Is cleansing your skin important?

Yes, your cleansing routine is essential in terms of how your skin looks and feels. There are many advantages of cleansing your skin, but the skin needs to be cleansed with respect to its natural functions. We will explain what that entails in this article…

The advantages of cleansing the skin are numerous

Cleansing the skin is one of the most important tasks to do in order to get a well-balanced, cared-for skin. We recommend cleansing the skin thoroughly every evening – despite what skin type you have. 

On the other hand, a light cleanse with micellar water, a wash cloth or a Konjac sponge in the shower in the morning, will be a beneficial way of cleansing after a regenerative night's sleep. 

Would you like to know what cleansing products fit your skin’s needs?

Read the article ‘Which cleansing product should I chose?’” here

Karmameju recommends

- Cleansing your skin can be a time-out in everyday life with a focus on to DO YOU: To prioritise the important self-love. 

- When we prioritise ourselves it lifts up our self-worth. It is an extra bonus when the confidence gets boosted while the skin enhances, too. 

- Cleanse your skin to remove dirt, pollution, remnants of product and makeup, excess sebum and dead skin cells etc.

- When cleansing, you stimulate the skin’s activity. Feel free to spend some more time giving yourself a facial massage, working deeper below the surface. In this way, you stimulate the underlying connective tissue and can achieve a more supple, “juicy” tissue, along releasing tension and blockages in the skin. 

- When we cleanse the skin, and thereafter apply a nutrition-packed and stimulating skincare, the skin gets the nutrients which work to ensure optimal care. Evening cleansing is especially important as the skin regenerates while we sleep. 

- Try and make cleansing a little ritual – make it something you care about. With a good cup of tea, music on the stereo and stimulating scents, you will quickly turn a duty into a loving hour. It feels so rewarding afterwards.

Cleanse with respect to the skin’s natural functions

The skin has a natural protective barrier which consists of the skin’s own moisturising oil, also called sebum, along with sweat, bacteria, dead skin cells and other secretion from the skin’s microscopical pores.

This barrier is called the acid mantle and is a part of the skin’s immune system. It keeps onto the skin’s vital bacterial flora and protects the skin against inflammation, damaging from free radicals and dry out. 

When cleansing your skin, you need to clean it with respect to your skin’s acid mantle.

This you can do by: 
- Use the cleansing product which matches your skin’s needs. 
- Avoid washing the skin too often with water – especially warm water and soapy cleansing products. NOW micellar foam is a gentle and soap-free cleansing product for combination/oily skin and can be used for a weekly cleanse for all skintypes.

- Use a wash cloth instead of product in the morning for a light cleanse. Cleansing with a wash cloth even has lightly exfoliating properties. 
- Help the skin in balance after cleansing with oil-rich and moisturising skincare, which compensates for the part of the skin’s protective sebum, which was removed during cleansing.

It is in the cleansing routine that many skin problems have their origin

If the skin gets cleansed too often and with too hot water, or cleansed with a facial cleanser which is too astringent, it can result in the natural barrier being broken down, or that the skin’s pH balance is thrown off. If this happens daily or for a period of time where the skin gets stressed, it will come off as becoming dry and tight on the surface, oilier and/ or clog. An indicator can be that it feels like your skin is tightening, or it can be a stingy, scratchy sensation, as if your skin is a size too small shortly after cleansing. That is not the way it is supposed to feel…

A well-intentioned and thorough facial cleanse can end up throwing off the balance in the skin and give you the opposite result of what you want. This is why many skin problems occur in the cleansing routine.

Help the skin perform its best

The skin can do a lot of the important cleansing work on its own, but facial cleansing is a necessity for our skin’s best well-being, glow and regeneration in everyday life, where we use makeup, sunscreen and are exposed to pollution and bacteria. We recommend cleansing the skin to remove product remnants, dead skin cells, unwelcomed bacteria, pollution and dirt which can clog the pores and potentially harm our cell-DNA. Yet most skin problems cannot be cleansed from the outside alone. The appearance of the skin is undeniably connected to our digestive system and the complex hormones in the body. If there is any unbalance in the body, it will often appear on the skin in the face. Therefore, we always recommend viewing your skin with holistic and curious eyes to find the root of the problems, or whatever needs your skin may have. 

We call it ‘check in with your skin’. A holistic approach to beauty.
- Because you and your body know best.

Would you like to know which cleansing products that fit your skin?
You can achieve good, fundamental results with your skin by considering the way you cleanse your skin, giving thought to your skin’s changing needs along the seasonal changes and in the way you and your body changes. It is not certain that the same cleansing product is suitable for your skin all 365 days a year. 

Read more in the article ”Which cleansing product should I choose?” here 

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All the best,

Christina Düsterdich, skincare expert and product developer at Karmameju