Natural Facial Cleansers

Washing your face is the first step of any skin care regimen. What's a natural facial cleanser? A gel, cream, milk or bar of soap designed to wash dirt, grime and makeup off your face. Cleansers also serve to:

• Dissolve sebum or excess oil
• Loosen particles of grime and dirt on the skin
• Eliminate makeup residue
• Get rid of dead skin cells

By removing grimy makeup and dead skin cells, your skin is once again able to breathe. Two of the skin's major functions are respiration and excretion. Without the ability to breathe in nutrients such as oxygen and excrete wastes, a buildup of oily sebum, dirt, and bacteria can cause unwanted blemishes.

How do natural facial cleansers work?

Most natural facial cleansers contain some sort of surfactant. A surfactant decreases surface tension on the skin, thus allowing whatever grimy film that has nestled into your pores to slide off your face.

Which natural facial cleanser is right for you?Do you prefer a creamy or foaming cleanser?Do you like the squeaky feel of a gel cleanser or the soft feeling of a cold cream or milk cleanser?Or do you leave the liquid cleansers behind opting for a bar of soap to wash your face?

Cream cleanser An old fashioned cold cream like your grandmother used is one of the oldest natural facial cleansers still in use today. The Roman physician, Galen, developed the first cold cream in the second century using rose water and olive oil. Preferred by women with dry skin, cold creams are moisturizing and soothing to the skin [1].

Milk cleanser

A milky natural facial cleanser typically does not foam. It can be applied without water and removed with a tissue. Milky cleansers usually contain natural vegetable oils and waxes that are hydrating. For this reason these products are loved by women with normal to dry skin. Milky cleansers look a lot like lotion because they are an emulsion. An emulsifier is used to bind the oil and water phases of the formula together into a creamy lotion.

Gel cleanser

A natural gel facial cleanser combines with water to create sudsy foam to clean your face. To remove all the suds and dirt trapped in the foam, you must rinse or splash your face with water. Gel cleansers are most often detergent or liquid soap based formulas. They are favored by women with oily to normal skin types who love the feel of a squeaky clean face.

Bar soap

Plain bar soaps made from vegetable oil, lye, and water are some of the best natural facial cleansers in the market. According to legend dating back to 1000 BC, a Roman woman discovered soap as she was rinsing her clothes in the river near Sapo Hill. Above the river, animals had been recently sacrificed. Animal fat dripped through the wood ashes into the water, creating cleansing foam that washed her clothes remarkably well [2]. This chemical process known as saponification occurs when the fatty acids of vegetable or animal fats are neutralized with an alkali such as sodium hydroxide. The resulting soap is then cured for several weeks to ensure the fatty acids and alkalis are completely neutralized.

Today, soap makers combine fragrance blends of pure essential oils and natural coloring to make colorful, scented natural facial bar cleansers. Gritty ingredients like bits of loofah and pumice can be added to bars to create exfoliating soap.

Simple Technique to Maximize Facial Cleansing:

1. Pour a dime size amount of jojoba oil into your hand. Gently rub the jojoba oil into your skin. This preps your skin for a natural facial cleanser by dissolving excess oil, loosening grime, make up and dead skin.
2. Use your favorite natural facial cleanser next whatever you prefer: cold cream, milk, gel or bar soap. Your natural facial cleanser will combine with the jojoba oil to create a luxurious foam. Focus rubbing the cleanser & jojoba oil mixture into the problem areas of the skin (i. e. pimples, black heads, oily areas, or dry patches).
3. Fill your sink with warm water. Splash your skin 20 to 30 times with the water in your sink. This action removes all traces of cleanser and exfoliates your pores.
4. Turn on the tap with hot water, as hot as your skin can handle. Splash your face another 10 times with the hot tap water. This steams your face, allows your pores to open, and toxins to be released.

The result?Your skin is clean. Really clean. Deep down into your pores clean. You're ready for the next step in your skin care regimen, natural facial toner