. So even though it was a very painful experience that I wish to never experience again, there is certainly something good about this oregano oil stuff. Since this incident, I have realized that it is actually okay to use oregano oil on your face, just not by itself. Now if I use it, I will mix it with Coconut Oil. But I must say that when it is mixed, it doesn't have the same dramatic effect. But I've also realized that it works just as well as lavender oil except lavender oil smells better on your face. And I will choose flower face over pizza face any day.

xo, Savannah

p.s. Please, please tell me that one of you has had a similar experience!