Home Improper vs. Proper Facial Cleaning

Improper vs. Proper Facial Cleaning

Facial and skin cleansing - the facts. Improper vs Proper cleansing methods and techniques.

- in morning or before bed

Improper face and skin cleansing is the main reason why skin care regimes fail and do not deliver results!

What is considered improper cleansing:   
1 - going to bed with makeup on
2 - not cleansing at all
3 - cleansing only once-a-day
4 - cleansing with soap or only water

5 - not using the proper cleanser

6 - using cleansers with exfoliating ingredients

7 - using multi-purpose or all-in-one cleansers

1. - Going to bed with makeup on: contrary to the advise offered by certain marriage "experts" going to bed with makeup on is a bad idea. Besides scaring your partner to death when getting up in the morning, makeup left on at night will grind itself into your skin, clog pores and inhibit the skin's ability to breath and get rid of toxins and waste materials. The makeup can also migrate into the eyes. All makeup should be thoroughly removed before you go to sleep.

2. - Not cleansing at all: belief it or not there are those who, with pride, claim to never truly cleanse their skin. When you do not cleanse your skin, you allow dirt, sweat, makeup and other contaminants to accumulate. These clog your pores, interfering with the skin's ability to breath. This provides a wonderful environment for bacteria and other organism to live and multiply, which may lead to irritation, redness, infection or worse.

3. - Cleansing only once-a-day:
Cleasing should be done twice-a-day: in the morning
Why cleanse in the morning:
When you sleep, your body is in active repair mode, this activity produces metabolic waste products. This waste and other impurities present in your skin are moved to the skin's surface and expelled. Cleansing in the morning gives your skin the proper start by removing these.

and at night - before going to bed
Why cleanse at night:
Throughout the day you are exposed to pollutants, which accumulate on the skin's surface and in its pores. A good night-time cleansing removes them.

4. - Cleansing with soap or only water: Cleansing with just water is not sufficient as it cannot breakdown the surface oils to which debris and dirt stick. Cleansing with soaps is not recommended as these invariably contain pore clogging ingredients, such as tallow, and leave a 'film' on your skin (but that is a whole other topic).

5. - Not using the proper cleanser: It is important to choose the cleanser for your particular skin type or condition. Not using the proper cleanser will portentially aggrevate the condition you have or cause irritation, sensitivities and cause your other skin care products to not perform properly. In general it is best to avoid cleansers with fragrance, coloring agents, disinfectants or alcohol.

6. - Using cleansers with exfoliating ingredients: It is also best to avoid cleansers which contain exfoliating ingredients. The reasons are simple:

• cleansers are not on the face long enough for the exfoliating ingredients to do their job
• since cleansers must be rinsed-off, the exfoliating ingredients in such cleansers can be drying and cause irritation

7. - Using multi-purpose or all-in-one cleansers: It is also best to avoid cleansing products which promise to do many things at the same time, the so-called mulit-purpose or all-in-ones. They are all blustering and marketing hype, promising convenience and time savings, but they do not deliver what they promise. Some things are better not combined. How can a product be a cleanser and a toner, exfoliator, hydrator or moisturizer at the same time? By combining these roles, you get a product which performs none of these functions as well as a product specially formulated for a specific role. Just as the infamous shampoo / conditioner combinations, which were once so popular, multi-purpose skin care products do not perform. It is like multi-tasking, as much as we like to believe it makes us more efficient, in reality we do not do any task as much justice as when we concentrate on one task at a time.

Your skin is your body's largest organ - as such it is highly active and produces substantial quantities of waste products. It also accumulates dirt, debris and pollutants from external sources. For the health of your skin, give it the time, attention and specialty skin care products it deserves.

The use of a dedicated, well formulated cleanser is not only common sense, it is the very foundation for an effective and result delivering skin care regime.

this informational service is brought to you by Nancy K. Brown Aesthetics, Inc.

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