Just like seasonal changes, our skin goes through its own changes too. Depending on hormones, time of day and environment, will depend on what cleanser your skin needs.
The cleansing step within a skincare routine is often overlooked and not given the credit that it deserves. Remember, cleansing is what sets the skin up for success! It’s what creates a clean canvas, prepping the skin for optimal product absorption and therefor, best results!
Lets discuss how to change up your cleanser to ensure your skin maintains healthy function and is supported, ongoing.
Environmental Influences
Travel, seasonal changes, indoor artificial environments are all factors that can contribute to causing the skin barrier to alter and oil levels to change. Depending on the external environment that your skin is exposed to, will depend on what type of cleanser you use.
Often, warmer outdoor environments will cause an increase in sweat production and as a result, increase the skin's natural oil production. This can cause some surface congestion, breakouts and blackheads to form. It’s because of this, that during the Summer and the warmer months, that we recommend switching your milk-based cleanser to a gel-based cleanser, such as our Reverser or Healer cleanser, for a deeper skin clean, ensuring we can cut through pore build up and effectively clear surface bacteria, preventing pore build up and congestion from forming in the first place.
Time of Day Considerations
Depending on whether it’s morning or night, it’s important to listen to your skin patterns and understand what it needs first thing in the morning after a night's sleep, vs, what it needs after a long day of work and running around, in and out of different environments.
Often, a morning cleanse routine is simple and gentle. Morning is an important time to cleanse your skin - to ensure we remove surface sweat and excess oil that has been produced as we sleep, setting a clean surface for your morning skincare products. A gentle milk-based cleanser such as our Soother cleanser, will gently remove surface impurities, while nourishing and maintaining healthy barrier function.
Our night time skin cleanse is often a deeper cleanse. Think about all that your skin is exposed to, throughout the day - dirt, air pollution, toxins, makeup, product, sweat… This is why opting for a gel-based cleanser such as our Reverser and Healer cleanser, is recommended, to cut through the excess surface build up and ensure your skin is clear of surface build up and ready to absorb your following skincare products. Choosing a cleanser that contains antioxidants and a mild form of fruit acid, such as our Reverser and Healer cleanser, will help to maintain healthy skin cell function, while gently removing surface dead skin, helping to brighten skin tone and soften skin texture.
Hormonal Impacts
Hormonal changes can directly impact our skin, in particular our oil production. For females, leading up to our menstrual cycle, hormones can cause our oil to increase and thicken in its consistency.
Often, this causes for a change in our cleanser, depending on the time of month and how our skin presents!
If you find you tend to get oilier, more textured and more congested when you’re hormonal - listen to your skin and what it’s needing! This may be an indication to switch up your cleanser for a week or two monthly, 1-2x daily, to ensure you are giving your skin what it needs. A gel based cleanser that contains glycolic acid, such as our Healer cleanser often has the ability to cut through excess surface oil and pore build up, while clearing surface bacteria, helping to deeply clean the pores and prevent a breakout from forming in the first place.
