My golden skincare rule is that your face is like a work of art. Before you start creating, you need a beautifully clean canvas. If the canvas is flawed, it will show in your art through lumps or bumps in the painting. Perhaps even a stray brush bristle. Similarly, if your skin is not a clean canvas before you apply makeup or your treatments, this will show in your skin.
Before applying anything else, we must ensure our pores are clean and our skin is refreshed. Applying makeup to gritty skin sets the course for bad breakouts and irritations. We also want to refrain from indulging in our luxury masks or rich nighttime moisturizers if we apply these to dirty skin. This will lock in all the baddies overnight, which will take this opportunity to bed down and fester. Apologies for the grizzly analogy.
Cleansing has become a heated debate in the skincare industry. This is primarily due to the culture of following social media trends on how to treat our skin. This has led to an over-cleansing and over-exfoliation pandemic. If you have sensitive, dry skin like me, you know that over-cleansing is the first huge no-no in your skincare routine. Yes, we want to ensure our skin is clean, but this does not mean we must scrub it bare.
So what to do? This is where double cleansing changed the skincare game for me. It really changed the look and feel of my skin; I have fewer breakouts, and if you choose the right products, your skin’s natural balance is not upset.
Before deep diving into double cleansing, I must preface it with an important point. I cannot wash my face with a cleanser twice a day. Many people prefer to cleanse in the morning and in the evening. This is too much for my skin, and frankly, with my double cleanse in the evenings, I don’t feel I need extra soapy assistance in the mornings. My morning routine involves rinsing or “waking up” my skin with a nice splash of clean water. I follow that up with my Nurture the Goddess Antioxidant Enriched Day Cream and my favorite Heliocare Sunscreen.
That being explained – let’s take a look at my evening routine that involves a double cleanse.
What is double cleansing?
Let’s just think about this for a second. Most gel cleansers we love, especially my fellow sensitive souls with dry skin woes, are water-based. Remember high school chemistry? Think about what oil does when added to water. It separates itself from the water, quickly finding its buddies and clumping together with the other oil friends. While a water-based cleanser is excellent at removing remaining surface grime and oily residue, it’s not endowed with the superpowers of deep cleansing the stubborn build-up stuck inside the pores.
When we correctly double cleanse, we remove the deep-set grime from the day and any remaining surface dirt that may still be leftover from the first wash. Think about the “sticky eye” mornings when you notice mascara leftover from last night, even though you were sure you cleaned it all. One cleanse simply cannot magically rinse away everything. Similarly, one type of cleanser cannot do both. While oil attracts oil, which we want for a deeper cleanse and tougher grime-like eye makeup, we don’t want to leave an oily layer on our skin after cleansing. We need an additional foam or gel cleanser to clear the oil left over on the surface of the skin and any remaining dirt our oil buddy left behind.
Double cleansing removes all traces of impurities left over from the day, making your follow-up products work as effectively as possible. Double cleansing can help your other products penetrate your skin better and help you achieve radiant and glowing skin.
How to Double Cleanse
First, we need to remove all the oil-based purities from our skin. Referring to our chemistry lessons again, we want the oil to attract the oil. That is why we typically use an oil or balm-based cleanser for our first cleanse, which will draw out oily impurities and allow you to remove even the toughest dirt. The FIGGI Purify the Goddess Makeup Dissolving Balm-to-Oil does precisely this while leaving your skin soft and silky.
After doing the first cleanse, we must ensure we got it all. The second step is a gel or foam-based cleanser that removes surface dirt. It removes the remaining surface oil from your first cleanse and all leftover traces of grime, makeup, and SPF. The FIGGI Refresh the Goddess Gentle Gel Cleanser was specifically formulated for this purpose.
An important word of caution here: Rapid washes will not give you the desired results. Cleansing should be a moment in your day when you take 2 minutes for dedicated self-care. Enjoy the massaging effect of gently cleansing your skin with your fingertips moving in a circular motion. Don’t be afraid to get in there and apply a little pressure. Obviously, no tugging or pulling. You should ideally aim to cleanse for 40-60 seconds per cleanse.
Why is FIGGI Double Cleanse unique?
It can be challenging to find the perfect double cleanse from the array of confusing products out there. If you have dry and sensitive skin, this challenge is intensified. FIGGI’s Sensi-Soul Regimen includes a Double Cleanse Duo to soothe your skin and clean it beautifully without stripping its natural oils. It was specifically formulated with the double cleanse ritual in mind, and we worked hard to ensure the products perfectly compliment each other in the different cleansing steps. Purify the Goddess gently attracts all your oil build-up. Refresh the Goddess, then cleanses all remaining traces of dirt and oil. We formulated the textures to ensure these two products complement each other in this double ritual.
The right products are essential for sensitive, dry skin. Foam cleansers, for example, tend to have harsher cleansing agents. Therefore, you can imagine what even one cleanse with this would mean for your delicate skin. Choose an oil or balm-based cleanser and a gel cleanser that not only cleanses but loves and nurtures your skin.
The Takeaway
The first big game changer for my skin was when I stopped morning cleansing. My skin was less sensitive to touch, red, and itchy. The next was the double cleanse in the evening. I really saw an improvement in two main areas. First, I noticed a lot fewer blemishes and breakouts. Second, I saw a marked difference in how other products, like moisturizers and serums, influenced my skin. Like my skin was better able to absorb all its goodness and radiate a glow afterward.
Do you double cleanse? Comment below.
Love and Light
Jeanne
