Cleansing the Face
The Most Important Part Of Cleansing The Face Is Using Water. Here are the reasons why:
- Water is abundant. As a natural resource it is 75%of our environment, which makes water the most inexpensive item you can use on the face.
- Water is an integral part of the human system. Human beings are about 70% water, which makes water compatible to everyone’s skin.
- Water is GENTLE. But water is not automatically gentle. Water is only gentle when it is tepid. Hot water burns the skin and cold water will shock it. If the goal is to be gentle (and it is) then tepid water is essential.
- Water is frictionless. When you splash the face with water you can then glide your hands over the face, preventing pulling on the skin. That means that makeup can be removed without tugging on the face. This can prevent irritation and reduce some amount of premature aging. Constantly wiping, tugging and pulling on the skin stretches out some of the skins inherent elasticity. Like a rubber band it can only take so much pulling till it won’t snap back anymore.
As essential as water is to any cleaning routine, water alone is not enough. Water by itself will not remove the oil from the skin or all of your client’s makeup. Even when the makeup is predominantly water soluble, it is rarely 100% water soluble, especially when combined with your client’s own natural oil, or her favourite moisturiser. To thoroughly clean the face you will need to use something along with the water that will cut through the makeup and the oil but at the same time be gentle and glide over the skin.
Find a Good Water-Soluble Cleanser
A good water-soluble cleanser is a terrific invention. It is a cross between a shampoo and a cold crème. What differentiates a good cleanser from a poor one is one that washes off the makeup without leaving the face dry (like soap) or greasy (like cold crème), contains no fragrance, colouring agents, abrasive particles and, most of all, is gentle to the skin. There are cleansers on the market that call themselves water soluble, but in actuality the instructions tell you to wipe the cleanser off with a wet wash cloth. Whether the cleanser is wiped off dry with a tissue or wet with a wash-cloth, that makes it anything but water-soluble. Water-soluble cleansers replace the need for cold crème type products that need to be wiped off the skin. They also eliminate the need for soap, which can dry and irritate the skin.
Water-soluble cleansers are truly a pleasure to use both personally and on your client’s face. Compare these two choices for cleansing: Imagine splashing the face with (tepid) water, then massaging a water soluble cleanser evenly over the face, including the eyes, and then rinsing it off with more water. That even sounds refreshing. It is much more preferable than spreading greasy oily crèmes over the face and then wiping and rewiping them off with tissues or cloths. Doesn’t that description feel messy and inconvenient to you? How do you think it feels to your client?
Summary
Water-soluble cleansers are a gentle, efficient way to remove makeup. Everything is done at the sink. Even a heavy makeup wearer can take off all her makeup this way. Using a water-soluble cleanser eliminates the need for a separate eye-makeup remover, or boxes of tissues to clean your face.
Recommended Products
Cetaphil Lotion by Owen Laboratories.
Why Cetaphil? It is fragrance free, has no colouring agents, it is relatively inexpensive, remarkably gentle and it removes all the makeup including eye makeup. It can be purchased at most chemists.