How Often Do You Wash Your Face?
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free skin care · Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:27 am

How often do you wash your face?

And is it better to wash once or twice a day in order to delay aging?

free skin care · Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:50 am

I wash my face once to twice a day depending on my schedule and commitments that day. IMO depends what you cleanse with and what you are removing - leaving pollution, sweat or cosmetics in place doesn't do our skin any favours. Neither does using a cleanser that strips the lipids from our skin barrier or contributes to low grade inflammation. Neither will soaking with water such that you flush out some of the natural moisturising factors. Confused

free skin care · Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:04 am

I dont think cleansing twice will delay the effects of aging but I do think it will allow products to penetrate better.

I listen to my skin and wash twice usually, but some times I splash with water if Im dry.

free skin care · Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:12 pm

I cleanse with rinse-off oils at night - first to remove makeup, then to ocm/massage. If I'm barely able to keep my eyes open, its a quick, diy face-wipe. Embarassed

IF I've been so negligent as to only use wipes at night, I cleanse/massage with rinse-off oils in the morning.
But normally, just water and a light steam & gentle wipe with microfibre cloth to get the natural oils off.

For the record, I have oily skin.

free skin care · Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:27 pm

I have dry skin. I cleanse only at night, and splash with water in the morning. This has made a huge difference in my skin.

free skin care · Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:46 pm

erg wrote:

I have dry skin. I cleanse only at night, and splash with water in the morning. This has made a huge difference in my skin.

Why did you choose to cleanse at night, instead of in the morning?

free skin care · Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:37 pm

I know it's bad but i wash my face (w/ ProDerm's gentle cleanser) at least three times a day (sometimes four). I wash it when I wake up, before hot yoga, after hot yoga, and before sleep....

free skin care · Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:16 am

VeronicaM wrote:

erg wrote:

I have dry skin. I cleanse only at night, and splash with water in the morning. This has made a huge difference in my skin.

Why did you choose to cleanse at night, instead of in the morning?

I wear eye makeup and that needs to be removed, but most importantly I want my skin cleaned and ready for serums/creams etc. In the morning, my skin is not dirty - so a splash of water is fine.

free skin care · Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:15 pm

Twice a day for me. In the morning, I want to be sure I get the last vestiges of retin A off.

I find washing my face is a good wake-r-upper Smile

free skin care · Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:37 pm

twice a day for me too, kinda hard for me to shower and not wash my face, shampoo runs down it Laughing

! I also thought we excrete toxins all night long, so best to wash them off in the morning. Have to wash again at night, I will not sleep in makeup!

free skin care · Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:40 pm

Probably once with a cleanser, and once with hot water and ncn's mirco fibre cloth. I find that if I use soap or cleansers (surprisingly apart from reluma's cleanser) my skin gets really tight and dry and flakey.

Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:36 am

Honestly, it really depends on what kind of skin you have. For dry skin, you can get away with really scrubbing once every other day or so and doing a light wash on the off days. For oily skin, you would want to do a good wash every day.

Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:14 pm

I cleanse twice a day, and always try to use something gentle. In the AM I tend to use a foaming cleanser, and in the PM I double cleanse - once with a cream or oil cleanser to remove makeup, then with a foaming cleanser. I had tried more active cleansers such as the Jan Marini glycolic one, but it was too harsh for my skin.

free skin care · Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:27 pm

I wash twice a day. Once before I put on my morning stuff, and once before I put on my night stuff.

I think it just depends on your skin type. My mom has really dry skin and she washes once a day.

free skin care · Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:13 pm

I wash my face twice a day and no more. At night, before I apply Tazorac, I cleanse with La Roche Posay Toleriane Foaming Clanser and in the morning, to avoid irritation/dryness, I cleanse with Pevonia Sensitive Skin Cleanser. My skin is soft and smooth!

Sat Jul 21, 2012 11:44 pm

I wash twice a day -- once in the morning and once at night before I go to bed. Since I have oily skin, I sometimes wash my face in the middle of the day when it's hot. I use Purpose cleansing wash, though, since it's soap-free and gentle.

Sun Mar 24, 2013 4:13 am

I have been noticing that my skin seems to look the best in the morning before I wash it. It's soft and plump. But then I wash it-always with something gentle (right now Laventine olive oil), and it seems to lose it's glow.

Since retin-a my skin has changed to dry. I've always been combo or oily, so caring for dry skin is new to me. Maybe cleansing twice is actually bad for it?

Also,can you just go ahead and put on creams and sunscreen over unwashed skin? It feels so WROONNGG! lol

free skin care · Sun Mar 24, 2013 3:40 pm

If you use retin A, I would recommend washing in the morning. It's usually best to not have any residual retin A on your skin when getting any sun exposure. Do you use a moisturizer after washing in the morning? The oil based cleanser sounds like it should be gentle.

My skin gets flaky sometimes with retin A as well. I do better when I use it every other night.

Mon Mar 25, 2013 12:43 am

Eliotxx, ShastaGirl,

I used to use Retin-A and this is what my dermatologist recommended:

Wash twice a day. Definitely wash your face with a very gentle wash in the morning and remember to apply an SPF moisturizer! Retin-A makes your skin sensitive and more susceptible to sunburns so you need to protect it. Depending on your ethnicity you may need a higher SPF (I'm Asian and my doc had me on SPF 15).

I also developed very dry skin while using Retin-A and at the time my dermatologist had me using the Aveeno washes due to the gentleness and the fact that it contained oatmeal compounds. It really helped with the condition of my skin.

free skin care · Mon Mar 25, 2013 8:41 am

I used to think that washing my (oily) face meant stripping it of all oils. Nope. If you want to use a non-oil based cleanser which does that, at least don't rub it in - just gently move it over the surface to remove surface dirt and excess oil. That way your skin will have the option of taking in or refusing the rest without your insistance!

I kinda think that acne and clogged pores are mostly the result of irritation and ph balance thrown off, usually by products we use to clear the dead skin etc. It's a vicious cycle. If you're using products which do that, try and be gentle and maybe use a diluted acv toner to bring the ph back.

And if you're flaking as a result of Retin-A, pull back and use it less often or adjust your cleansing products or move to a gentler routine. Flaking is not an indication that it's working, it means its too much for your skin. Not rubbing it in as hard might just work.

It took me too long to figure out what works for me. My skin is happy now, so I hope that helps someone!

free skin care · Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:34 pm

In the morning I just rinse well with warm water. I don't think its necessary to use anything else in the am. Over night the skin accumulates allot of oil and dust particles which are easily just rinsed off. At night I'm usually washing off make-up; so I use either OCM or Heather Blossum Cleanser from Garden of wisdom.

free skin care · Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:42 pm

I think there is perhaps some benefit in only cleansing once a day. I agree it does feel odd but I have only been cleansing my skin once a day for the past few days and my skin is much improved and has a much better texture. This really makes me wonder if some of the problems I and many other Retin A users is from over stripping the skin so that the top layer taken away? It just seems that so many people complain of problems with poor skin texture, big pores etc which I did but they all seem better after allowing my skin to regrow its external layer?

Not sure if I would want to leave retin a on my face during the day though although it is no longer active by the morning?

free skin care · Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:08 pm

pandora77 wrote:

I think there is perhaps some benefit in only cleansing once a day. I agree it does feel odd but I have only been cleansing my skin once a day for the past few days and my skin is much improved and has a much better texture. This really makes me wonder if some of the problems I and many other Retin A users is from over stripping the skin so that the top layer taken away? It just seems that so many people complain of problems with poor skin texture, big pores etc which I did but they all seem better after allowing my skin to regrow its external layer?

Not sure if I would want to leave retin a on my face during the day though although it is no longer active by the morning?

I really do think allot of people are over washing their face. You can rinse it off in the am and that will take care of any residual retin A. Too much washing can cause more oil. The skin trys to compensate and maintain its PH balance which is not disrupted by plain water.

free skin care · Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:40 pm

I cleanse mine at least twice a day. Some days more often, I hate to work out with sunscreen/make-up on, I feel it doesn't allow skin to sweat properly.
Not fond of foaming cleansers though, they ruin my skin. Cleansing waters are best for me. Cool

From my own personal experience - dirty skin ages faster or at least doesn't behave as well. There's sweat, dust, grime and god knows what on our skin and it's all full of radicals and toxins (well, real stuff, not some hippy "toxins", like heavy metals, metabolic waste skin excretes constantly or random stuff like dyes from pillow cases that happen to irritate skin on low level), I'm not allowing that to sit on my skin.

Tue Mar 26, 2013 9:45 pm

I tend to wash my face using cleanser 3 times a day.

I have extremely oily skin though

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