Skin Cleansing

Skin cleansing is a very important part of personal hygiene. Skin cleansing means removal of dirt, grime and grease from the upper layer of skin. A layer of dead cells also gets accumulated over the skin surface as a result of routine skin rejuvenation process. If all these debris accumulated over the skin is not cleansed, it results in clogging of skin pores. A routine and thorough skin cleansing is required to keep the skin healthy and to have a blemish free complexion.

Furthermore, exposed parts of our body like face and hands are prone to damage from sunrays and pollution. Skin becomes discolored, pigmented and prematurely wrinkled. Skin cleansing is vital to avoid these problems.

Benefits of Skin Cleansing:

Skin cleansing is vital for health and beauty routine. It helps remove the particles of dust, makeup, perspiration, dirt and oil. It also helps in loosening the blackheads and clogging of skin by collection of dead skin cells. Skin cleansing helps to hydrate the dry parched skin and in case of oily skin, it removes the excess of oil, secreted from the oil glands.

Skin cleansing helps to kill bacteria which try to infect the skin. It helps to keep the skin pores open so that skin can breathe easily. So it is unavoidably important to cleanse the skin twice a day at minimum.

How to choose skin cleanser?

You should choose a skin cleanser according to your skin type. Ordinary soap is advised for skin cleansing for many skin types. Soap bars are harsh for skin due to their alkaline nature. Skin cleanser should be such which does not disturb the acid/ alkali balance of the skin. You can have various types of skin cleansers to choose from. It can be in the form of milk, lotion, gel, cream or liquid. All the cleansers are a mixture of water, oil and surfactant, mixed in different ratios to suit skin types.

If you have oily and greasy skin, you can choose a foaming wash as it removes excess oil produced on your skin, without stripping the skin of nourishing oils.

For dry skin, you can choose a cleansing milk or creamy cleanser. Dry skin feels tightness after washing which is overcome by the right balance of moisturizer and oil present in the milky cleansers.

Combination skin needs some kind of gentle cleanser which cleanses oily t-zone thoroughly without making the dry cheeks drier. You can rely on gel-based skin cleansers for this special kind of skin. Gel cleansers do not leave drying effect on the skin even after cleansing the skin properly.

If you have a matured skin, you should protect it from unnecessary dryness. Make use of creamy cleansers or rich cleansing milks. These cleansers, besides skin cleansing, nourishes the skin and replace the moisture lost. They leave a creamy layer even after rinsing off.

Another factor you should consider while choosing the skin cleanser, is the weather condition. In summers, when there is lot of perspiration and oil glands become more active, you need a bit stronger skin cleanser. While in winters, you need a gentler skin cleanser to combat the dryness caused by the dry winds

How to achieve effective skin cleansing?

For an effective skin cleansing routine, first you have to determine the type of your skin. If you have oily skin, you need to pay more attention to skin cleansing. Oily skin attracts more dirt and it mixes with oil to make grease. Oily skin has more open pores; it is prone to bacterial infections. Pores get clogged with oil and dirt and make the skin dull and infection prone.

For normal skin, cleansing twice a day is quite sufficient but for oily skin you need more frequent cleansing. But over cleansing is also not recommended as over washing removes the natural oils from skin and stimulates the oil glands to produce more oil. For extremely dry skin, cleansing once a day is quite sufficient; you can cleans your skin at night.

Steps for Skin Cleansing:

First step towards skin cleansing is to wash your hands as dirty hands can spread any kind of infection through bacteria. Take cleanser on your palm and apply on your face with the help of fingers in light gentle patting movements. Movements should be in upward and outward direction. This kind of movement prevents the sagging of skin.

Now leave the cleanser on your skin for few minutes to let it dissolve and absorb the dirt and grime. Take a clean cotton ball and wipe all the cleanser and dirt mixture over the skin. Rinse it off with cold water but not too cold.

Any kind of skin cleansing should be followed by toning and moisturizing.