The secrets of Aoharu-style face washing and cleansing

The correct way to wash and cleanse your face

We wash our faces at least twice a day: when we wake up in the morning, and when we get home at night, we use a cleanser to remove makeup and sunscreen.

The purpose of washing your face is to remove dirt and excess sebum. If dirt and excess sebum remain on your skin for a long time, they can change and have a negative effect on your skin. However, if you continue to wash or cleanse your face incorrectly, you will lose the sebum film and stratum corneum that are important for your skin. This can lead to more noticeable pores and fine lines, loss of firmness and luster, and even washing your face to cleanse your skin can have the opposite effect.

Washing your face and cleansing are often just routine and part of your routine, but doing it twice a day may be doing a lot of damage to your skin. Let's take a look at the correct way to wash your face and cleanse your skin.

1. How to wash your face

When washing your face, try to remove dirt thoroughly without putting too much strain on your skin. The key is to "lather well" and "reduce friction."

The cleansing agents (surfactants) contained in facial cleansers (such as facial cleansers and soaps) are not good for the skin in themselves, but if you lather them into a dense foam, they can be to your advantage. When you place the dense, fine foam on your skin, it will absorb the oils on your skin and remove dirt. If you spread the foam lightly over your skin, you can wash without rubbing your skin. Conversely, if the foam is not foamy enough, it will not absorb the oils as well and it will be difficult to remove dirt. What's more, you will end up scrubbing your skin, which causes friction, which is the skin's worst enemy!

First, thoroughly wet your face and the palms of your hands, then work the cleanser into a lather. We recommend using a foaming net to easily create a fluffy lather. Once you've worked up a good lather, place it lightly on your face and gently spread it over your entire face, using the foam as a cushion between your hands and face. Do not scrub your face as this will cause friction!

When rinsing, use cold or lukewarm water. Hot water washes away the sebum and other moisture-retaining ingredients that are necessary for the skin, making it more likely to dry out. When you first wet your face, use cold or lukewarm water!

And finally, when you dry it with a towel, be careful not to cause friction! Never rub, but gently let the towel absorb the water to remove it.

2. How to cleanse

Just like washing your face, when cleansing, it's important to minimize friction as much as possible. To do this, use plenty of cleansing agent. Use a generous amount so that it forms a cushion between your skin and your fingers, and gently rub it over your entire face in circular movements with the fingers of both hands.

If you have heavy eye makeup, place a cotton pad soaked in plenty of cleansing cream on your eyelids to lift the mascara or eyeshadow, then gently slide the cotton pad along your eyelashes to remove it. When doing this, be careful not to rub as much as possible. It's easy to be tempted to scrub, but the skin around the eyes is thin, so be careful because it can cause more damage! Rubbing can cause dullness, fine lines, and sagging.

After using a generous amount of cleansing product and letting it soak in, gently press an open tissue against your face to absorb some of the cleansing product, then rinse with water or lukewarm water to remove it easily. If your makeup is light and you don't use a lot of cleansing product, just rinse with water or lukewarm water without using a tissue.

3. How to choose a facial cleanser

When choosing a facial cleanser, choose one that suits your skin type: "for sensitive skin" if you have sensitive skin, and "for oily skin" if you have oily skin. If you don't know your skin type, try a "for normal skin" and see how it goes. If it works well, continue using it, but if it doesn't, try a different one. It's important to listen to the condition of your skin .

I wrote in "How to wash your face" that it is important to make a good lather, but if you think it is too much hassle to make a lather every time, I recommend a type that comes out as a foam from the beginning. Foam types are also highly recommended for men who want to spend as little time as possible on their skin care!

4. How to choose a cleanser

The cleansing power of different types of cleansers varies. On days when you wear heavy makeup, use a powerful oil cleanser to thoroughly remove it. On days when you wear light makeup, use a cleansing milk or gel. Also, for people with dry or sensitive skin, milk or gel is recommended over oils with strong cleansing power.

Also, if you want to remove it in the bath, choose a type that can be used even when your hands are wet. Sheet types that can easily remove makeup by wiping even without water are not recommended for everyday use as they tend to cause friction, but they are useful for emergencies such as after sports. Please choose according to the occasion .

<Summary> How to wash your face and cleanse using the Aoharu method, and how to choose the right product ◉ When washing your face, it is important to lather well and reduce friction. Use water or lukewarm water. ◉ Use plenty of cleanser to reduce friction. ◉Choose a face wash that suits your skin type. Listen to your skin! ◉ When cleansing, use oil if you have heavy makeup, and milk or gel if you have light makeup.

5. Timing and frequency

It is necessary to wash and cleanse your face to remove dirt, but washing too much will cause important components for the skin to be lost. After sweating a lot while playing sports or going out on a hot day like in recent years, your face may become shiny and oily, but otherwise washing twice a day, in the morning and at night, is sufficient.

In the morning, we wash our faces to wash away dirt such as eye boogers and sebum produced while sleeping. Many people wash their faces in the morning as a habit, but if you don't have much excess sebum and feel that your skin is in good condition, there is no problem with just washing your face with lukewarm water in the morning without using a facial cleanser. We also recommend spot washing, using a facial cleanser only on areas of concern such as the T- zone and around the nose, where sebum is likely to be produced. In humid seasons or on days when you used a night cream with a lot of oil the night before, your face will likely feel sticky and shiny due to the production of sebum, so on those mornings, wash your face gently with a facial cleanser.

It's OK to cleanse and wash your face when you take a bath at night. The exception is if you have allergies and your skin gets itchy or rough from pollen or dust, it's better to remove it as soon as you get home. Also, even if you spend the whole day at home without makeup, dirt and sebum are released during the day, so you should use a cleanser or face wash at night.

6. Special care for washing your face

Besides the cleansers and cleansers we use every day, there are also special care products for "washing your face." For example, there are products such as scrubs, gommages, peelings, and clay packs. These special products often claim to provide deep cleansing, such as "removing dirt from pores" and "removing old dead skin cells and regulating cell turnover."

Of course, the "turnover" of skin cells, which regenerates at a regular cycle, is important. However, forcibly removing dead skin cells that have not yet reached the end of their lifespan, will actually disrupt the turnover process. This will cause the skin texture to become rough and pores and fine wrinkles to become more noticeable.

Not all special face washes are bad, but you should limit your use to once a week at most.

<Summary> Aoharu-style facial washing and cleansing frequency and special care points ◉ Washing your face twice a day is enough. If your skin is in good condition, you can just use lukewarm water in the morning. ◉ Use special facial care products such as scrubs about once a week.