I've "invented" a new cleansing method for sensitive skin

[4amInsomniac]

..... or maybe you'll tell me I'm doing something wrong!

My skin is usually very normal and we'll behaved, but I have Rosacea that sometimes flares up, and patches of excess too. I find that cleansing, even very gently, is something that irritates both; I use No. 7 hot cloth cleanser or sometimes micellar water.

Recently I had a flare up of both conditions, and was dreading the bedtime cleanse. I ended up rubbing moisturiser on my dry, lightly made up face, and wiping it off gently with a damp cotton wool pad. I used nivea moisturiser, and did it twice, the second time very little make up seemed to come off, so I finished there and put on some night moisturiser that I know my skin tolerates during flare ups.

Result! No irritation, redness, tight feeling. Within 2 days of doing this my skin was back to normal, much quicker than I expected.

So, I will do this whenever I'm in the same state, and I'm now wondering whether I've actually caused some of my own problems before! This "method" wouldn't work for oily or combination skin, and I did feel that I wasn't cleaning my skin properly. But have I just been conditioned by advertising etc?

I think moisturiser is just a mix of oils and water, with other chemicals added, but what is the difference between moisturiser and a creamy cleanser like eg the No 7 one? Any industry insiders know about this?

Any thoughts on this? Anyone else do this? Do you think I wasn't cleaning my skin properly, or was moisturiser actually doing as good a job as cleanser? I did think I could test how good the cleanse was by using a cotton pad of micellar water afterwards and seeing if it looked dirty, but I didn't want to do that during a flare up.

Your skin naturally cleanses itself through the process of skin shedding and oil which rises to the surface. Unless you really trowel the foundation on, there's no need for separate cleansers which can be so harsh on skin and strip it of its natural oils.

Its fine to do what you're doing. Johnsons baby lotion makes an excellent cleanser and removes makeup too.
The oils in the lotion/moisturiser will emulsify the makeup and then you wipe it off

I have rosacea and sensitive skin -- heat is really bad for it so I would stop doing the hot cleansing and see if that helps, first off.

Then I'd really recommend a gentle non-soap, non-rinse cleanser like Cetaphil or Avene -- it's the same thing you just described, where you wipe it off with cotton, but it's a very gentle cleanser. You can also rinse it off with water (I do). Or you could get some old school cold cream, which is a bit like what you're doing.

Avene also makes a really gentle micellar water that doesn't irritate the rosacea. I actually barely have it anymore since I started using Cetaphil/Avene, it's good stuff.

My mum has used Nivea to take off her makeup for years, probably as long as she's worn makeup. I sometimes do it too. I thought it was an accepted way of cleansing?