First things first,
the most important step to your skincare is cleansing your face.
1)
1f you leave make up on your skin, that means you are
leaving oil, silicone, chemical spf (my nemesis) along with all the rubbish
from the environment that has become trapped in it throughout the day - namely
your own oils, pollution (blow your nose after spending a day in the city and
see if you'd want that left on your skin) , and bacteria particularly from
phone surfaces or touching your face. None of this is beneficial to good
skin.
Yes some people may be blessed - we all know the story "ooo
my friend has slept in her make up for 50 years and she still looks 12".
Unfortunately "she" is a myth
Not only will this dirt lead to problems such a
blocked pores and spots, it will also increase the appearance of fine lines and
wrinkles. Think of painting a wall, imagine continuously layering and layering
more and more paint. Is that last layer going to look smooth and shiny? No. Its
going to crack. Do you want this for your face?
This leads to issue number…
2)
If you do not remove the make up, dirt and debris and
dead skin, whatever product you put on next, whether it costs £2 or £200 will
be completely pointless as it will not be absorbed. You will effectively just
be paying to apply nice treatments to your finger tips, which fine if all you’re
hoping to do is ant age your finger prints.
Now consider you have a good habit with cleansing, are
you doing more damage that the above 2 points would cause? You may well be if
you are using the wrong cleanser.
Generally if you have a “normal” skin. That means, not
prone to skin conditions such as acne, rosacea, eczema etc you can use pretty
much anything you like…..EXCEPT foaming cleansers. Would you shampoo your face?
No (and if you would, you are probably not the target audience of this blog).
I will explain the reasons behind this. Foaming
cleansers contain products such as sodium laureth/lauryl sulphate as well as
some new fangled derivatives of these that they like to disguise but generally
end in sulphate. These strip the skin of oil. Surely this would be beneficial
for acne? The answer is no. The body wants to maintain equilibrium and so if
you remove oil, your body will work to make more. Just as when you pluck that
pesky chin hair, 2 more will come to its funeral.
In this way, foam which strips is counter intuitive to
pretty much everyone except those with a clinical oily skin, which is pretty
much no one, and even for those people, there are better options.
It is a similar case
with physical exfoliating cleansers. As an acne veteran I used to have an
obsession with all things scrubby. I felt if I could just remove the top 500 layers
of my skin, the dirt would be able to release and maybe I would find a layer
that didn’t have acne. This was not the case. Acne is an inflammatory process.
If you scrub and weaken the barrier of the skin, not only does this inflame it,
it leads to bacteria being able to enter and boom, spots ahoy.
Similarly, if you
scrub and have any dryness of sensitivity you will be left with more of it.
You are best to stick
to chemical exfoliants – which I will discuss in a separate post.
It is worth noting at
this point that make up wipes are banned in my skin religion. They do not
effectively remove make up. They mostly contain a load of crap. They have no
place in a skin care routine unless you are a drunk student and you use one whilst
hugging the toilet. This is a similar case for micellar waters. A lot of them
contain alcohol or other nasties. They should be used for eye make up removal
only prior to a proper cleanse.
So…that’s a lot of what not to use…what SHOULD you
use.
Bear in mind ALL skin is sensitive. If you use the
wrong product or abuse it, it will flare up. It can also become sensitised to
ingredients at any point. My skin used to be like a rhinoceros, I could put
anything on it and it not cause a reaction. Now, I can’t use fragranced
products, go in the sun etc. Just in the same way you can develop food
allergies, the same can occur with skin.
Skin type
|
Cleanser type
|
My faves
|
Dry. No rosacea or acne
|
Anything nourishing, you are some of the few that can use a cleansing
balm or oil
|
EMMA HARDIE Moringa Cleansing Balm
This is a solid form of balm, you scoop out a 50p size, warm it in
your hands and it transforms into an oil
SARAH CHAPMAN SKINESIS ULTIMATE CLEANSE
Botanics Organic Hot Cloth Cleansing Balm 97% Organic 70ml
This one is pretty much undistinguishable from the significantly more
expensive elemis pro collagen cleansing balm.
|
Combination. Dry in some patches, get the occasional spot around the
time of the month, maybe the odd blackhead around the nose but no whiteheads
|
Cream cleansers
The reason why I say you should not be prone to regular blocked pores,
is that a lot of these cream cleansers contain shea butter or other emollients
which can cause serious cloggage problems on those prone to closed comedones.
It is ok for blackheads as these are solely caused by poor cleansing habits.
If the oil is exposed to the environment (which is what makes it go black),
the it can easily be removed.
|
Lixirskin Electrogel Cleanser
Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser – oldie but goodie
MONU Gentle Cleanser
|
Oily
Acne prone
Closed comedones
Rosacea
Sensitivity
Post procedure or after too much product application
|
Basic, fragrance free gel cleansers
|
CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser
I only link one, as there is only one that I have found which is oil
free, fragrance free, and works.
|
Bear in mind, any of the other skin types can also use a generic gel
cleanser too. It covers all bases, will remove the dirt from your skin but
cause no irritation. The other benefit is that these are CHEEAAAPPP. So, save
with your cleanser, spend on your treatment products.
|
||
People with bulletproof make up
|
Make up remover oil. You can use the cleansing balms or oils mentioned
in the dry skin row, but you are only using it to wash off make up so I do
not see the point of spending a lot of money to waste it. Similarly if you
are broke to blocked pores – even blackheads – in any form, these balms will
be too heavy. So à
|
L'OREAL PARIS DERMO EXPERTISE SKIN PERFECTION 15 SECOND MIRACLE
CLEANSING OIL - ALL SKIN TYPES
This turns milky once you massage into the skin and add water. As the
name suggests, it takes seconds, and you look like a hilarious panda in the
process which is always a joy. You then follow with the appropriate cleanser
for your skin type
LA ROCHE-POSAY RESPECTISSIME WATERPROOF EYE MAKE-UP REMOVER
|
Tune in for part 2 to discuss how to get the most
out of your lovely new cleanser!
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