Talk to me about double cleansing

[Jacksmania]

Worth the extra time? Or a step I can safely skip?

My skin has multiple personality disorder. Just lately, although I've been doing nothing different, I've had compliments like "you have GREAT skin!" cue me thinking 'you need new glasses". If I skip a night or two of cleansing, I get instant break-outs. I absolutely have to exfoliate - I've that type of skin that forms keratin like it's going out of style and have had to scrub it all my life or I form sebum plugs. I have noticed lately that my skin seems to be getting a bit dryer than before.

Thoughts? Any other advice? TIA!

(I'm apparently having a S&B kind of day :))

Double cleansing has made a huge difference to my skin. I used to do hot cloth cleansing with cream cleanser but I still got big hormonal spots every month. I started double cleansing and haven't had a spot since. I now do a first clean with cream cleanser. I'm using Pixi silky cleanser at the moment but I normally use Simple. Then I do a second clean with Clinique Take the Day off Balm. I use foundation every day and a moisturiser with sun protection and I think a single cleanse wasn't getting it all off, hence the spots.

Double cleansing has made the biggest improvement to my skin I think. If I'm feeling very grimy, sometimes even triple cleansing. I use a very gentle cleanser though.

I also use 2 different cleansers. One to take my make-up/day dirt off initially, and then an actual facial wash used with water to make me feel clean and human. I don't think I could ever just use a balm or non wash off cleanser to cleanse with as I just wouldn't feel clean. I feel like there is nearly always residue left. I like to feel water on my face. That's just a personal thing though I guess?

What are you exfoliating with? A chemical or manual exfoliant? You really shouldn't be using a scrub for example every day, as I'm sure it will be too harsh and actually encourage your skin to produce more oil. It sounds like you have trapped your skin in an oil producing cycle.

Perhaps you would benefit from using a gentle cleanser or moisturiser that contains salicylic acid in it though. This would help prevent your skin from becoming congested like you describe. "La roche posay effaclar duo" would be pretty good for you I think.

What is double cleansing?

What is keratin ? What are sebum plugs? I think I may have the latter..

Would definitely like to hear more!

I would like to know more too. Is it cleansing twice with the same or 2 different cleansers morning and night?

double cleanse is cleansing your face twice...morning and evening. the first cleanse is to remove makeup/dirt/dead skin/grease and the second then deeply cleanses your skin into the deeper layers of your skin. it's very important to do this. I'm a beauty therapist btw

your skin may be flaky due to dehydration. make sure you're drinking plenty of water. look for moisturisers that help dehydrated skin rather than dry.

Thank you for the clarification.

Absolutely agree with Xfirefly.

When you say you have to exfoliate... Make sure it's not too harsh a product. Ideally, use an enzymatic exfoliator and if you must have a manual scrub, make sure it's once a week max, the beads are round and are not scratching your skin! Otherwise you will have tiny little wounds all over the skin surface, leaving you susceptible to bacteria, inflammation, redness etc etc.

And double cleansing is great. I use an oil or balm to lift makeup and dirt, followed by a natural gel designed to balance my acne prone skin, which it does fantastically!

I don't exfoliate with anything harsh :)
I use a micro fibre face cloth and am very respectful of the fact that those can take a few layers of skin off my poor neighbour who didn't believe me when I told her to be careful :o

Keratin is the protein that makes up the main structure of the outer skin later, as well as nails (hooves on animals). Also hair.
Sebum plugs are what my dermatologist calls those tiny grain-like bits of sebum that form in your skin (usually my forehead), can't be squeezed and can't be scrubbed away. They're different from milia. I have a prescription for a glycol acid based toner that works reasonably well, but I still need to do all the other maintenance.

Sorry if I'm using different terminology, I'm not in the UK.

So, if you do double-cleanse, any recommendations for brands to use? I was just reading about Clinique's Take The Day Off cleansing balm. Is it any good?
And yesterday I got a sample for Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser, which felt utterly blissful to use. Might have to get a full-size tube.

Crap autocorrect. "Glycol" should be glycolic acid.