Cleansing the skin is by far the single biggest source of problems in skincare.

It wasn’t so back in 1960, but now, with all of our ‘advances’ things are seriously out of whack.

Why are things out of whack? Marketing and the REPAIR MODEL have combined to create a perfect storm on the skin. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s take this in steps.

Try these on first:

The notion that you must have squeaky clean skin is an emotional one. It always ends up badly, especially for oily skin types.

The notion that huge billowing, creamy rich foam is a good thing is a selling point the skincare industry has spent zillions of dollars to instill. It is accepted almost as natural law. It is wrong. As is the notion that your skin will look much better with just a tiny, teensy bit of exfoliation every day. This is an invitation to rosacea and worse.

Oily/Combination skin types are usually in the biggest trouble. They wash and wash and scrub and scrub and things get worse and worse. Then they try something else and get a few days relief and then the cycle repeats.

Cleansers are agents that make water wetter and attach themselves to dirt, oils, grease, squames, wine stains, powdered sugar, egg whites, flour, cookie dough, gossip, bad jokes, unsightly objects and so on. These surface active agents, or surfactants, may be created from natural oils or sugars or the middle distillate tower at the petroleum refinery or a combination of all of these.

These surfactants can easily remove the lipids (and CERAMIDES) at the surface of the skin cells and this unfortunate ability ‘defats’ the skin. When you defat the skin with a strong surfactant the skin goes bananas and immediately sets about to source more oils from the blood and the extracellular matrix and route these through the sebaceous glands. It is a process that takes maybe a day or two to restore and then you will be more oily than you were before because your skin is trying to protect you.

As you keep defatting the skin with your squeaky clean surfactant that foams and smells wonderful the skin finally calls the cops and now the immune system runs the show and all hell breaks loose. You are oily and inflamed and the minute you stop using the cleanser your skin gets worse. 

So you try another squeaky clean foamer and everything is great for a day or even three and then you are getting oily and inflamed again! You fooled the immune system. For a while. Now you are in trouble.

Cleansers have an electrical charge that can be weak or strong. If your cleanser has cocomidopropyl betaine, or almost any betaine, the anionic charge is only part of the problem that causes your skin to get irritated. The betaines are big foam builders and they will cause irritation, sooner or later. It is not that foam is inherently an irritant, but the exceptions are very few. Check the labels. Betaines are everywhere in cleansers. Avoid products with them.

Betaines and acids. Not. Skin. Friendly.

But, first a word about amides. Amides are drying, defatting, and just all around unfriendly to skin. They couple up with betaines and a third component, the anionic detergents like lauryl sulfates to create this big creamy rich foamy behemoth that goes through your hair or on your skin and feels just insanely self-indulgent.

Or just insane?

It is. Get away fast. No betaines, no amides, and no big anionics like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). There are plenty more anionics just as bad and worse than SLS, btw.

Now let’s talk about acids. They are everywhere in cleansers, mostly it is salicylic acid for acne, usually about 2% concentration. This acid, which is actually not an acid, but a phenol, attacks non-viable cells and the stuff between the cells. It ‘exfoliates’ this stuff and leaves you with a shiny new you on the surface.

The continuous use of salicylic acid may result in inflammation. Because 95% of acne is inflammation, you need to restrict usage of any cleanser that contains salicylic acid – think once per week rather than daily.

302 Skincare has an excellent 3% SALICYLIC CLEANSER.

Salicylic acid is really a small problem compared to the over-use of glycolic and lactic acids. These acids attack living tissue. What more do you need to know? Want rosacea, or a smacking bad case of dermatitis? Use these acids too often.

There are many other acids employed in skincare formulations that are often marketed as less harsh than these two, but their over-use ultimately leads to the same sort of inflammation and damage.

Exfoliating acids will prematurely age your skin.

Exfoliating cleansers in home and studio care constitute the first line treatment approach by the vast majority of medical and non-medical skin estheticians and physicians and over the counter treatments for acne since 1990 and to the Skin Dork’s experience the practice is the leading cause of the pervasive rosacea and other visible inflammation. Scarring often occurs as a byproduct.

Another misconception is pH or pH balance as a goal in your skincare, especially a cleanser. It does not matter to the skin if the pH is very low or very high. It only matters the degree of ionic charge to the ingredient.

In other words, if I have a weakly ionic substance whose pH is 3 or 10 it will not be in any way alarming to the skin as compared to a powerfully ionic ingredient with a pH of 5.5 (approximately the pH of the skin). Most of the harshest defatting cleansers on the shelf, even those declaring themselves organic and natural, have a very neutral pH.

Cleansers with not a lot of bubbles are good. Cleansers without betaines, without acids, without amides, without big anionics are good – and very hard to find. 

I highly recommend the cleansers from 302 Skincare.

What about soap bars? Ivory soap was (is) 99 and 44/100% pure. That 0.56% impurity is the ionic charge of free alkali. It is drying and defatting because of that small amount of strong ionic charge. Soap is the oldest thing going and the free alkali is a problem. All the detergents/surfactants created since then have sought to overcome that strong ionic soap problem.

Some soap bars are not true soap (where fats/oils are stirred in a vat with caustic soda (potassium or sodium hydroxide – very strong ionic charge and a high pH). The glycerine falls out of the oil and is taken away to make explosives (hurray for fireworks!) or to be used as a skin humectant or in many other fiendishly clever ways – look them up, you will be amazed. All that from little seeds that came out of the dirt that you are trying to wash off, or something.

Modern soap bars are usually syndet bars (as in synthetic detergent), where a mild surfactant ingredient is mixed with various humectants or oils and mixed together in a crutcher, melted together, and then poured into molds and dried with tantalizing fragrances (that often set off a histamine response with sensitive skin, alas). These are solid bars and can be expensive and very mild if superior surfactants are used. But quality ingredients are hard to find now and expensive.

The best cleansing bar the Skin Dork has used is 302 Skincare’s FACE & BODY BAR. Excellent for limiting breakouts, for baby skin and sunburn.

Clear, see-through bars, so called “glycerine” bars are invariably very drying and defatting. They look great and usually smell great but not a good choice for acne or sensitive skin. Give to houseguests who won’t leave.

The Skin Dork’s personal favorite cleansers are 302 Skincare’s FACE & BODY BAR and REVIVE. 

This is the best ever for those whose skin cannot tolerate strong ionic cleansers, or acid exfoliation.