The issue of facial skin cleansing is relevant, but not every woman can afford to spend money on an expensive salon procedure. Proper cleansing of the skin at home gives no less positive effect.
Through home facial cleansing, you can remove the outer dead layer of skin, free pores from dirt and fat accumulations, and prevent inflammatory formations.
Why you need to cleanse your skin
Simply washing your face is not a sufficient measure to get rid of the sebaceous film and deep-seated comedones. In the pores that have accumulated sebum, dust and dirt particles, an inflammatory reaction begins, causing acne.
You can completely cleanse your pores with a deep facial cleansing at home. The procedure is needed to:
- prevent the penetration of pathogenic microorganisms into skin tissue;
- improve blood circulation in subcutaneous capillaries;
- strengthen vascular walls;
- cleanse pores intensively but without damage;
- extinguish inflammation;
- strengthen the protective function of skin cells;
- make skin fresh and healthy.
Dermatologists advise facial cleansing at home not only for therapeutic purposes, but also for preventive purposes. This will reduce the negative impact of dust, decorative cosmetics and other irritating factors on the delicate skin of the face.
Expert opinion
Anastasia Zaslavskaya
Dermatologist, cosmetologist
In order not to cause harm to the skin instead of benefit, you should know how to properly cleanse your face every day, what step-by-step actions to follow, what medications to use.
Rules for conducting procedures
Cleanliness should be observed when cleansing the skin so as not to harm it.
Job requirements:
- The face must be washed thoroughly and free of fat.
- When cleaning, you should use instruments that have been sterilized.
- Hands should be washed with soap to avoid infection.
- It is worth refusing to cleanse if there are inflammatory processes on the face.
- If there are skin diseases, they need to be cured, only after that cleansing is carried out.
- After cleansing your face, apply a soothing cream to your skin.
If a rash is found on the skin, you should postpone the procedure so as not to spread the infection further. Cleansing can be done after the rash has completely disappeared.
You can wipe your face with acid during rashes and inflammations. After the rash goes away. The deep cleansing routine should be resumed to prevent further acne.
Methods for cleansing your face at home
By purchasing the necessary cosmetics and equipment, you can perform facial cleansing that is as effective as a salon procedure. The following types of facial cleansing at home are available:
- Quick skin cleansing, involving the use of one or more skincare products. You can combine, for example, micellar water and foam, milk and gel. After using any cleansing cosmetic product, moisturize the skin with cream.
- Deep cleaning, which uses more active agents: scrubs, peelings, exfoliating and anti-inflammatory masks. Women with oily skin can cleanse their face at home once a week, with dry and sensitive skin – once a month, and for the lucky owners of normal skin, it is enough to cleanse their face 2 times a month.
- Morning and evening wash, related to daily cleansing of the facial skin. Without this basic procedure, other types of cleaning will be useless. Washing your face in the morning wakes up and tones the skin, preparing it for applying makeup. To enhance the tonic effect, it is advisable to prepare ice from purified water or herbal infusions and wash it in the morning. Evening washing is necessary to remove residual makeup, moisturize and relax the skin.
- Manual cleaning is an effective, but painful and traumatic method of care. When squeezing comedones and pimples with your fingers, there is a high probability of infection and leaving scars. Dermatologists advise doing manual facial cleansing from a specialist in a beauty salon. How to properly cleanse your face to reduce the likelihood of negative consequences: use instruments treated with antiseptics (Uno spoon, Vidal loop), after the procedure, be sure to apply a soothing mask to it.
- Acid peeling is a gentle cleansing option that uses fruit acids. Skin tissue is not damaged, as with manual and chemical exposure. Metabolism and skin respiration improve, regeneration processes accelerate. To thoroughly and effectively clean your facial skin with a peeling preparation at home, you need to apply it to skin freed from cosmetics, rub in with massage movements, hold for the time specified in the instructions, and remove. After treatment, it is advisable to apply a cloth moistened with cold water for 10 minutes. Then treat with lotion and apply cream.
- Enzyme peeling is the most gentle option, suitable for any skin type. Accelerates the restoration of skin tissue, normalizes blood circulation, and removes comedones. A large number of enzyme preparations are produced; products from Israel (Renew Enzyme Exfoliator, GIGI Enzymatic Peeling Gel) and France (Algologie Purifying Enzyme Peel Mask) are considered to be of high quality. To cleanse the facial skin, the following steps are performed: peeling is applied in a loose layer, rubbed in with gentle massaging movements, left for the time specified in the instructions, and washed off with warm water.
- The Hollywood way to cleanse your face yourself. A 5% calcium chloride solution is used as peeling. The substance is sold in pharmacies in ampoule form. You also need to purchase baby soap that does not contain dyes or fragrances. The sequence of proper cleansing of the facial skin: the ampoule is opened, a cotton pad is moistened with the solution, and a dry, makeup-free face is wiped with it; after the product has dried, the procedure is repeated 2 times; The cotton pad is soaped and the skin is carefully treated. Flaky lumps should appear. They roll down the massage lines. Finally, the face is washed with purified water and a moisturizer is applied. The Hollywood method is optimal for oily and combination skin, but not suitable for dry and sensitive skin.
- Steam baths are a good option to cleanse the skin of the face, improve blood circulation, and open clogged pores. If it is dry, then it is advisable to arrange baths once a week; if it is oily, then the procedure is carried out at least daily. How to properly clean your face with steam at home: you need to heat water in a large bowl, bend over it for 15-20 minutes, cover your head with a towel. You should not lean close to boiling water, as the steam can burn you and cause capillaries to burst. To enhance the therapeutic effect, you can use decoctions of thyme, chamomile, lavender and other medicinal plants instead of water. The procedure is contraindicated in case of purulent skin lesions and dilation of blood vessels.
Home hardware methods
Using portable versions of devices used in beauty salons, you can effectively clean your face at home. It is easy to order and buy a vacuum or ultrasonic device; the cost can be both high and low, depending on the brand and configuration.
There are different ways to clean your face using the hardware method at home. Cleaning applied:
- Vacuum. Description of the procedure: a steamed, moisturized, clean face is treated with a device in the form of a tube, inside of which a vacuum is created, under pressure, dirt and fat accumulations are drawn out of the skin pores. After treatment, a moisturizer is applied, but before that you can wipe the skin with a piece of ice to relieve swelling and close the pores.
- Ultrasonic. To cleanse your facial skin with ultrasound at home, you will need a portable ultrasound machine and a conductive gel. Procedure: the face is cleaned and treated with an antiseptic, a gel is applied to it; treatment with an ultrasound device is carried out along massage lines for 10 minutes; After the procedure, the gel is washed off and wiped with tonic.
- Combined, which is a complex with several stages of skin cleansing. It is required to purchase an ultrasound machine and peeling preparations. Cleaning is done step by step as follows: enzyme or acid peeling is applied to cleansed skin; processing is carried out by an ultrasound device; the remaining comedones are squeezed out manually. After cleansing, the face is treated with tonic and cream. Combined facial cleansing is good because the pores are cleaned deeply, but the epidermis is almost not injured and is quickly restored.
Care after cleaning
It is advisable to lubricate microtraumas that appear on the skin after cleansing with iodine, otherwise inflammatory formations may appear in their place.
Rules of care:
- The first few days after the procedure, the epidermis is restored, so you should not expose it to sudden temperature fluctuations and direct exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Before going outside in sunny weather, it is recommended to use a cream with UV protection.
- It is advisable to wash your face with purified or mineral still water, and wipe with an alcohol-free tonic.
- Don't touch your face with your hands again.
How can you maintain the resulting effect for a long time: regularly make masks to tighten pores, use powder as little as possible, and minimize the use of foundation.
If your skin is peeling, you need to increase your daily dose of moisturizer.
Contraindications
You should not carry out deep cleaning if you have chronic inflammatory damage to the sebaceous glands. This may manifest as acne vulgaris or pustular acne.
In addition, the main contraindications include the following :
- any types of dermatitis;
- fungal skin diseases;
- rosacea;
- rosacea;
- demodicosis;
- eczema;
- psoriasis;
- pustular or other skin rashes.
Skin cleansing cosmetics
Do facial cleansing in stages. Stages of complete daily facial cleansing:
- removing makeup, washing with a cleanser;
- steaming;
- removing blackheads using any of the described methods;
- moisturizing with a mask or cream.
The arsenal of facial cosmetics is large. In order to properly cleanse the skin of the face every day, preparations are selected taking into account the type of skin:
- For oily skin, foams, mousses, and alcohol-free toners are optimal. Scrubs are used to intensively cleanse the face.
- For dry skin, milk, homogeneous and emulsion oil formulations are used. They easily and delicately cleanse, saturate the skin tissue with vitamins, and moisturize.
- Almost all cleansers are suitable for normal skin: gels, milks, foams, micellar water, lotions based on medicinal herbs.
- For combination skin, gels, foams, and milks are optimal.
To cleanse your face at home, you need to buy only high-quality products from well-known manufacturers. The composition should not contain harmful compounds: gluten, glycols, animal components.
Scrubs
We should also talk about scrubs and how to properly cleanse the skin with them. A huge number of cleansing products from different manufacturers are sold in stores. With such variety, it's easy to get confused.
The best store-bought cleaning products:
- L'Oreal Pure Zone Absolute purity 7 in 1;
- Garnier Skin Naturals Clear Skin Active;
- La Roche-Posay Physiological Ultra-Fine Scrub;
- Kiehl's Pineapple Papaya Facial Scrub;
- Lancôme Exfoliance Confort.
A high-quality scrub can be made from products available in the kitchen. For deep facial cleansing at home, the following recipes are offered:
- Soda scrub is a simple and common way to cleanse your facial skin at home. Mix soda and salt one tablespoon at a time. The mixture is poured with kefir until it reaches a mushy consistency.
- Coffee. A tablespoon of natural yogurt is poured into the coffee grounds.
- Salt for oily skin. A mixture is made from a teaspoon of fine salt and the same amount of vegetable oil.
- Aspirin for problem skin. 4 tablets are ground into powder, filled with a tablespoon of water. Natural honey is added to the mixture.
- Charcoal for blackheads. 10 tablets of activated carbon are crushed into powder and filled with a teaspoon of water.
- Clay. Mix half a teaspoon of coconut flakes, the same amount of green clay and crushed oatmeal. Water is added to the mixture until a creamy mass is formed.
- With bodyaga for inflammation and excess pigmentation. Powdered bodyaga and 3% hydrogen peroxide are mixed until a paste is formed.
It is treated with a scrub and massaged with light massaging movements for 2-3 minutes. The product is washed off with lukewarm water.
You can also take care of it at home using folk remedies with good results:
- any vegetable oil;
- sour milk or sour cream;
- bran and oatmeal;
- corn flour.
Recipes for enlarged pores
Recipe 1. Grind one raw potato and tomato into porridge. Add half a teaspoon of olive oil. Apply the mixture to your face for half an hour. Rinse with water. Recipe 2. Beat the white of one egg with a mixer until foam forms. Mixed with fresh berry juice in a 1:1 ratio. The composition is applied to the skin for a quarter of an hour.
Recipe 3. Mix aloe juice, strongly brewed green tea and water in a ratio of 1:1:1, add clay to a cream consistency. Apply to face until completely dry (10-15 minutes).
