Facial Cleansing: Tips and Tricks for a Radiant Glow

Smog, buses and trains, make-up, and mouth and nose protection – our skin comes into contact with countless bacteria every day and deposits dirt that we can no longer get out of our pores with conventional facial cleansing. What helps here is regular facial cleansing.

Here we show you how you can easily cleanse your face at home and what you need to do it.

The most important facts in brief

Regular facial cleansing improves the skin’s appearance and promotes the skin cycle

You can go to a beauty therapist for cleansing or do it yourself at home

Doing it at home is easy and consists of just six steps

Cleansing the face: what you need

Even if the “cleansing” treatment sounds very medical, it doesn’t require much and can be carried out easily even by beginners. You probably already have most of the products you need in your bathroom cabinet.

Facial cleansing: CeraVe cleansing lotion

A good cleansing lotion is of course essential to cleanse the skin. You can simply use your favorite lotion here.

Our tip: Use cleansing lotions that are non-drying and stabilize the pH value of your skin. The CeraVe lotion is enriched with hyaluronic acid and ceramides to maintain the skin’s protective barrier.

Peeling: Cosrx AHA/BHA Treatment

When you think of exfoliation, you often think of small grains. This is a thing of the past. We now prefer to use acid peels such as AHA and BHA, which loosen the bonds between dead skin cells and make the skin glowy and soft without overwhelming it. Our editorial favorites come from Cosrx and The Ordinary.

Pore cleaner: Essy pore vacuum cleaner

Simply vacuum out pores? Yes, you can actually do that. Perhaps not quite as intensive as you’d hope, but effective nonetheless. A pore cleanser draws excess sebum, dirt, and blackheads out of the pores and helps to keep the skin clean.

The application is easy to understand and can be completed in five minutes. Important: Always work carefully so as not to damage your skin.

Facial Toner: Forest Heal Facial Toner

I have already repurchased this toner five times! What does that tell us? It’s second to none! Enriched with witch hazel, aloe vera, tea tree oil, green tea, rose water, and niacinamides, it contains everything the skin needs to glow. Used after cleansing, it soothes and moisturizes the skin and prepares it for subsequent care with serum and cream.

Cleansing your face at home: how to do it

So you now have the right products and tools to hand. But what’s next? We explain step by step how to effectively cleanse your face at home:

Step by step guide

Start by facial cleansing in the usual way. Use your cleansing lotion and, if you usually do, a micellar water or cleansing oil beforehand, for example. This will first remove coarse dirt and make-up.

The second step is to exfoliate. You can use grain peeling (mechanical peeling), enzyme peeling, or fruit acid peeling. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions exactly to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Your face is now doubly cleansed. The exfoliation – especially a fruit acid peel – has also loosened dirt and deposits in the deeper layers of the skin. These now need to be vacuumed out. Use your pore vacuum for this.

We recommend moistening your face with a washcloth and warm water beforehand. Please never squeeze out “subterranean” pimples with your fingers and surround pimples and pustules with the pore aspirator to avoid aggravating inflammation.

The pore cleanser is only used to deep clean pores and remove blackheads, not to remove pimples! Use the tool for about five minutes.

Now your skin is slightly stressed and ready for a thick dose of active ingredients. In this case, these come from healing clay and have an antioxidant effect. Gently apply the healing clay mask all over your face and leave it on for between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on the manufacturer’s instructions.

If the mask has dried up, you can gently wash it off with a warm, wet washcloth. Do not rub so as not to irritate your face any further.

The last step before applying serum and cream is to use a toner (also known as facial toner). This soothes your skin and moisturizes it optimally. The slightly moisturized skin allows the active ingredients from the following products to penetrate and work better. The cleansing process is complete – without any harmful pimple popping or drying out of the skin!

Additional step: Do you have “underground” pimples and pustules that you had to work around with the pore cleanser? Then after cleansing and before serum and cream is the right time for pimple patches. The small hydrocolloid-enriched patches shield your pimple and speed up the healing process.

Squeeze out pimples and blackheads?

In the step-by-step guide, you have already noticed that we want to avoid squeezing out pimples. There are both dermatological and psychological reasons for this.

On the one hand, squeezing pimples in vain can aggravate the inflammation of the skin and cause the affected area of the skin to become even redder and more painful. It can also lead to spreading. You spread the bacteria on your face with your fingers and trigger the development of further inflammation.

The psychological aspect behind this is called “skin picking” and has been considered an independent illness from the group of obsessive-compulsive disorders since 2015.

Studies in the USA show that it affects up to 5.4 percent of the population. Those affected stand inches away from the mirror every day and press on their skin in the hope of removing spots – the opposite is the case.

Why does the face need to be cleansed?

Day after day, the skin is exposed to oxidative stress and bacteria from smog, the environment, stress, and bad habits. And then there are our hands, which – albeit unnoticed – constantly end up on our faces.

This can quickly lead to impurities and deposits in the deeper layers of the skin. This can upset the balance of the skin’s protective barrier and damage the health of the skin.

To prevent this and to promote cell renewal and the skin cycle, the face should be cleansed regularly.

How often should I cleanse my face?

It makes sense to intensively cleanse your face every three to four weeks. In this way, you can optimally support your skin’s normal cycle. Cleansing too often would lead to a more oily shine and an unbalanced skin barrier. Balance is key.

Is every skin type treated the same?

The choice of products and length of application depends on your skin type and is not the same for every skin type. The products and procedures we recommend above are particularly suitable for normal to oily and combination skin.

Very sensitive skin types and acne sufferers should seek professional advice from a beauty salon or dermatologist beforehand.

Professional cleansing in a beauty salon

If you would like to have your skin professionally cleansed and get tips from a beautician, you can make an appointment at a beauty salon. Perhaps friends can recommend a salon to you. If this is not the case, you will find a large selection across USA.

The cost of a professional facial cleansing varies greatly from city to city and studio to studio. Prices between 50 and 120 dollars are common for a treatment lasting 60 minutes on average.

However, it is important that you decide for yourself what your focus is: Results, ambiance, consultation, low price, etc.

Our tip: Treat yourself to professional cleansing in the beauty salon every six months – i.e. twice a year – and do the remaining ten months yourself at home. This will save you money, but won’t rob you of any luxury in between.

Conclusion

Whether professional or DIY – we are only too happy to support our skin and want to make sure it stays young, fresh, and healthy for as long as possible. That’s why we in our editorial team regularly rely on intensive cleansing with effective products. And we can say that it really does make a difference. Surely your skin is worth it, right? Give it a try.