The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (24 page)

Pick the Green Product

And we aren’t talking color here. There are many great natural and organic cleansers available, from traditional foaming gels suitable for heavy makeup users to soothing cleansing milks and waters that do not lather and are great for those makeup-free days. There are newer types of cleansers such as self-foaming cloths and pillows that are both convenient and very effective. For a double-cleansing technique that leaves skin truly clean, use lightweight cleansing oils. They are becoming a very hot trend.

Your skin condition is the key to choosing the right texture of cleanser. You should avoid abrasive scrubs with scrubbing particles if you have any kind of skin irritation. Pimples, sunburns, and rashes should not be scrubbed because tiny particles break the protective cell layer and increase inflammation.

If your skin is dry, keep away from cleansing creams that do not require rinsing because they will block the pores and leave an impermeable film on the surface of your skin. Your skin will retain more moisture but won’t absorb any beneficial ingredients from moisturizers and serums you may use after cleansing.

Use the Right Tools

Ideally, you should use only the fingertips for facial cleansing. Do not use any kind of sponges, Buf-Pufs, or abrasive pads on irritated skin for the same reason you shouldn’t use scrubs. During a double-cleansing, a clean muslin cloth is very handy for rinsing off the oily cleanser after the first step. Cotton balls can leave behind annoying fibers that can get into your eyes and make life miserable. After rinsing your face with tepid water, pat it dry with a clean towel. All this hardly takes a second but makes a lot of difference to your skin.

Cleanse Twice a Day

No matter if you use layers of makeup or your cosmetic bag contains just an odd jar of lip balm, make a habit of washing your face once in the morning and once in the evening. Wash or at least wipe your face after any vigorous activity that makes you perspire, like exercise.

The morning cleansing should be gentle. Work the cleanser of your choice in circular motions, starting with your forehead and moving down to your cheeks and nose. Work the nose area well. Don’t forget to wash your chin, throat, and the jawline area, especially under your ears. If you are using a medicated cleanser, for example, with salicylic or glycolic acid, leave it on for only a few minutes before rinsing.

You should double-cleanse your face in the evening. In general, the evening cleansing is more important than washing your face in the morning (which doesn’t mean you can skip the morning wash!). Make it a new habit to double-cleanse in the evening. It takes slightly longer than a basic rub-rub-rub, splash-splash, but the results are nothing short of remarkable.

How to Double-Cleanse

Double-cleansing is making news, although this technique is nothing new. Some sources claim that the double-cleansing method originated in European spas, while others argue that facial cleansing oil has been a staple of Asian skin care rituals for a very long time. No matter where it comes from, double-cleansing can make a whole world of difference, if correctly used and adjusted to your skin’s needs and its current condition.

During the first step, use an oil-based cleanser to get rid of the surface dirt, which, as we already know, consists of airborne particles, dust, makeup, sebum, dried sweat, dead bacteria, and residue from moisturizers and sunscreens. The higher the content of oil, the better the cleansing power. All you need is to massage the cleansing oil onto your dry face with dry fingertips to dissolve the makeup gently. Some cleansing oils will stick to your face and be hard to wash off. To speed things up, use a soft muslin cloth, available from many health stores. Eve Lom was the first cosmetic manufacturer to sell her cleansing balm complete with muslin cloths.

Contrary to popular belief, oily cleansers will not aggravate acne or cause new outbreaks because they are much gentler to the skin than conventional cleansers with sulfate-based surfactants. When stripped of the skin’s own sebum and further irritated by antibacterial agents and penetration enhancers found in synthetic cleansers, some skin may experience dryness, and to compensate for this dryness, your skin will secrete more sebum. Some people may experience whiteheads a few days after they start using the cleansing oil. This happens when you use a second cleanser to complete the double-cleansing ritual or when you do not remove the first cleanser properly.

As I mastered the art of double-cleansing, I found that many good cleansing oils and creams do not effectively tackle the task of removing mineral makeup, which is not oil-based. They want to get hold of oil, but there isn’t any. If you are, like me, a diligent user of mineral makeup, you are far better off with a plain bar soap cleanser.

Bar soap regularly gets a bad rap from cosmetic experts. They claim that solid soaps often contain pore-clogging fats and harsh surfactants that can wreak havoc on human skin. While this is true about conventional animal tallow–based bar soaps, traditional olive and coconut oil soaps are not damaging to skin. They contain natural ingredients, such as saponified olive, coconut, jojoba, or hemp oil, and none of these is pore-clogging or sensitizing. I especially like the naturally scented French-milled olive soaps that I purchase online from a small factory in Provence. Another indulgence is Santa Maria Novella soaps, cooked according to ancient techniques. I also like the feeling when blackheads and tiny bumps of congested pores are melting under my fingertips as I massage the lightweight foam into my skin. Call it conditioning, call it Spartan upbringing, but I have it embedded deep in my mind that only soap can bring true cleanliness.

As for pH, the issue is more complicated. You have probably heard that good cleansers won’t alter the skin’s natural alkaline balance, or pH. The pH of a substance is a measure of its acid or alkaline content. Science ranks pH on a scale of 0–14, with pH 7, the natural acidity of water, being neutral. The further below 7 a pH value is, the more acidic the substance; the higher above 7, the more alkaline.

Our skin is naturally acidic. The pH of healthy skin is 5.5. This level of acidity helps ward off certain microorganisms from the skin’s surface. Opponents of soap used to say that soaps, which are very alkaline (the opposite of acidic), remove too much natural fatty acid from sebum covering the skin’s surface, thus leaving it tight, dry, and vulnerable to bacterial attacks. However, research dating back to the 1980s says that our skin has excellent self-protecting capacities that can neutralize even the most alkaline substances in soaps, but not sulfates and other synthetic chemicals that make up the bulk of those fragrant bars that we traditionally associate with bar soaps. At the same time, plant-based soaps formulated without sulfates are proven safe for the most intolerant skins. This is why it’s very important to check the quality of the ingredients in the cleanser you plan to buy or prepare yourself: natural ingredients with their naturally balanced pH levels will give your skin all the protection it needs.

When you have melted the dirt and makeup using oil or soap, rinse your face and apply
the second cleanser. This time you purify your skin, not remove makeup. If you were using oil, you should now use a gentle foaming cleanser to remove the oil residue. If you were using soap, choose a soft, milky, nonfoaming cleanser to remove soap residue and soften your skin. The second cleanser may contain additional benefits, such as oil-absorbing clay, herbal astringents, soothing infusions, or exfoliating particles that will cleanse your pores and deliver a treatment of your choice deep down where it’s needed. Work your cleanser in a circular motion for no less than one minute and rinse thoroughly with lukewarm tap water. Finish with a cool rinse with tap, filtered, or better yet, mineral water with essential magnesium, such as Volvic,Vichy, or Evian.

After you’re done cleansing, gently pat your face with a facial towel. Don’t use your regular bath towel. Don’t rub, either—this may cause unnecessary pressure and increase irritation. Be as gentle as possible.

Most people with acne think that frequent and vigorous cleansing with abrasive or antibacterial washes will reduce the oiliness and keep skin clear and healthy. However, no scientific evidence proves that the lack of washing is associated with skin problems or that frequent washing improves the condition of skin. Instead, intense cleansing and scrubbing can worsen the inflammation in acne breakouts, and synthetic antibacterial agents such as Triclosan and chlorhexidine do not affect acne bacteria.

Green Cleansing in Detail

Single- or double-cleansing, I simply love washing my face! I believe that facial cleansing is the most underestimated step of a skin care routine. In Chapter 2, we talked about various synthetic chemicals used in beauty products. Many of these chemicals may be or are already proven to be toxic to your skin, and by removing these chemicals from their products, cosmetic manufacturers are reluctantly acknowledging the fact that they were doing something wrong. We already know that many conventional skin care products contain such chemicals despite the factual evidence arguing against their use. However, I still believe that cleansers, even when made entirely of synthetic chemicals, can only do relatively minor damage compared to toxic sunscreens or foundations.

How do we use cleansing gels and milks? We apply them, briskly rub our faces, snort and spit the obnoxious foam, and quickly rinse it off in less than a minute. A cleanser’s penetration may be improved by added acids (lactic, ascorbinic, or salicylic), warming actions (“self-heating” masks and gel cleansers are becoming popular), or exfoliating particles. Some cleansers employ all three big guns in order to achieve prime cleanliness. Unfortunately, not all synthetic cleansers deliver remarkable results, or any results to justify the use of toxic and potentially carcinogenic substances. More often than not, they are made of ingredients that are not physically capable of thoroughly cleansing our skin. Most nonfoaming milky cleansers, labeled as cleansing lotions, milks, and creams, are made of water, mineral oil, beeswax, stearic acid (a highly androgenic substance made of animal tallow), synthetic wax ozokerite, and glycerin or propylene glycol, plus minuscule amounts of herbal extracts, vitamins, and fragrances. Foaming cleansers usually contain water, sodium lau-reth/ lauryl sulfate, propylene glycol, triethanolamine, or the more “natural-sounding” cocamide DEA, MEA, or other ethylene amines. Most likely, these cleansing gels and lotions contain synthetic colors and dyes, all striving to please us. Would you use a cleanser that has a “clean water smell” and color that is “pure as ocean water” or an organic substance that smells like whipped tomato oatmeal and looks even worse?

All cleansers, whether biodynamic gels for your face or basic liquid soap for your floor, function in the same way. Non foaming cleansers (oils, milks, and lotions) contain a lot of fatty acids that lift oils in makeup, cosmetic products, and daily grime. Foaming cleansers contain surfactants, or substances that persuade oil and water to mix so they can be washed away together, grabbing all dirt and other solids along the way. The stronger the surfactant ingredient in a soap, the more residue it can remove.

Ideally, an effective facial cleanser washes the daily amount of dirt, oxidized sebum, and dead skin cells off your face while leaving behind enough of the skin’s own oil (sebum) to naturally moisturize your skin. If a cleanser, used alone or in a double-cleansing ritual, leaves your skin feeling dry, it is removing too much of this natural moisturizer. If it leaves your skin feeling greasy and sticky, either it isn’t removing enough oil or it contains heavy emollient and film-forming ingredients that clog pores.

What’s different about green cleansers? With plant oils, it’s simple: the most natural facial cleansing oils contain pure or organic cold-pressed oils and herbal extracts grown without toxic chemicals. Olive and sunflower oils are suitable for almost every skin, while avocado and wheat germ oil offer additional nutrition and protection. Sage, geranium, rosemary, and gentle citrus oils, such as mandarin or bergamot, can be added. Read the labels carefully and ask for a complete list of ingredients if you are unsure.

Organic plant soaps are based on saponified organic olive, jojoba, or hemp seed oils, and sometimes contain crushed fruit kernels, seaweed, and oatmeal for exfoliation. Foaming gels or milky cleansers are usually formulated with foaming agents derived from coconut oil, lauric acid, and plant sugars. Such ingredients include cocamidopropyl betaine, cocoglucoside, lauryl lysine or sarcosine, decyl glucoside, and glycolipids. Cleansers may also contain emulsifiers derived from coconut (cocoglycerides), vegetable glycerin (glyceryl linoleate), and a few plant-based antimicrobial agents to preserve the product, such as amino acids, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, plant-derived potassium sorbate, citric acid, and grapefruit seed oil.

“Soap is my number-one beauty secret,” says Debra Lynn Dadd. “I use lots of different handmade soaps to cleanse my face and my body. I can spend five or six dollars on a bar of soap. Some people would think this is outrageous! These are not perfumed soaps. They don’t have anything toxic in them, just wholesome, pure ingredients like chocolate and fragrances like lavender—it’s really good!”When traveling, Debra buys unusual, exotic soaps in bulk and savors them as some may savor wine or perfume.

We already know that choosing skin care products based on your skin type is very outdated. Instead, look for ingredients that are helpful for your current skin condition. If your skin feels congested and you have noticed tiny little bumps on the cheeks and blackheads around the T-zone area, you can benefit from soaps containing green and white clays. As a double-cleansing technique, use a soap or lightweight oil first, and follow it with a clay-based cleanser, which will absorb the remaining oil as well as dark matter clogging your pores.