8 Steps to Do a Facial Clean Up At Home

How to clean your face at home properly and without damaging your skin.

Clean face is the very first and very important step to achieving clear, glowing skin.   When we clean our face, especially at the end of the day, we remove make up residue, sweat, oil, dirt, environmental pollutants (dust, smog) and other impurities from our skin.  We also remove bacteria and irritants from the skin that might cause acne, blackheads, redness and skin inflammation.

We also give our skin ability to “breath” and recover from all the products we apply through the day.

As you probably guessed, a proper face clean up is very important for our skin. 

You best and the most thorough face clean up is called a facial cleansing.  This is when you go through many steps from cleaning and exfoliating and to overnight sleeping mask.  Please, read a very thorough blog post on How to do a facial at home.

However, you do not have to go through all the steps every day.  In fact, you should not be doing deep cleansing facial more than once a week.  Let me explain why.

How often should I cleanse my face?

As I mentioned, you should not be doing deep cleansing more, than 1 time per week.  Deep cleansing includes few steps: removing make up, cleaning face, exfoliating and peeling. 

As you can see, deep cleansing is quite intensive.  If you were to do it every day, they you would be running into risk damaging your skin outer layer.  In this case cleansing will result in serious side effect.

Our skin has protective lipid barrier that holds moisture in all skin levels and prevents it from evaporating (hence, prevents skin dehydration).  Also, this barrier protects our skin from environmental and other damages.

If we keep on scrubbing and peeling our face on a daily basis, we can easily damage that protective barrier.   This will lead to dry, dehydrated, flaky and irritated skin. 

Overuse of harsh skin care products can cause “sensitized skin”, where your skin acts as easily irritated sensitive skin, even though you do not have sensitive skin type.   To read more about difference between sensitive and sensitized skin, please, follow THIS LINK. 

To summarize:  Deep cleansing (facial) should be done 1 time per week.

Cleansing vs Cleaning face

Cleaning face means gently removing dirt, dust, and other build up. The key word is gently. There is no exfoliating and no use of strong products.

Cleansing face means cleaning + exfoliating (and sometimes peeling as well).

To summarize: we usually clean our face twice during the day: morning and evening. We should be cleansing our face once a week.

How do I do face clean up at home?

I would always advocate for double-cleansing method, because I really see the difference in my skin since I started using this method about 2 years ago.  My skin became less dry, less oily, more clear and moisturized.

Double-cleansing method idea is quite simple: you wash your face with oil-based cleanser and then you follow up with water-based cleanser.  Pleaser, follow THIS LINK to read about this method in details.

Double-cleansing method is a two-step face cleaning method, so it is somewhat intensive, so it is best to do it at the end of the day.

I would not advise this method for a regular morning routine unless you feel that your skin really needs good cleaning.

I personally rinse my face gently with warm water in the morning and that is it.

There are few reasons why I do not vigorously clean my face in the morning.

o   I already cleaned my face very well before bed time.  So, all that is left on my skin in the morning is just night care products.  I can easily wash them off with warm water.

o   I am trying to avoid extra rubbing and scrubbing when I do not have to.  By doing so, I am not disturbing my outer lipid-barrier skin layer.

o   Also extra rubbing and scrubbing might cause irritation and redness, especially for people with dry and sensitive skin.

To summarize: you should do face cleaning at least 2 times a day.  In the morning just gently rinse your skin with warm water.  Use double-cleansing method in the evening.

Is it better to wash your face in cold or hot water?

This is a very important question because water temperature does matter for your skin.

You probably heard a saying that cold water “closes” pores.  This is a total myth: our pores do not have muscles that can “close” or “open”.    Icy cold water will dry your skin further and will make sensitive skin more dry and irritated.

Hot water is also harmful for your skin.  Hot water can really damager your outer protective skin barrier, stripping off natural skin oils,  and make your skin extra dry and sensitive.  If your skin is initially dry and sensitive type, then it might become extra red, irritated, inflamed with dry skin patches.   It is also bad for oily skin – when hot water causes dry skin, your skin will start producing extra skin oil to compensate.  And this will result in your already oily skin to become even oilier and shinier. 

You should wash your face with lukewarm water that is very comfortable for your skin.  Use gentle strokes when cleaning your face face and avoid harsh rubbing and vigorous drying with a towel.

How can I get clear skin overnight?

This is a very common concern for almost anyone.  Especially if we have an important date or function booked for the next day.

If your skin has serious issues (like acne scars, new pimples), then let’s be honest – it will be hard to clear skin just in one night.  However, we can minimize the appearance of our skin imperfection with the right care.

How to do facial step by step:

1.       Cleanse your skin using double-cleansing method

2.       Gently exfoliate (I suggest doing it with peel off gel or clay mask)

3.       Use a gentle peel (fruit acid would be the best and gentle)

4.       Apply toner

5.       Apply serum or essence

6.       Apply spot treatment.  If you have freshly bloomed acne or pimple, I strongly recommend using Tosowoong Vita powder.  This product has been saving me for over 2 years and I will be buying it forever (unless, of course, I come across something more powerful).  Please, follow this link to read about this amazing treatment.

7.       Apply moisturizer

8.       Apply overnight sleeping mask – sleeping masks are such a good way to give your skin boost of hydration and nutrition.  This will make your skin looking glowing and healthy the next day.  Remember, do not use sleeping packs more than 1-2 times a week.

Now you know the difference between cleansing and cleaning your face.  You can also do cleansing facial at home by yourself.  You can use very good store bought products and you do not really have to opt for the most expensive ones.  Just make sure that they are suitable for your skin type and do not contain harsh ingredients.

You can also do a facial cleaning with homemade products.

I would like to offer you a post about 11 powerful anti-aging ingredients that you can find in modern cosmetics. Determine what skin issue you would like to target (age spots, wrinkles, dull tone, dehydration and so on) and then look for products that contain appropriate ingredients that will transform your skin. 11 Powerful Anti-Aging Ingredients.