The simplest part of your skin care "clean your face" can be the most complicated. Just look at all of the advertising on cleaning your skin. Business agree that clean fresh skin is what we all try to have, no one seems to agree on how to go about cleaning your face or what sort of cleaning products we should use.
You may clean your face with the same soap every day, but with my many nights in hotels every month I know that it is annoying that many of the soaps that I use can irritate my face. Only in the past year or so have I started saving and using the soaps that will not irritate my face. I do have sensitive skin. It is fair to say though that most problems with skin care are the way you clean your face.
Here are the steps to wash your face.
First: You will want to splash water on your face and keep it wet for 1/2 a minute at least before applying any soap. This will give your skin some time to soak up some water and loosen any dirt, makeup, and excess oil.
Second: Wash your face with a soap of your choice. Once again this should not be over 1/2 a minute. You do not want to over wash your face.
Third: Rince off the soap. Now this rincing off of the soap is where many people do not take the time to do enough. Make sure that the soap is off and give your skin some time to take in the moisturizer that it needs. Yep it is the water that is your moisturizer.
Forth: Pat dry.
Keep this in mind when washing your face and thinking about moisturizers.
When you wash your face you want to clean your face of dirt, makeup, and oils but not to the point of irritating the skin. Taking the time for your skin to soak up the water plumping up your skin cells.
It is the water that is your moisturizer. The moisturizer is what you put on your skin to hold the moisture in. You may think of it as a barrier. It is this balance between cleaning your skin and the moisturizer you use that can be hard to work out.
Now if you walk into the department store you could walk out with an arm full of products. A cleansing cream for makeup removal, a toner or astringent to remove the cleansing cream, a scrub to remove the dead skin cells etc, etc.
Lets break it down to five ways to clean you face. With a link to more information on each of these cleanings.
Using a Soap or Detergent :
This is when you use a cleansing bar or liquid soap and water to emulsify grease and dirt and wash them away. When you are finished, you rinse your face with water. Here is more information soaps and detergents to use on your face.
Using a Cleansing Cream:
The second type of cleansing cream is really more soap or a detergent than cream. These types of products are loaded with emollients that leave the skin soft. These products are known as a rinse off cleansers. It can be very difficult to tell which one of these two products you are buying so read the directions closely. Many times they come in the form of a gel or foam.
Toners and Astringents
To put it simply some come with alcohol as the primary ingredient and those that do not include alcohol. This is used to remove grease, dirt and the film that is left behind from the cleansing creams. They will not leave any residue and do not have to be rinsed off. One of the oldest and still used by many people to this date is Witch Hazel.
More Information on Toners and Astringents
Clean Your Face with a Scrub
You can use all kinds of scrubs to clean the dirt and dead skin cells off your face. Here at Natural Skin Care Info you will find many homemade recipes for these scrubs. Do not for get that you can use the soap that you are all ready using and by putting the soap on a washcloth you have a mild scrub. On the other end would be to use a loofa as a strong abrasive. All a scrub is is an abrasive. I have made many scrubs using sugar, sea salt and oatmeal. But you want to keep it to the mild scrubs when you use it on your face.
Face Masks
You use a face mask to deep clean your pores, remove surface oils and dead skin cells. Being one of the oldest forms for cleaning your skin. Take your time and relax with a face mask once a week. Here is my section on all the different kinds of face masks and many homemade recipes.
Using one of your own homemade face masks recipes or even one from a spa not only will benefit your skin, but provides you with a restful break from other activities while the mask does it work. Masks can contain several ingredients to just one or two to form a past or solution which is applied to the whole face.
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