Contents

    – Why is skin cleansing essential?

    – Choosing your skin cleansing product?

    – How to cleanse your skin correctly?

Cleaning the skin is part of the daily gestures of good body hygiene, oral or intimate hygiene, hand hygiene, and ear hygiene. It can be supplemented by skincare.

Why is skin cleansing essential?

The skin continually secretes sebum and sweat, which form a protective film on the skin’s surface: this is the hydrolipidic film. Too much sweat sometimes leads to unpleasant odors and can cause irritation, and too much sebum encourages the development of bacteria. The cleaning of the skin makes it possible to remove :

    – the excess of sebum and sweat ;

    – the traces of pollution and dirt ;

    – a part of the dead skins, which one must, however, eliminate regularly with a gumming.

Choosing a product for skin cleansing

Soap, shower gel, cleaning oil… How to find your way around and how to choose the best cleansing product for your skin?

    We will not choose the same product for the body, facial cleansing, or intimate hygiene. Each area has a particular sensitivity, a clean pH, and specific needs.

    – To choose the most suitable product, you must, first of all, know your skin type. Cosmetic products for skin cleansing are numerous but more or less well tolerated, especially due to certain synthetic ingredients.

Skin cleansing with shower gel

The shower gel is the flagship product for bathrooms. There is a multitude of constantly renewed varieties: relaxing, exfoliating, detoxifying, aphrodisiac, etc… Except for a few 100% natural organic shower gels, shower gels often contain irritating and allergenic products, in particular :

    – foaming surfactants and cleansers of synthetic origin such as “sodium laureth sulfate”;

    – synthetic dyes and fragrances;

    – preservatives, such as “methylisothiazolinone,” which replaces paraben in many cosmetics.

Good to know: there are a few natural shower gels on the market, available in organic stores or on the Internet. They are based on natural fragrances and preservatives, but you should count between $6 and $8 per bottle.

Cleaning of dry skin: shower oils

Shower cleaning oils have recently appeared on the market. They are intended, in particular, for dry and dehydrated skin. But as for the shower gel, it is necessary to look at the label and avoid :

    – synthetic dyes and perfumes;

    – preservatives of the “methylisothiazolinone” type.

Soap: the most trusted skin cleanser

Since antiquity, soap is known as the safe value for skin cleansing, especially if it is preservative-free, fragrance-free, and free of artificial coloring agents. Before buying your soap, you should therefore take care to look at its composition, which should be limited to a few necessary ingredients:

    – one or more vegetable oils;

    – caustic soda, called “sodium hydroxide” on the label;

    – water.

There are surgras soaps for sensitive skin, richer in oil, which limit the skin’s drying.

Good to know: most soaps are made from animal fat, often pork tallow, labeled “sodium tallowate.”

How do I cleanse my skin correctly?

It is recommended that you cleanse your skin once a day to remove excess oil, sweat, and dirt:

    – Skin cleansing should be gentle; it should not attack the skin by rubbing it too vigorously.

    – It is necessary to clean the whole body and take care not to forget the navel, behind the ears and between the toes.

    – For intimate and facial hygiene, it is recommended to use specific products whose pH is more adapted to these areas.

    – It is necessary to rinse carefully to eliminate a maximum of the product.

    – Finish cleaning by towel drying.

Good to know: change the washcloth after each use; otherwise, it can become a real nest of germs.