Skincare

Yes, you need a cleanser to remove bacteria, pathogens and the build up of Sebum or skin oils. What cleanser an influencer uses should have no bearing on your skin choices. There are a few points to look for when choosing a cleanser: Should I use an Exfoliating cleanser? Not if there is granular, scrubby bits you can feel such as kernels. Plastic microbeads are terrible for the environment contributing to ocean pollution. Exfoliation grains are highly damaging to the skin barrier, they are sadly often found in common supermarket cleansers aimed at delicate teen skin. What are Enzyme cleansers? Active enzymes are important to remove desmosones the glue that bonds skin cells together. A well formulated cleanser must contain active enzymes such as Papain extract, derived from Papaya this can be found in pHformula Exfo Cleanse as the cleanser I recommend to my skin clinic clients. When we have a build up of dead skin layers this causes dull looking skin, particularly as we age and the skin turnover slows and layers build up. Water is not cleanser! In the pub recently as often happens I got a skin question. I’ll very happily talk skin I don’t need prompting! A friend asked what treatment they could have to remove Blackheads. I asked what they were cleansing with and this soon turned into a spicy debate about water as a cleanser. You need a physical cleanser to dissolve dead skin cell bonds and attract oil and sebum for removal water is not adequate. How often should I cleanse? Morning and night, you should double cleanse each time. How should I cleanse? Apply the cleanser to dry skin and massage in throughly 50 seconds is ideal . Then wet finger tips and massage again for 50 seconds, in pHformula this activates the active enzymes dissolving the dead skin bonds then rinse with warm, not hot water. Should I use hot cloth cleansers? I am not a fan and many clients that come to me with damaged skin barriers use them and I recommend they resist, using hot water strips the skin. I have had clients comment about things opening pores, this is an old wives tale, pores are not doors – they don’t open and close a quality cleanser is all you need.