Cleanser

What's the point? what's wrong with soap? is it just a marketing gimmick? These are questions you may have asked yourself when wondering if it's worth spending money on...

Well traditionally soap has been used a long time, centuries, to clean the skin but at one point leeches were used to cure lots of ails. Time has moved on and we've found a better way for curing ails and cleaning our faces. Soap is great for hands, body, feet but as I have said in previous posts, facial skin is different to the skin around our body, especially in females. Soap is harsher and can leave skin feeling dry, tight and can create sensitivities. Soap is cheaper and mass produced but it's not going to meet the needs of your facial skin.

Cleansers work with our facial ph levels, it's designed to clean and not strip away our natural barriers/oils. You can buy cleansers specifically for your skin type, where as you can't for soap - it's more general. Using the right cleanser could mean using less products as you won't need to counteract the effects from using soap.

Cleansers come in different formats, gels, milk, lotion, oil, balm or clay. Cleansers are used in the morning and in the evening after you have washed your face.

If I've gone to bed with clean skin, do I really need to use cleanser in the morning?

Yes. In the morning we are preparing our skin for the day ahead. We need to remove any products we placed on our skin overnight so it is clean and ready to absorb the products we place on our face to protect it from our daily lives - concerns, environment, weather etc. Splashing water on our face is not cleaning it enough thoroughly. Blocked pores can lead to blemishes/acne.

Is cleanser the same as make-up remover?

No, although cleanser can remove make-up. Micellar water can be used to remove make-up but it is not a cleanser. This is removing the excess products we have placed on our skin. I would then use cleanser to clean my face thoroughly. The cleaner your face is, the more easily it will absorb the serums and treatments etc.

What is double cleansing?

Double cleansing is used at night time. During the day we will pick up dirt and toxins from our environment, sweat and sebum are naturally produced but excess of this can lead to blocked pores/bacteria, sun cream has a thick velocity and needs to be removed. We may have worn make-up and this needs to be removed.

The first cleanse can be a micellar water if you have worn make-up and you're in the early teens-20s bracket as long as it's followed by a second cleanse. Your skin becomes thinner as you age which is why you can get away with micellar water as a first cleanse when you're younger, when we lose the plumpness and our pores/concerns are more on the surface we need the cleanser to do more work. The first cleanse can be an oil or balm (which will remove make-up too) The oil based types attract oils from make-up and sun cream. The second cleanse I would use a cleanser designed for you skin type, to cleanse your skin from dirt, pollutants etc from the day, that are not visible to the naked eye.

At nigh time we thoroughly clean our skin and put products on to help heal, restore and treat skin concerns. These are then absorbed easily on clean skin. Our skin doesn't take the night off - it works 24/7 healing, repairing, growing

Cleansing wipes are a no no. You end up rubbing the wipes over your skin pushing dirt in, moving it around, rather than using your hands in a massaging movement with the cleanser, which aids in the removal process. Whilst cleansing wipes might seem a cheaper option, it doesn't do the job as well as an actual cleanser. You have to use quite a few to actually clean your face properly so they won't last as long as a cleanser, making them a false economy

I hope this has helped you understand the role of cleanser, any questions please feel free to ask me.