A beginner’s guide to Cleansing
One of the best things about starting a beauty blog for me, has been the drastic change in my skincare routine. Or actually making a skincare routine at all! At the very start of 2014 one of my goals was to make a routine and stick to it – for the most part I have! ^_^ I’ve also done a lot of reading on skin, learning what’s what and what to avoid and I thought it would be useful to dedicate a post to cleansing. This is mainly aimed at people who’ve never thought about skincare before, whether you’re 12 or 20 I hope this is somewhat useful for you!
So generally there is no real rules with makeup BUT skincare does have some DOS and DON’Ts. Let us start with the stuff you should avoid.
DON’Ts
Don’t -Use soap to wash your face:
I don’t know about you, but as a child I was always asked to wash my face and hands with soap – not a good idea! Soap strips the skin of it’s natural oils, which leave it feeling uncomfortably tight and dry. It’s said to be as harsh as using a detergent on your facial skin! (which is the most delicate obviously) and so it’s great for cleaning the body but it does absolutely nothing to protect the body. Bottom line – soap isn’t suitable for facial use.
Don’t – Purchase a Cleanser that contains Parabens
I’m not going to pretend I’m all clued up on chemicals and preservatives and that everything I use on my skin is chemical free – not true (and technically almost impossible). However I do try and steer clear of parabens within my skincare. What exactly are parabens? They are preservatives that prolong the shelf limit of cosmetics, skincare, shampoos etc.; Ok so here is the thing, there is a lot of anguish and hatred towards these parabens, however I have found an interesting article on this all being a MYTH or at least somewhat exaggerated by the media: read it here. For this reason, I don’t mind using makeup that contains parabens because makeup is put on the face, and later thoroughly removed. It is not permanent or rubbed in, and if you imagine the TINY proportion of parabens per ‘pump’ or ‘sweep of an eyeshadow’ you can understand why I don’t really think of them as being dangerous or harmful to the skin.
However some people believe that Parabens can be a cause for cancerous tumours, whereas the FDA have approved them to be safe thus far. Lets just say this will be a always be a debate and some people choose to go all natural in everything, others like myself take it with a pinch of salt. That being said I do prefer to buy skincare that contains as little chemicals as possible because with moisturisers and lotions you’re rubbing them into the skin and the less chemicals rubbed in the better. So in short, it’s probably better to purchase a cleanser that is paraben free, or from a brand that strictly regulates the amount of parabens used. Some of my favourites include REN Skincare,LUSH and a new one: Green People Organic Lifestyle Gentle Cleanse & Make-up Remover* which I took with me on a weekend away and was thoroughly impressed with how well it dissolved the make-up from my skin and left it feeling very clean and equally as soft.
Don’t – Over-cleanse
It can be quite easy to become slightly obsessed with removing all dirt and grime from the face if you start reading about the types of bacteria our skin encounters on a daily basis! However over-cleansing is the biggest cause of sensitive skin as it completely strips the skin’s underlayers of its natural protective properties – so yeah cleansing is important but try not to over-do it!
OK now enough of the don’ts, lets get to what you SHOULD be doing!
DO’S OF CLEANSING
Do – Determine your skin type
Make sure you know which category your skin lies in. Is it oily, normal, sensitive, dry or combination? If you understand what skin-type you have, you can look into products that will be best suited to you. Since starting and sticking to a skincare routine my skin which was more on the dry side has become normal-dry which just goes to show giving you face some tlc can really pay off! Also if you know your skintype you can select a cleanser that will work well (gel cleansers are best to void if you have dry skin as they do tend to leave the skin feeling tight, on the other hand oil and balm cleansers can be amazing because even when you’ve washed your face, your skin is left soft and feeling nourished.
This website here is a fantastic tool to help you with determining your skin type if you’re unsure!
Do – Stick to water soluble cleansers
Micellar cleaning waters have taken the world by storm, and yes they are pretty awesome for removing makeup gently and effectively. However they should always be used as part of a double cleanse, with your second cleanser being a facial wash or other type of cleanser that involves giving you face a good wash and getting rid of all remaining dirt, makeup and micellar solution.
Do – Exfoliate at least once a week
Everyday we ‘shed’ skin cells and the build up of these can cause clogged pores, which in turn can lead to breakouts and other blemishes. If you have dry skin, weekly exfoliation will help to smooth out the skin and reduce dry patches. You can buy exfoliating scrubs for a couple of quid, and as long as they aren’t too harsh and you are massaging it into the skin GENTLY you will notice a great difference from the first exfoliation. I used to use St Ives peaches very often, but over time I found it because a bit too harsh for my skin, so then I switched to clean and clear which has smaller granules and I was very impressed with how soft my face felt afterwards! Not to mention how squeaky clean it looked too!
Those are just a few pointed that I think EVERYONE should know, and try to follow through. Whether you wear makeup everyday, once a week or once in a blue moon – skincare is always worth taking the time out to do – and if you make it into a routine, by cleansing your skin properly you could notice a real difference 🙂
Thanks for reading!