I can’t tell you how many people get the most crucial step of looking after the skin wrong. Yes, serums are great, moisturisers are nourishing, sun screen is important, but the initial, and most fundamental, step to looking after your skin is keeping it clean.
Many clients love foamy, gel cleansers – and while these are great – you don’t want your skin to squeak after you’ve washed it.
Oil is a fundamental part of the structure of your skin. If you remove too much oil when you wash your face, then your skin compensates, by making more! And so you can start a vicious cycle of excess oil production that spirals out of control. Over washing also removes moisture (water) from your skin, so you can land up with a dehydrated (lacks water) and oily (has too much oil) skin – which a difficult situation to manage on your own.
Excess oil traps dirt and bacteria, leads to congestion, breakouts and aggravation.
When you clean your face, you’re not trying to strip all the oil, you’re trying to clean your face off what is does not need. So you’re taking off skincare products, sunscreen, makeup, dirt and dust, pollution, sweat, excess oil and dead skin cells that get trapped by these things that sit on your skin.
So, to remove all this safely, and to not remove too much oil, you can either use only a Smitten if you have very young skin that needs fewer to no chemicals to keep it clean – or, as you get older, a Smitten and a cleanser that is appropriate for your skin type and condition.
Often clients don’t feel that a gentle cleanser cleans their skin enough, so having the combination of a Smitten to lift off the dirt, products, make up and dead skin cells, and not the oil, and then a cleanser to clean the now-available pores without removing to much oil, works wonders. And the rest of your skin routine will start to fall into place.