We're All Wrong

I've only recently come to know about Caroline Hirons, a down right beauty insider badass. She herself is a 3rd generation beauty 'insider' as she says. She's the professional that professionals go to and thanks to a little thing we call The Internets, she's got a blog all her own to help us amateurs get it right.

Once I found her blog, I scoured what I could, trying to retain as much info as I could discern. Though she lives in England, there's a lot that needs to be translated for my American eyes.  For example, 'flannel' means a washcloth. It took some googlizing for me to finally get on board with that one.

She's a sought after consultant now and the fortunate people of England get to attend her workshops and store clinics.  Oh what I would give to wait in that line....

Instead, I've taken on her first and most basic rule.  How to clean your face. Sure, this seems straight forward. I mean, who doesn't know how to wash their face?? Well, as it turns out, most of the world!

This is what Caroline says about cleansing. Taken directly from Beautymouth.com :  (keep in mind flannel=washcloth)

1. Cleanse your face every night. Without fail. Non-negotiable. You have enough time. 
2. Cleanse your face in the morning - a splash of water will not cut it. You can use a teeny amount of cleanser - but use it...
3. Apply your cleanser to DRY skin. Don't dampen the skin first. I don't care what it says on the pot. Add water afterwards to loosen if not using an oil-based cleanser. (When was the last time you went for a facial and the therapist wet your face before she cleansed?)
4. As a rule - stay clear of 'foaming' on the bottle (there is the odd exception, but they are few and far between) - to get foam you need to use a surfactant - and a surfactant turns your skin alkaline. Alkaline skin is like a petri dish for bacteria. The irony being that so many cleansers pushed on to acne/combination skins are foaming. Naughty, nasty companies should know better.
5. If you are wearing make-up with sunscreen in it or just good old sunscreen you need to double cleanse. If you aren't, one cleanse is sufficient.
6. Use a face flannel and water to remove. Unless you are ALLERGIC TO WATER (which I have heard from clients before - sigh) there is no need to cotton/tissue off. This is 2011 not a Doris Day film. Wash your face people. Imagine only ever using tissue or cotton on your bum. Exactly.
7. Use fresh running water from the tap - do not fill the bowl and splash off. Splash all that dirt back on to you face? That's just nasty. 
8. I have neither time nor patience for eye make-up remover pre-cleansing. Use a cleanser that removes eye makeup and apply the cleanser to the eyes first. You'll get most of the gunk off at the beginning and your second cleanse will clear the rest up.
9. Use hand-hot water and ring the flannel out - if its the right temperature for your fingertips it will be fine for your face.
10. Use a fresh flannel every day. Don't be cheap. Or gross. Primark. £2 for 4. Buy 2 packs and you're good for a week and a spare....You don't have to use muslins or a special cloth. Again. I don't care what they say. Trust me. I've done treatments with the lot and the thing we always went back to? Plain white facecloths. HOT plain white facecloths. Lovely.

She makes a lot of sense. What got me was, the facialist doesn't wet your face before cleaning....holy smokes, you're right!!  I also knew she was right when I got to the bit about not using the foamy stuff.  As a person who's suffered with awful skin most of her life, it wasn't until I stopped using the acne products that my acne cleared up.  Once I switched to Cetaphil, a totally unfoamy cleanser, my skin took an immediate turn for the better.  And once I switched all my acne products to just plain ol' big girl products, I had new skin. 

So I decided that I would give this a try. I've been doing this for over two weeks now and I've been having awesome results! I apply my Bare Minerals Purifying Facial Cleanser on dry skin. Which is brilliant because now I'm not watering down any of the great benefits I can get from this cleanser!  And although I've always shied away from wash clothes on face, thinking they'd be far too rough, they've been incredible with exfoliating just the right amount and leaving my skin more smooth and even making my skin tone better! 

I've even been able to do the double cleanse and it doesn't make my skin tight or dry or over exfoliated and irritated.  How did I not know about this before??

I also like that I can see all the gunk come off my face, in that gross voyeuristic pore strip way. And at the end I can use the washcloth to scrub off any lip stains from products from the day.  Bonus! 

What they don't teach you in school is that too much water can actually cause you to be more dry.  Ok, they actually do teach this in school but not in a way that we think we need to remember it. But since I haven't been keeping my face under the water in the shower and dousing my face with water in the sink at night, I've noticed how much more moisture my skin has on it's own. The constant water isn't stripping it of what it needs and I aaalmost can say I don't have dry skin! Almost. 

Thankfully, I have a fairly good size collection of washcloths, but today I picked up more for 47 cents each at Walmart. I mean...you can't beat that price. They did have a pack of 18 for $4, but those seemed overtly thin, so I splurged on the 47centers.

I don't think I will ever go back to any other way to wash my face. And now when I see those Neutrogena commercials with the face splashing, not only will I think about the ridiculous mess she's making, I'm also going to think about how she's ruining her face. Amateur. 


UPDATE: I've addressed a few questions in response to this post HERE.