Cleaning My Mug

Prior to this journey (do I use this word too much?), all I ever did was wash my face in the shower and leave it at that. No moisturizer, no toner, nothing. Now that I’m a bit more familiar with the right ways to take care of my face, I have a secure and simple skincare routine that works. It’ll probably keep changing, sure, but I figured I’d do up a series of posts about each aspect of my regime.

So, I figured I’d start with face cleanser, the first and probably most important aspect of one’s skincare routine… one that even I, oblivious oil-beast that I was before, knew was necessary (though I was a bit blase with it at times).

My skin type, for those who haven’t read my other posts on skincare, is combination and sensitive. That means I get oily in my T-zone but my face is otherwise dry, and it also means that I can’t use about 75% of the beautiful products available because it might irritate my skin.

Over the course of my research, I’ve found that there are some key things you should look at when looking for a good cleanser.

1. It should not clog your pores (i.e., non-comedogenic), which can be a bit tricky because you also want a cleanser that can get into them in the first place.
2. It should remove most of your makeup (except for waterproof eye makeup), unless you are using a precleanser first, like a face wipe or an oil.
3. It should not piss off your skin.
4. You should always wash your face with warm, steamy water. This opens up your pores and allows cleanser to get in and flush out all the bad stuff.

Before I began, I was using Lush’s Ultra Bland. It seemed to work well for me but price and I guess a desire for something new has since had me leave it for something else.

I then moved on to an oil cleanser. The Oil Cleansing Method is a very popular fad at present, mainly because it is particularly good at hydrating the skin while clearing out pores, but I didn’t quite go this route; I just bought a pre-mixed oil cleanser from Moogoo. I used this for a while, mainly at night, but then discovered that my face was getting pretty red after extensive use (possibly a reaction to one of the essential oils), so I stopped using it once it was all gone.

Since then, I have used (and continue to use) only one other cleanser: Cetaphil’s Gentle Skin Cleanser. This one ticks a lot of boxes for me, because it does do a wonderful job of cleaning, does not block pores, and does not irritate my skin. It’s also super duper cheap, so bonus!

The only negative is that it’s not quite as strong as I would like; it doesn’t remove a lot of makeup, for instance.

I just wash twice and this seems to take care of the problem.

There are lots of cleansers out there. What you should be using depends on your skin type and what kind of effort you want to go through.

Now, good cleansing means that you’ve steamed open your pores with warm water, and that your cleanser has done the job of clearing your pores of dirt and grime, thus preventing blockages that lead to pimples and blackheads. But what next? My pores are now hanging open until they decide to close again, so what do I do if something gets into them right after I cleanse, particularly if you live in warm weather or sweat like a sponge like I do?

The answer is the next step in my skincare regime, which is toner.