All skin benefits from a gentle facial cleanser. I realize that a gentle cleanser might sound boring and weak yet I promise you that it is not. It keeps our skin’s natural barrier function strong. We need a strong barrier function to keep germs and viruses out and to maintain calm moist skin that ages more slowly.
To understand why using a gentle cleanser is ideal we must first know what our skin’s natural barrier function is and why it is worth not annihilating through the use of harsh cleansers.
What Is A Gentle Cleanser?
The right goal of a cleanser is to remove makeup, sunscreen, excess oil, dirt, and pollutants without deactivating our precious acid mantle. When we are resourcing our skin with the right skin routine any excess bacteria, excess oil, or excess skin cells are truly not a problem. They are mere symptoms. After using a gentle and clean cleanser your skin should not be irritated and it should NOT BE squeaky clean. Squeaky clean means you have stripped away the acid mantle.
Benefits Of Gentle Cleansing
Rather than chase these symptoms a temporary skin detox is often needed to return our skin to its natural inborn self-purifying state. This is where skin care gets exciting because we can finally correct our skin’s dysfunction at the root, reversing these symptoms, and creating permanent skin changes that serve our skin our entire lifetime. Transformation becomes the norm when the right skin care practices are combined with dietary changes. We can reverse acne, sun sensitivity, premature aging, and possible precursor lesions through The Regenerative Skin Process.
- Qualify your skin to begin The Regenerative Skin Process as step one is to halt the use of harsh cleansers and adopt a gentle cleanser.
- Preserve your skin acid mantle and skin barrier function.
- Prevent irritation and inflammation.
- Supporting balanced oil production as stripping it will trigger an overproduction within our sebaceous gland taking it away from its inborn genetic setting.
- Prevents proliferation of nonbeneficial bacteria.
- Prevents accelerated aging due to sun-sensitivity.
- Prevents wrinkles by discouraging water loss and skin dehydration.
- Prevent harmful bacteria and viruses from entering our body.
What Is Our Skin’s Natural Barrier?
Our natural barrier function is our skin’s invisible microbiome that is dependent on our skin’s acid mantle. Acid mantle, natural barrier function, and surface skin microbiome are all essentially the same thing and non negotiable to skin health. A gentle cleanser makes sure that all of this stays intact and functional for your skin.
What Harsh Cleansers Do To Our Skin Barrier
Tragically, the use of conventional anti-aging and acne cleansers will remove our skin’s acid mantle and shut down the natural barrier function. This is not gentle cleansing. Old information is still circulating about acids, astringents, and disinfectants, being necessary to destroy our skin’s alleged worst enemy, that of our sebaceous glands and its oil. However, these ingredients only perpetuate more oil and bacteria, and accelerated aging by sabotaging the right function of our sebaceous glands. It turns out that our sebaceous glands and oil are our skin’s best friend when supported properly. When our natural oil suffers blocked passage to the surface of our skin it begins to form subsurface micro cluster obstructions. Our skin’s true enemy is actually ourselves and old beliefs that perpetuate the use of harsh cleansers.
Myths About Gentle Cleansing
Myth #1: Gentle Cleansers Don’t Clean Effectively
Many believe that gentle cleansers aren’t powerful enough to remove dirt and makeup.
Myth #2: Gentle Cleansers Are Only for Sensitive Skin
Although gentle cleansers are a must for sensitive skin, they are beneficial to all skin types.
Myth #3: You Need Harsh Ingredients to Control Acne
A gentle cleanser will balance oil production and suppress the root cause of bad bacteria overgrowth which is essential for acne-inflicted skin.
Myth #4: Only Creamy Cleansers Are Gentle
While creamy cleansers are sometimes gentle, this is not always the case. Harsh glycolic, lactic, salicylic acid, and astringent essential oils can be found in any cleanser type.
Myth #5: Gentle Cleansing Doesn’t Help with Anti-Aging
Gentle cleansers support anti-aging efforts in multiple ways. Use of a gentle cleanser will decrease overall inflammation and sun sensitivity while encouraging water content helping to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. It also encourages our skin’s native self-purifying function which prevents the build up of subsurface micro cluster obstructions. The presence of these obstructions play an enormous role as to how well or not our skin ages over time.
How To Incorporate Gentle Cleansing Into Your Skin Care Routine
Warm water cleansing is perfect in the mornings before we apply our skin products for the day. In fact, plain simple warm water cleansing is even perfect during the evening if makeup or sunscreen was not applied. However, when we do have either makeup or sunscreen then a gentle facial cleanser such as Clear is needed with warm water to remove it. As established, we do not want to remove our skin’s natural acid mantle.
Follow Up With The Rest Of Your Skin Care Routine
Once you’ve cleansed, rinsed, and promptly dried your skin your skin is primed to absorb the benefits of your skin care products. Apply a Skin Harmonics serum such as Balance, Fortify, or Feast to optimize hydration. Follow up with a dense barrier supporting butter such as Lamina, Unity, or Nomad.
Embrace The Benefits Of Gentle Cleansing For Healthier Skin
Steer clear of dirty cleansers that contain these ingredients: glycolic, lactic, salicylic acid, most essential oils, witch hazel, benzoyl peroxide, alcohol, fragrances, dyes, and synthetic preservatives.
We have to pay for clean ingredients until the default automatically becomes this way. Synthetic and filler ingredients flood the shelves because they are tolerated by consumers reflecting the low priority of our collective values.
Embracing a clean and gentle cleansing with a minimalist ingredient list is the first of several steps toward achieving clear and slow to age skin. True health is never boring.