The Correct Way to Cleanse - Mark Skin Expert

Skin Cleansing Essential Information

For this latest post in my “The Correct Way to …” series, I'm investigating The Correct Way To Cleanse. Specifically how to cleanse your face and neck. It's really surprising how simple this is to achieve. Yet, so many people I see are lost when it comes to this most basic of skincare tasks. What I tend to find is that we all tend to do this without even thinking about it. Almost like auto-pilot, we do the same task day-in, day-out, but are we really doing it properly? Are we using the right products? Are we overdoing it? Or are we not cleansing enough? Let's dive in and investigate together - The Correct Way to Cleanse our faces.

What is Cleansing?

Over the course of 24 hours our skin has a lot to contend with. Pollutants in the air, both inside our homes or work environment and also outside in the open air. These adhere to our skin and get into pores.

Our skin also products a natural oily waxy type substance called sebum. This is secreted in a constant flow from our sebaceous glands. We have roughly 900 of these tiny glands for every square centimeter of skin on our face. This constant flow of sebum builds up on the skin until it is washed or wiped away from the skin surface.

Not to mention, we also have a myriad of bacteria, viruses, fungi and mites living on the surface of our skin. This natural microbiome helps to keep our skin healthy and works in a similar way to our gut flora. It plays an important role in our skin's response to allergens and other substances that we come into contact with.

I have a previous post about this secret living world on our skin.

But in short, we should be trying to cleanse our skin without stripping away too many of these natural microbiome. Leaving enough of the good microbiome inhabitants in place to maintain our skin health.

How we remove the dirt, pollution and bad bacteria on our skin is becoming ever more important in a world obsessed with being “clean”.

What type of cleansing products are there?

Cleansing should aim to remove surface dirt, pollution and excess sebum. But we should be trying to maintain some hydration in the skin. In the history of the civilized world there have been many ways to cleanse the skin introduced to us as consumers.

Soaps

Initially soaps were made by the ancient babylonians as early as 2800BC. These soaps were used for washing clothing, but also later used for cleansing dirt and grime from the skin. Soaps aimed at cleansing the skin were named “Toilet Soaps”. They were highly alkaline and stripped the skin of all dirt and oils and left the skin dry and irritated.

Thankfully the world of toilet soap production has moved to much better and safer ingredients. Nowadays syndet bars or synthetic detergent bars are being used to replace the high pH that a traditional soap has. These syndet bars are formulated with a combination of dry or powdered surfactants and liquid surfactants and are designed to be gentler on the skin. Although most still have an alkaline pH.

Interesting Fact: Toilet Soaps were marketed to us through television from the 1950's with many manufacturers sponsoring daytime telenovelas. These have become known as “Soap Operas” due to the soap advertising that they contained.

Many commercial soap bars today, like Dove Original Beauty Bar, use a combination of surfactants and traditional soap ingredients combined with ingredients to counteract the skin-stripping effect of using them. These types of soap bars are not actually traditional soaps, but are in fact something now referred to as "Syndet Bars", short for synthetic detergent bars. Not actually soap, but a detergent ! The distinction/difference here is a major point of separation between these soap-like bars and a traditionally made soap bar. Traditional soap bars usually cost more to manufacture, as they use some kind of fat or oil combination and an alkaline substance to break the fats, by a process known as saponification into soap and crucially, glycerin. Unfortunately these types of cleansers still remove too much of our natural sebum and can be irritating to skin because they disrupt the ideal pH for our skin. They also kill off too much of our natural microbiome.

Liquid Cleansers

Enter liquid facial cleansers. There are literally thousands of these types of cleanser on the market today. Pretty much every skincare manufacturer has a liquid skin cleanser in their lineup.

They are dispensed onto fingers and worked into a lather with water to make a foaming, bubbly cleanser that lifts off dirt and debris from the skin. While much more gentle on the skin, depending on the formula, they can still remove too much of the natural hydration from the skin.

An example of cleanser that in my opinion is way-too harsh on the skin is Simple - Regeneration Age Resisting Facial Wash. Despite the marketing promises of being "perfect for even sensitive skin" and boasting about ingredients like green tea, prebiotic and pro-amino acids to support a healthy skin balance, unfortunately this cleansing gel, like many others in the budget end of the market, use an ingredient called Sodium Laureth Sulfate as the main cleansing ingredient. Daily cleansing with this type of cleanser, almost certainly leads to skin problems and sensitivities further down the line. And while a cheap purchase at the time, can end up costing you more to fix what it can do "in terms of disruption" to the skin barrier. It's a common supermarket or pharmacy store cleanser and understandably, because of its price, ends up being a regular or reliable purchase for many people. There isn't anything essentially wrong with choosing this type of cleanser if you don't suffer from any current skin problems, but there are many more effective ones which I recommend further down in this post.

SLS - SLES

Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) and its close relative Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) are known to cause skin irritation and contact dermatitis. There are many studies that support this fact. It has strong evidence of this kind of reaction on the skin. Some countries also classify this ingredient as thought to be toxic.

So why do many budget cleansing products use this ingredient in their formula? It's cheap! As an ingredient it is so cheap in fact that it is used in pretty much every shampoo, bodywash, hand wash, face wash and even leave-on makeup products that you can find in a supermarket shelf or high street pharmacy or drugstore. I have a whole post in my Ingredient Directory dedicated to this budget ingredient. You can read my full post about Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or SLS by clicking the link.

The curious thing about this ingredient is, that when left on the skin for prolonged periods it causes skin rashes. So if we don't completely rinse it off of our skin it has the potential to cause an allergy on the skin. It's found in leave-on hair conditioner, eye makeup, brow liners and the list goes on. Why would any manufacturer put this into a leave-on product? Again because it's much cheaper than alternatives that don't cause allergies.

There is now a whole market for SLS/SLES free products. They are becoming cheaper to buy as the surfactants they use are getting produced in larger quantities. But it would be much simpler for big manufacturers to dump this ingredient in favor of more skin friendly alternatives.

A good budget alternative is CeraVe Foaming Cleanser. It's a very effective and gentle cleanser, and I love the fact that CeraVe have included not only many gentler alternatives to SLS/SLES, but they have used known gentle cleansing ingredients instead. They've also included some generally higher end ingredients like hyaluronic acid and niacinamide to boost the skin benefits of this budget end cleansing option. I've personally switched to using this one daily as part of my skincare routine and I can genuinely report that it performs just as well as some of the higher priced alternatives available on the market. Coming in at only £10 for 100ml, it's a great budget replacement for those harsher options using cheap cleansing ingredients. It's also fragrance-free, so it's perfect for sensitive skins or people with sensitivities to many other perfumed alternatives.

Another very good cleansing option that I can highly recommend in the affordable category comes from Paula's Choice Skincare.

Paula's Choice - Clear Cleanser is a gentle, yet incredibly effective cleanser is worth the extra money for the additional, clean-skin feel that you will get after using it. The ingredients list is a incredibly effective formula, designed to gently wash away skin impurities, whilst also respecting the natural skin microbiome. Even better for sustainability is the fact that you can order a refill pouch containing 335ml of cleanser. Designed to refill the standard 177ml bottle twice over and using 70% less packaging that buying two separate bottles. It's also packed with glycerin (remember this ingredient from my traditional soap example above) and also contains Panthenol or Vitamin B5, which is a super skin strengthening ingredient.

Last but certainly not least, is an option in the Premium price range which comes from Dermalogica and is an equal type of formulation to all of the ones from the other brands I have mentioned above. For fairness, I have tried to compare a basic entry-level cleanser from each of the brands.

Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel is Dermalogica's original, and still the best - in my opinion clear foaming cleanser. It's gentle formulation contains very gentle cleansing ingredients, but also includes many skin conditioning ingredients and also a few essential oil additions (balm mint and lavender) to help calm and soothe skin whilst cleansing. It also helps the product smell amazing while it's being used. I've used this product, both personally and professionally in my clinic for many years. It really is a well formulated and well tolerated cleanser and has always been a client favorite. Another really cool and often over-looked fact is that if you're a man looking for a dual purpose cleanser, this cleanser can also be used as a shaving gel. Saving you having to carry around or purchase two-separate bathroom staples.

So now I've given you an idea of how skin cleansing works and recommended some great options of cleanser choices no matter what your budget might be. Just try to stay away from those harsh cheap cleansers that are packed with SLS - Sodium Lauryl Sulfate.

^* The content provided on this webpage reflects the personal opinions and perspectives of the author. These views are subjective and do not necessarily represent the opinions, beliefs, or endorsements of any organization, group, or third party. The author acknowledges the diversity of perspectives and encourages readers to form their own informed opinions. The information presented here is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently and make their own decisions based on their judgment. The author is not liable for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the content and assumes no responsibility for the consequences of any actions taken based on the information provided.