Cleansing of the face as a daily routine seems so easy, however still so many people do it in a wrong way. Today I would like to give you some information and some hints how to do it properly and what to use.

On the market there are so many different products which you can use to clean your face before applying different cosmetics. Finding the right one, which suits your skin can be really problematic. Cleansing gel, milk, cream, oil and micellar water are the most common ones.

Choosing the right product for face cleansing is a very important part of a daily skin routine. But which one is the best? Since some time, it is pretty common to use micellar water in daily care routine. It is a very good product, however still so many people do not really know how to use it properly. Micellar water is liquid full of small micelles, which actually are tiny balls of oily molecules. These oily molecules are nothing else, than round spheres made of different fatty acids. Fatty acids contain hydrophilic (water friendly) and hydrophobic (lipophilic, fat friendly) parts. Thanks to this composition they act similar to magnets and are able to remove fatty dirt (sebum) and other water friendly stuff (dust). Micellar water is perfectly suited for all types of the skin, even sensitive ones and lets us to remove even very strong make-up without any problem. But... there is often a big issue with using it. Many people use it for removal of make-up, cleansing of the face and the eye area and even as a toner. Although it is pretty gentle product, it contains detergents, which actually are used to dissolve dirt sticking to the skin. They enhance pH of the skin (which normally suppose to be around 4.5 - 5.5), what disturbs hydrolipid layer and makes our skin to loose protective function. Allergens have easier way to enter the skin. Enhanced pH is not so good for bacteria leaving on the surface of our skin as well (lactic acid bacteria like Lactobacillus sp. and Bifidobacterium like rather acidic pH). This can make infectious bacteria to grow better and faster. Moreover, it is possible that micelles will accumulate on the surface of the skin and can lead to clogging of the pores. Therefor it is important to wash the face after using micellar water and to use tonic before applying other cosmetics. By following this advice, you can be sure to remove rests of the make-up and dirt and to restore right pH of the skin. Moreover you will remove rests of the detergent, which if left on the skin could trigger allergy, disturb protective function of epidermis and lead to enhanced water loss (TEWL – transepidermal water loss) in the skin and drying out.

If you don't decide to use micellar water, you have many different alternatives. Depending on the skin type you can use cleansing oil, milk and gel. Cleansing oils are a very good alternative for people with dry and normal type of the skin. They are pretty good in removal of make-up and dirt. Cleansing milk (O/W emulsion type) are very good choice for people with sensitive skin type. What does O/W mean? O/W (oil in water) is an emulsion type with small particles of oil dissolved in water with the help of different emulsifiers. It looks like not so thick, milky cream. On the market you can find different skin friendly cleansing milk products which contain skin friendly emulsifiers like phosphatidylochoilne. Phosphatidylocholine is fatty acid (phospholipid) building membranes of the cells, therefor it is skin friendly. It can enter the skin and be used there for production of epidermal skin cells. You can find it in INCI (international nomenclature of cosmetic ingredients) as a LECITHIN. A very good company having these type of products is Dermaviduals. The slogan of this company is corneotherapy – a therapy of epidermis. They produce skin friendly products, which are able to repair the skin and restore hydrolipid layer. For sure it is a company whose cosmetics you have to try out 🙂 Some time ago, after seminar introducing their products, I tried out some of them. I was very impressed by the ingredients and quality of their cosmetics and for sure I will use it in the future, when the dream of my own cosmetic studio will come true 🙂 What you have to avoid while removing make-up and cleansing your skin are all emulsifiers which can damage your skin. Emulsifiers are surfactants (surface active agents – or detergents in other words) and as I wrote on the beginning of this post, they can destroy hydrolipid layer of the skin. Sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) are the most common detergents used in many skin cleansing products. Both are pretty aggressive and can lead to occurrence of irritations and allergies.

Cleansing milk from Dermaviduals (Germany). Perfectly suited for very sensitive skin types.

OK, let's assume that after careful analysis of your skin condition you found suitable cleansing product and you started to use it. However, there are some things that you should remember.

1) Make-up removal will not substitute washing and washing will not substitute make-up removal. Both parts of skin care routine are important and shouldn't exist without the other. Simple washing will not remove strong make-up. Moreover, make-up removal products without washing them out of the skin can lead to irritations and clogging of the pores. Additional washing will remove rests of make-up as well. If you use only one of these steps, you should introduce the second one as soon as it is possible.

2) You thing, that you do everything right, but you still have irritations or clogged pores and pimples? Check if you skin care routine is enough. Maybe after cleansing, your skin is still dirty? You can simply test efficiency of your cleaning routine. How? You can perform ''WHITE TOWEL TEST'' to check out efficiency of skin cleansing. How to do it? First of all perform full, pretty strong make-up. Depending on your cleansing routine remove your make-up and/or wash your face as you do it everyday. Dry out wet face with white and soft towel. Do it properly and pretty strong. Check out cleanness of the towel.... If your daily cleansing routine is not good enough, you will see the rest of the make-up and dirt on the towel. If this is a case, there are some things to change. First of all, be sure to use two cleansing products – one to remove make-up and one to wash your face (here you can use emulsion, gel or a foam). Secondly, be sure to apply the products for at least one / one and a half minute. You can perform gently a massage on the face. Too short cleansing, for sure will not remove all of the dirt, especially after applying a very strong make-up on Saturday night 😉 If after proper make-up, your towel will still be dirty, you can try stronger make-up removal products (if you use micellar water you could try oil, cream or milk depending on your skin type).

My daily skin cleansing routine. I have very sensitive couperose skin type with first sights of aging (I am 34) 🙂 Although I don't use make-up (except for some powder), I love to use cleansing milk in my daily skin care routine. It leaves my skin clean and soft. Afterwards I use cleansing foam with CBD and cannabis oil, which is perfectly suited for sensitive skin. At the end I use facial toner for couperose skin type with barbados cherry extract, vitamin C and panthenol.

3) If you have very sensitive skin, avoid all the products with small cleansing particles (almond nut shells or bamboo particles). You can only irritate your skin. Imagine that they act similar to strong exfoliators and peeling of your skin everyday is not a good thing at all. Such irritations and disturbing of the hydrolipid layer can lead to redness, allergy, bacterial infections and inflammation. Your irritated skin with disturbed hydrolipid layer can get signal to produce more sebum. You could end up with fatty or much more fatty skin then you actually have. People with sensitive skin should avoid tap water as well. It can irritate the skin. A bottle of mineral water in a bathroom could be a very good solution.

4) Sleeping with the make-up? No please! This is one of the most common failure, which can make your skin condition very bad. Imagine the tick layer of powder and camouflage on the skin the whole night long for many, many days. During the night skin has to regenerate. It activates many repair processes, therefor evening is the best time to use serum and creams rich in different active substances. Your skin will soak it like a foam and use it for regeneration. It works pretty effective whole night long. Absorption of active substances without removal of make-up will be pretty difficult.... Some people say, that we should let our skin breath during the night to have better ability to regenerate. However, it is not really true, that we can exchange gases through out the skin. This is the way of breathing found in amphibians (frogs). Gas exchange in human skin is very, very low - we rather get oxygen from tiny blood vessels in middle part of the skin - dermis. However, high activity of the skin and enhanced blood flow and metabolism can indeed influence skin physiology if you won't remove make-up during the night. Remaining make-up will clog your pores, what can lead to appearance of pimples. During the day our skin gets in contact with oxidative stressors (ROS – reactive oxygen species), which are involved in collagen and elastin degradation. Removal of the make-up and proper face cleansing after a long day will remove accumulated ROS on the skin surface and under the make-up. Moreover, unwashed face skin can get really dry, what additionally enhance aging rate. How? Similarly, when we cover our skin with oils, they will lead to dry skin as well. Many make-up ingredients are hygroscopic, what means that they can soak water out of the skin.

5) And what with cleaning of the skin with the soap? This was pretty common thing to do some time ago. I can understand people washing face with soap, as it gives feeling of very clean skin. However, it does much more damage than good. Similarly to strong detergents, it extremely enhances pH of the skin. It brakes hydrolipid layer and dries out the skin. Due to damaged natural skin barrier, water loss is highly enhanced. Sebaceous glands get signal to produce more sebum, what in the end makes the skin very fatty. I will try to write a separate blog entry about the soap in the future 🙂

6) What with the towels for face drying that you use? The best is to keep them always fresh. I know, that this is almost impossible (nobody wants to use fresh towel everyday), but can you imagine how many bacteria can grow on one week old towel? This is extremely important for the people suffering from acne. Using the same towel for very long time can result in spreading of the bacteria on the other parts of the skin- especially if we use the same towel to dry out every part of the body. First of all, it is good to have a separate towel for the face. Ideally, it is to use paper towels to dry out the face.

7) Here, I would like to give you more attention to facial toner. Many people do not use it at all, although it is one of the most important part of skin care routine. Simple washing of the skin with water after make-up removal and skin cleansing before application of skin care products is a very big mistake. As I wrote before, cleansing enhances pH of the skin. To restore it, it is important to apply toner on the face. You can apply it with help of cotton pads, but the best way is to simply spill it on the hand and spread it on the skin. In that way you do not have to be afraid of skin irritations (this can happen when people with very sensitive skin types rub the skin with cotton pads). Moreover, you can save some product as well because that way assures usage of less toner comparing to cotton pads method. Another important thing is to know, that toner assures better transportation of active substances into the skin – it prepares your skin to soak all of the goods from serum and cream. On the market you can find toners suited for different skin types. Depending on your skin condition you can use products with moisturizers (hyaluronic acid, allantoin, provitamin B5-panthenol, NMF - natural moisturizing factors, urea, lactic acid, ceramides, collagen, aloe vera extract, vitamin E, amino acids), light exfoliators (low concentrations of salicylic acid) or different active substances (niacinamide and vitamin C). I would be careful with usage of toners with exfoliators. Even in a very low dosage they can result in peel off of the skin. On the market you can find many toners with AHA acids (mandelic acid, glycolic acid). Most of the time they have semi-high concentration (2-10%). They can easily enter epidermis, where they loosen desmosomal connections between corneocytes, what results in slight exfoliation. Do not be afraid if you will find lactic acid in your toner. It can be find in most of moisturizing products as a part of NMF (humectants), and most of the time it's concentration is very low. It is very safe substance, which actually is produced by living on our skin bacteria. It's role is to bind water in the skin and to keep pH of the skin in physiological range. Salicylic acid toners should be used only by the people suffering from acne to stop development of Cutibacterium acnes – bacteria causing this skin disease (salicylic acid has strong antimicrobial properties).

8) Last, but not least I would like to write about a very controversial chemical, which you can find in many skin care products involving toners- an alcohol. I've read recently many different comments on the topic. Many people think, that alcohol is one of the most evil ingredients in cosmetics. However, I would like to show you, that it is not that bad as you can think. Of course, there are different, friendly types of alcohols (emolients), which you can find in skin care products (fatty alcohols, like cetyl and lauryl alcohol). I don't want to write about them today. The one that is a topic of this paragraph you can find in INCI as alcohol, alcohol denat., and ethanol. Probably you think, that it irritates and extremely dries out the skin. According to me, there is nothing as wrong as this statement. As a scientist, I can tell you, that it is not that bad at all! In most of the cosmetics, we can find it in a pretty low concentrations (up to 20%). Sometimes it is important ingredient serving better absorption of active substances (enhances permeation of the skin) and preventing development of microorganisms (honestly, ethanol is a better preservative then many other chemicals, like PHENOXYETHANOL and parabens, which can can be absorbed by the skin and cause irritations and allergies). Although it has hygroscopic properties (it means that it can withdraw water from the skin), from scientific point of view it is impossible that it will dry out your skin in that low concentration. I work as a molecular biologist in the microbiology laboratory and I have to use skin disinfectants more then 20 times per day. They contain minimum of 70% or more of ethanol or isopropanol (propan-2-diol). I can assure you, that proper care of my hands keeps my skin in pretty good condition. Now imagine that you apply on your skin a toner with 15-20% (or less - some cosmetics contain less than 5%) ethanol only twice a day. After that, you put a moisturizing serum and moisturizing cream full of humectants (binding water substances). A cream that you probably use has hyaluronic acid or collagen, which due to its high molecular weight build thin layer on your face to stop transepidermal water loss. Your skin is nourished with different water binding substances (NMF, low weight hyaluronic acid, polihydroxyacids, saccharides, sorbitol etc...). Is it really possible that this tiny amount of alcohol can remove all of the water from your skin? One could say, that it could disturb lipid layer of the skin, what could lead to loss of water, however not in such low concentration. And even if that would be true, we would restore it by application of the cream anyway (all creams contain lipid part which while accumulating on the skin make it looking and feeling soft). I wouldn't advise to clean your face with 70% alcohol solution, but we shouldn't give up on good quality products only because they contain alcohol 😉 Believe me, cosmetic producers do not really want to damage your skin, and some ingredients that they use, are there for a good reason. So it is with ethanol. I have found some interesting studies about influence of alcohol on the skin. Surprisingly in those studies alcohol has been showed not to be that bad to the skin at all. It doesn't cause acute or systemic toxic effects. It has been showed that use of hand disinfectants for 2 weeks did not significantly increase skin dryness and did not cause irritation. Much worse results have been obtained while using detergents on the skin (soap). In another study skin dryness has been indeed enhanced, however tested concentrations of alcohol were in range between 60% and 100%. Even such high concentrations of ethanol and isopropyl alcohol did not lead to occurrence of erythema and irritations. Skin irritations were significantly higher when SLS (SLS is strong and agressive detergent found in many cleansing products) has been applied on the skin. Ethanol hasn't been even found to enhance irritation on already irritated skin. Moreover, topical application of 10% ethanol solution stimulated proliferation of wound healing tissue what has been observed by investigation of periotoneal tissue explants (a semi-in vivo wound model). Hope, I convinced you that ethanol in cosmetics can't be that bad. However, one could wonder if alcohol denat. is actually a bad thing or not. I would say, alcohol as a good quality ethanol is not big problem at all. Alcohol denat. is pure ethanol mixed with other substances, what make it undrinkable. This type of ethanol mostly contains phthalates – esters of phthalic acid mainly used as pesticiders, which indeed aren't friends of our skin. Therefor it could irritate the skin of some of you when applied in high concentration. If you don't have atopic and very sensitive skin, or you are not allergic, everything should be fine anyway. And for sure you shouldn't be afraid of alcohol, if you can find it very low in INCI of the cosmetic. As you probably know, the lower in INCI is ingredient, the lower concentration in cosmetic it has. I would always check for much more irritating substances in cosmetics (SLS, SLES, preservatives and parabens) and avoid them for sure. About different alcohols, preservatives and emulsifiers in cosmetic products I will do separate entry in the future as well.

I hope you found this entry interesting and I could give you some nice hints concerning cleansing of your face skin 🙂 In the end I would like to write how important good cleansing is! Sometimes, it is enough to find good cleansers, remove make-up and wash the face properly to already see improvement in our skin condition.

Arkadiusz

To read:

Loeffler H. et al., How irritant is alkohol? British J. Dermatol. 2007

Boyce J.M. et al., Skin irritations and dryness associated with two hand-hygiene regimens: soap-and-water hand washing versus hand antisepsis with an alcoholic hand gel. Infect. Control. Hosp. Epidemiol., 2000

Winnefeld M. et al., Skin tolerance and effectiveness of two hand decontamination procedures in every day hospital use. British J. Dermatol.. 2008