Double Cleansing, come & tell me what you use, I need a change...

[VelvetShroudatMidnight]

At the moment I'm taking make up off with either a foaming cleanser & water/hot cloth cleanser/balm. Once the make ups off I second cleanse with micellar water but just found out from Caroline Hirons that's its Not Correct to use micellar for the second cleanser :) I then acid tone with Pixi Glow, serum & moisturise.

What do you all use for first & second cleanses?

You can use a make up remover as a cleanse, it's just that a lot of people prefer an oil or balm that does the make up removal job as well. The idea with double cleansing is that the first cleanse removes the grime and the second cleans the skin itself. Or another way of thinking is that like attracts like, so an oil/balm will remove oil based grime such as make up and excess oil, then a second cleanse with a water based gel/cream/milk will remove sweat, dead skin, etc.

A serum penetrates the skin and addresses skin issues, such as anti-aging, redness, spots, dehydration, etc., whereas a moisturiser, although some will have ingredients that penetrate, is more about sitting on top and protecting the skin, and should be chosen according to skin type, oily/normal/dry.

I use a cream cleanser, usually Peaches and Clean and then wash the lot of with unperfumed vegetable soap.

I don't think you can get black eyeliner and heavy mascara off with just cream unless you grind it into your eyes. Soap lifts it off almost instantly.

I read the small print on the skin care adverts and the only claim I've ever seen for serums is that they 'minimise the appearance of wrinkles' - which is exactly what they say about moisturiser.

For cleansing I use almond oil and a flannel. If I don't think I've got it all off, I do it again.

Both serum and moisturiser can contain "active" ingredients, but the formula of the serum will lend itself to penetrating the surface, so any ingredients will be more effective. I think most common reason people start using a serum is for anti-ageing, with those ones selling more than, say, one for spots, hence the advertising being mostly around those ones.

The only thing that has actually been proved to be "anti-ageing" is vitamin a/retinol, but serums can be marketed as "minimising the appearance of wrinkles" without these ingredients if they contain something that plumps out the surface of the skin, even when that would be a temporary effect whilst using the product. "Appearance" rather than "presence"

I just cleanse twice with a flannel and hot cloth cleanser (Superdrug). It does mean you get through quite a few clean flannels each week, though, as mascara comes off all over the shop. But nothing else seems to work as well for me.

Agree, since I've been doing this double cleansing lark my skin is miles better.