My Skincare FAQ 2 - Face Wash
I thought it would be easy to ramble about topics that I'm quite familiar with and just like drama etc, it's proven to be completely wrong especially when you start to think and ponder about the very topic. Why writing is so difficult? It's all in the brain but it's so difficult to get it out and put it in structure that is easy to digest for other people than yours truly. No wonder I sucks so much in doing slides in RL.
Anyhoo, so I decided that the next topic to delve with in this series will be the very basic one, face wash. Everybody have to wash their face anyway, even dudes with all their macho testosterone hormones, right? If not, then... OK let's not go there, yeah? The only sole main reason to wash our face is for hygienic purposes, cleanliness, nothing else. It's the same concept as taking shower, bath, so why are we talking about it? It becomes a little bit complex because it's our face and most of the time we put more care to it, hence we have face wash products and just like any other skincare products out there, there're gazillions types, brands, combinations of face wash out there in the market, and yeah, it's very overwhelming especially when you see a literally one aisle of face wash at your frequented chemist.
How often should I wash my face?
Since we already established that everybody must wash their face anyway, then the next question is how often you should wash your face in a day. The basic would be twice a day (I hope everybody is in agreement with this LOL), morning and night. Morning because you want to have a fresh start of the day (it involuntarily wakes you up especially during winter time, ha!) and get rid of the oil accumulated overnight on your skin, and night because you don't want to carry all those impurities accumulated when you're outside to your bed (not me at least, euww). I know some people will wash their face in the middle of the day as well, kind of like freshen up their face, plus touching up their make up, and that's because they have a very oily skin. But if you don't have a super duper oily skin, there's no need to do so because washing your face too often in a day will lead to a drier skin and that will trigger more oil generated by your skin (natural reaction) and most of the time it'll create chain reaction to acnes popping up your face (double euw). So being too clean is also not necessarily nice as well :).
How much should I spend for a face wash?
Like I've mentioned before, the chunk of our decision making to get a skincare product is based on how much we're willing to spend. Face wash is a daily usage skincare product. In my very personal opinion, it has to be very affordable aka CHEAP in our definition of cheap. It should always be readily available for grabs at your chemist, unless you're so particular about it (like yours truly) and opt to stock up things in your bathroom. Translated to Singapore's standard pricing, it should be around 10SGD to 20SGD (I think this works well for AU and other countries as well, but I find that in Japan, it can go lower than 1000JPY --> because biore is sold at the price range of 400-600JPY over there).
What's the difference between cheap and expensive face wash?
Should not be that much difference because the function is to wash your face. It'll only stay on your face for less than 1 minutes, unless you're using the non-foam type of face cleanser. The only difference between a very cheap face wash versus the more expensive ones is the after wash feels, with the cheaper ones, your skin would feel drier after you dry your face with towel, but I seriously think it doesn't really matter because you'll slap your face with moisturizer later anyway. Take an example, 2 brands, Biore face wash (this one) and Shiseido face wash (this one). Shiseido's price is almost 10 times of Biore (even more when it's sold outside Japan). Both only require a very little amount per wash, like about 5mm per squeeze, without any sponge etc, normally cheaper face wash would require more quantity for equal face wash quality than the more expensive ones, but I find that Biore (at least this product line) is an exception. Both generate generous amount of foam. The only difference is that Shiseido is softer to glide on over your face compared to Biore and doesn't leave your skin feel drier after wash. That's all. OK, let's take a lesser extreme comparison and compare Shiseido with its chemist product line, Aqualabel (this one). I like this yellow line compare to the red and blue because they're less harsher, but still it's still priced double than Biore. But how much is the difference? Well, not much, though the after feel and usage quality is near to the expensive Shiseido. So, does it matter? At the end of the day, not really. Hence, why should we spend so much on face wash? The only reason I can think of is, luxury, pampering yourself with nice smelling stuff (expensive stuffs do smell nice if not niceR LOL).
Now that we've covered the $$$ topic, let's drill further...
What type of face wash should I use?
Well, that really depends on what you like. As far as what I've used so far, face wash can be in form of gel, bar, foam, cream and even oil (yeah, those cleansing oil). I swear by foam face wash because I like foams, bubbles, and gliding through the bubbles makes me feel happier and cleaner, which is why I have so much examples when it come to foam face wash. I don't fancy gel because it feels like shower gel and actually feels harsher on my skin (example is this one). I only use cleansing cream or cleansing oil if I have make up on my face because just a regular face wash won't clean your make up thoroughly. The very first real face wash that I used is this one, the soap bar type. It works perfectly well for me when I was 15 years old. But as I grew older, it literally dried up my skin, prompted me to change, and yes you will have to change whatever you're using if your skin condition change or got worse after usage. However, bottom line is, use what you like but make sure that it does the job well aka keep your face fresh and clean and more importantly (actually, very utmost important), doesn't give you allergic reaction.
What about Cetaphil?
This one? The packaging has changed over the years, but even now, I think there're still so many people swear by this and I won't disagree with them. I'm quite indifference with this product. I tried it long time ago before because so many people raved about it, but I don't see it working for me. Moreover, I think Cetaphil doesn't have foams, and this completely against my love for foams, so, clearly it's not for me LOL. Plus, Cetaphil is more of a clinical product, so there's no smell, no fragrance, and this would most likely work for people with very sensitive skin, but I won't use it even if my skin is sensitive (which it is at a certain level) because... it just doesn't have foams LOL.
What's the difference between cleansing cream and cleansing oil?
Between cleansing cream and cleansing oil, I'd much prefer cleansing oil because cleansing cream is messy. Lots of people swear by this one, and I did use it for awhile because the younger me had no idea what this cleansing cream is actually for and after awhile I feel like it's duplicating my skincare routine and I couldn't even feel whether my skin is actually clean or not and one thing that I hate about face cleaning if I have to use cotton pads. As for cleansing oil, I favor the 100% cleansing oil like this one. No wait, I actually swear by this one because this is literally my favorite biore product, you don't need cotton pad, you just pump the oil and make circle movement over your face and it even cleans your mascara perfectly, no wiping with cotton pads or cotton buds that would cause irritation around your eyes area, and if you're lazy enough, you just slap over the oil one more time, and wash it off, and you're done.
What about cleansing wipe?
Ah, this is the magic of convenience for you. I usually carry this around when I'm travel especially during my business trip because I normally would slap over some light make up for business meetings (must look more presentable in front of big bosses, right?) and I normally don't wash my face straight away after I got back to the hotel, but I still want to get those make up off because they're icky, so cleansing wipe is my God sent product. My favorite is this one. It's gentle enough that it's not irritate your face after wipes. However, it doesn't mean that your face is clean and you don't need to wash your face. You still need to wash your face afterwards and even use cleansing oil beforehand for extra safety measure because I don't trust cleansing wipe will completely clean your face unless you're using at least 4 sheets, which is completely waste of money in the long run.
What's the different between the foam face wash in a tube and in a pump?
Between this and this? It's just convenience and laziness LOL. With the pump, they already lather up the foam for you, whereas with the tube, you need to lather up yourself. Per usage wise, pump will logically more expensive because, you know, that's the price of convenience, plus I don't think you'll pump just once per usage, definitely at least twice ;). I prefer tube because I can control how much I use better. However, it goes down to preference, I have a friend who swear by this very biore pump face wash. I do find sometimes the pump type is slightly drier than the regular tube type because of the liquid nature itself. I tried this one before. While it's refreshing due to tea tree factor, it does make the skin drier after awhile (after 2 bottles of usage).
Nowadays, there're so many face cleansing gadgets out there, is it worth buying?
NO (as in a BIG HUGE NO), unless you have too much extra money to spend because those gadgets are not cheap and they don't really last long. I bought this before. While it's nice as in it makes me feel cleaner and they have so many different brushes for different usage (MARKETING!!!), it lasts only ONE year, not to mention you need to change the brush after awhile, and those little brushes ain't cheap (18$ per brush). With that kind of price, is it worth the money? Hell no. And Philips is considered the mid range, there're still the likes of Clarisonic with ridiculous pricing, and all this just for... washing your face... Nope, just nope. Whatever rave you're having using this product, is the psychological effect because you've spent that much money. You've been washing your face using your hands and it works just fine, so what makes you have to buy these fancy gadgets? For?
Having said that, I do recommend the manual face brush, but make sure that the brush is soft, fine (very fine, like your make up brushes) and nice. These facial brushes come in a very wide price range, from literally less than 10$ all the way to 30-40$, like this one, though this example is kind of expensive. I won't buy these if they have over 40$ price tag because that's just BS. I had one from Japan with just 600JPY and it serves the purpose very well, and I prefer those with handle and smaller brush surface because you can maneuver it around your side nose better (those acne prone curves!!). However, nothing can beat the nice clean feeling when you can just wipe your face off with the face sponge LOL. So many type of sponge out there w/ so many kinds of textures, shapes and sizes. I like this one the best because it just does the job, but can't use it every time because it can irritate your skin. So, I'd alternate it with this one. It's softer, but it deteriorates VERY FAST, nevertheless it makes you feel pampered.
So, again, all the tools are just out there as extra, they are NOT necessary, but they do leverage your facial washing experience aka making you feel pampered LOL.
Wait, what about those foaming net like this one?
The first time I saw this foaming net was when I watched Geneten few years ago, and I detested this product ever since. Like, seriously, it's just a bloody piece of net material clipped together to foam up your face wash foam. Until last year when I saw 1 rack full of different types of foaming nets ranging from 100 to 1000 JPY. And when curiosity won over me, I bought the 200JPY one because I just felt bad buying the cheapest one for a trial, and yes since then I have a completely different view of this silly product (I still call them silly because, it's just a bloody net for goodness sake). Yes, you can DIY them but what's the point of DIY if it's just sold at 2$ or so at the store, unless it's not available in your country. It only does one thing for you, make bubbles and foams. But it saves your face wash consumption! Let's say usually you use about 5mm per wash of your face wash, with foaming net, you probably only need half of it and generate much more foam to wash your face. Choose the ones with thicker and smaller crisscross net (fabric matters here) because it generate more foams, and it's naturally slightly more expensive by maybe 1-2$, but it's worth it. It should cost you at most 5$, anything more than that is bullshit.
Lastly, what's your favorite face wash?
Right now, this is my fave. It has this little sandy scrub particles that will leave the face felt clean (I just like my face to be squeaky clean (if it can make that squeaky noise, even better LOL) and you only need to use a little bit about 2mm per usage to cover the whole face and neck area. The shop assistant recommended to use this once a week because of the scrub element but after a week of everyday usage (once a day) and I don't see my skin drier or peeling, I don't see the reason why not to use it daily. I do always keep 2 types or brands of face wash every time (usually one cheap ones eg. biore or hadalabo and the more expensive one), to alternate because monotone is just boring, but that's just me wanting to try so many things.
So, there you have it, I think I cover all there is to know about washing your face LOL. Just type away if you have any other questions not covered here :).
This entry was originally posted at http://spsn.dreamwidth.org/108326.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Anyhoo, so I decided that the next topic to delve with in this series will be the very basic one, face wash. Everybody have to wash their face anyway, even dudes with all their macho testosterone hormones, right? If not, then... OK let's not go there, yeah? The only sole main reason to wash our face is for hygienic purposes, cleanliness, nothing else. It's the same concept as taking shower, bath, so why are we talking about it? It becomes a little bit complex because it's our face and most of the time we put more care to it, hence we have face wash products and just like any other skincare products out there, there're gazillions types, brands, combinations of face wash out there in the market, and yeah, it's very overwhelming especially when you see a literally one aisle of face wash at your frequented chemist.
How often should I wash my face?
Since we already established that everybody must wash their face anyway, then the next question is how often you should wash your face in a day. The basic would be twice a day (I hope everybody is in agreement with this LOL), morning and night. Morning because you want to have a fresh start of the day (it involuntarily wakes you up especially during winter time, ha!) and get rid of the oil accumulated overnight on your skin, and night because you don't want to carry all those impurities accumulated when you're outside to your bed (not me at least, euww). I know some people will wash their face in the middle of the day as well, kind of like freshen up their face, plus touching up their make up, and that's because they have a very oily skin. But if you don't have a super duper oily skin, there's no need to do so because washing your face too often in a day will lead to a drier skin and that will trigger more oil generated by your skin (natural reaction) and most of the time it'll create chain reaction to acnes popping up your face (double euw). So being too clean is also not necessarily nice as well :).
How much should I spend for a face wash?
Like I've mentioned before, the chunk of our decision making to get a skincare product is based on how much we're willing to spend. Face wash is a daily usage skincare product. In my very personal opinion, it has to be very affordable aka CHEAP in our definition of cheap. It should always be readily available for grabs at your chemist, unless you're so particular about it (like yours truly) and opt to stock up things in your bathroom. Translated to Singapore's standard pricing, it should be around 10SGD to 20SGD (I think this works well for AU and other countries as well, but I find that in Japan, it can go lower than 1000JPY --> because biore is sold at the price range of 400-600JPY over there).
What's the difference between cheap and expensive face wash?
Should not be that much difference because the function is to wash your face. It'll only stay on your face for less than 1 minutes, unless you're using the non-foam type of face cleanser. The only difference between a very cheap face wash versus the more expensive ones is the after wash feels, with the cheaper ones, your skin would feel drier after you dry your face with towel, but I seriously think it doesn't really matter because you'll slap your face with moisturizer later anyway. Take an example, 2 brands, Biore face wash (this one) and Shiseido face wash (this one). Shiseido's price is almost 10 times of Biore (even more when it's sold outside Japan). Both only require a very little amount per wash, like about 5mm per squeeze, without any sponge etc, normally cheaper face wash would require more quantity for equal face wash quality than the more expensive ones, but I find that Biore (at least this product line) is an exception. Both generate generous amount of foam. The only difference is that Shiseido is softer to glide on over your face compared to Biore and doesn't leave your skin feel drier after wash. That's all. OK, let's take a lesser extreme comparison and compare Shiseido with its chemist product line, Aqualabel (this one). I like this yellow line compare to the red and blue because they're less harsher, but still it's still priced double than Biore. But how much is the difference? Well, not much, though the after feel and usage quality is near to the expensive Shiseido. So, does it matter? At the end of the day, not really. Hence, why should we spend so much on face wash? The only reason I can think of is, luxury, pampering yourself with nice smelling stuff (expensive stuffs do smell nice if not niceR LOL).
Now that we've covered the $$$ topic, let's drill further...
What type of face wash should I use?
Well, that really depends on what you like. As far as what I've used so far, face wash can be in form of gel, bar, foam, cream and even oil (yeah, those cleansing oil). I swear by foam face wash because I like foams, bubbles, and gliding through the bubbles makes me feel happier and cleaner, which is why I have so much examples when it come to foam face wash. I don't fancy gel because it feels like shower gel and actually feels harsher on my skin (example is this one). I only use cleansing cream or cleansing oil if I have make up on my face because just a regular face wash won't clean your make up thoroughly. The very first real face wash that I used is this one, the soap bar type. It works perfectly well for me when I was 15 years old. But as I grew older, it literally dried up my skin, prompted me to change, and yes you will have to change whatever you're using if your skin condition change or got worse after usage. However, bottom line is, use what you like but make sure that it does the job well aka keep your face fresh and clean and more importantly (actually, very utmost important), doesn't give you allergic reaction.
What about Cetaphil?
This one? The packaging has changed over the years, but even now, I think there're still so many people swear by this and I won't disagree with them. I'm quite indifference with this product. I tried it long time ago before because so many people raved about it, but I don't see it working for me. Moreover, I think Cetaphil doesn't have foams, and this completely against my love for foams, so, clearly it's not for me LOL. Plus, Cetaphil is more of a clinical product, so there's no smell, no fragrance, and this would most likely work for people with very sensitive skin, but I won't use it even if my skin is sensitive (which it is at a certain level) because... it just doesn't have foams LOL.
What's the difference between cleansing cream and cleansing oil?
Between cleansing cream and cleansing oil, I'd much prefer cleansing oil because cleansing cream is messy. Lots of people swear by this one, and I did use it for awhile because the younger me had no idea what this cleansing cream is actually for and after awhile I feel like it's duplicating my skincare routine and I couldn't even feel whether my skin is actually clean or not and one thing that I hate about face cleaning if I have to use cotton pads. As for cleansing oil, I favor the 100% cleansing oil like this one. No wait, I actually swear by this one because this is literally my favorite biore product, you don't need cotton pad, you just pump the oil and make circle movement over your face and it even cleans your mascara perfectly, no wiping with cotton pads or cotton buds that would cause irritation around your eyes area, and if you're lazy enough, you just slap over the oil one more time, and wash it off, and you're done.
What about cleansing wipe?
Ah, this is the magic of convenience for you. I usually carry this around when I'm travel especially during my business trip because I normally would slap over some light make up for business meetings (must look more presentable in front of big bosses, right?) and I normally don't wash my face straight away after I got back to the hotel, but I still want to get those make up off because they're icky, so cleansing wipe is my God sent product. My favorite is this one. It's gentle enough that it's not irritate your face after wipes. However, it doesn't mean that your face is clean and you don't need to wash your face. You still need to wash your face afterwards and even use cleansing oil beforehand for extra safety measure because I don't trust cleansing wipe will completely clean your face unless you're using at least 4 sheets, which is completely waste of money in the long run.
What's the different between the foam face wash in a tube and in a pump?
Between this and this? It's just convenience and laziness LOL. With the pump, they already lather up the foam for you, whereas with the tube, you need to lather up yourself. Per usage wise, pump will logically more expensive because, you know, that's the price of convenience, plus I don't think you'll pump just once per usage, definitely at least twice ;). I prefer tube because I can control how much I use better. However, it goes down to preference, I have a friend who swear by this very biore pump face wash. I do find sometimes the pump type is slightly drier than the regular tube type because of the liquid nature itself. I tried this one before. While it's refreshing due to tea tree factor, it does make the skin drier after awhile (after 2 bottles of usage).
Nowadays, there're so many face cleansing gadgets out there, is it worth buying?
NO (as in a BIG HUGE NO), unless you have too much extra money to spend because those gadgets are not cheap and they don't really last long. I bought this before. While it's nice as in it makes me feel cleaner and they have so many different brushes for different usage (MARKETING!!!), it lasts only ONE year, not to mention you need to change the brush after awhile, and those little brushes ain't cheap (18$ per brush). With that kind of price, is it worth the money? Hell no. And Philips is considered the mid range, there're still the likes of Clarisonic with ridiculous pricing, and all this just for... washing your face... Nope, just nope. Whatever rave you're having using this product, is the psychological effect because you've spent that much money. You've been washing your face using your hands and it works just fine, so what makes you have to buy these fancy gadgets? For?
Having said that, I do recommend the manual face brush, but make sure that the brush is soft, fine (very fine, like your make up brushes) and nice. These facial brushes come in a very wide price range, from literally less than 10$ all the way to 30-40$, like this one, though this example is kind of expensive. I won't buy these if they have over 40$ price tag because that's just BS. I had one from Japan with just 600JPY and it serves the purpose very well, and I prefer those with handle and smaller brush surface because you can maneuver it around your side nose better (those acne prone curves!!). However, nothing can beat the nice clean feeling when you can just wipe your face off with the face sponge LOL. So many type of sponge out there w/ so many kinds of textures, shapes and sizes. I like this one the best because it just does the job, but can't use it every time because it can irritate your skin. So, I'd alternate it with this one. It's softer, but it deteriorates VERY FAST, nevertheless it makes you feel pampered.
So, again, all the tools are just out there as extra, they are NOT necessary, but they do leverage your facial washing experience aka making you feel pampered LOL.
Wait, what about those foaming net like this one?
The first time I saw this foaming net was when I watched Geneten few years ago, and I detested this product ever since. Like, seriously, it's just a bloody piece of net material clipped together to foam up your face wash foam. Until last year when I saw 1 rack full of different types of foaming nets ranging from 100 to 1000 JPY. And when curiosity won over me, I bought the 200JPY one because I just felt bad buying the cheapest one for a trial, and yes since then I have a completely different view of this silly product (I still call them silly because, it's just a bloody net for goodness sake). Yes, you can DIY them but what's the point of DIY if it's just sold at 2$ or so at the store, unless it's not available in your country. It only does one thing for you, make bubbles and foams. But it saves your face wash consumption! Let's say usually you use about 5mm per wash of your face wash, with foaming net, you probably only need half of it and generate much more foam to wash your face. Choose the ones with thicker and smaller crisscross net (fabric matters here) because it generate more foams, and it's naturally slightly more expensive by maybe 1-2$, but it's worth it. It should cost you at most 5$, anything more than that is bullshit.
Lastly, what's your favorite face wash?
Right now, this is my fave. It has this little sandy scrub particles that will leave the face felt clean (I just like my face to be squeaky clean (if it can make that squeaky noise, even better LOL) and you only need to use a little bit about 2mm per usage to cover the whole face and neck area. The shop assistant recommended to use this once a week because of the scrub element but after a week of everyday usage (once a day) and I don't see my skin drier or peeling, I don't see the reason why not to use it daily. I do always keep 2 types or brands of face wash every time (usually one cheap ones eg. biore or hadalabo and the more expensive one), to alternate because monotone is just boring, but that's just me wanting to try so many things.
So, there you have it, I think I cover all there is to know about washing your face LOL. Just type away if you have any other questions not covered here :).
This entry was originally posted at http://spsn.dreamwidth.org/108326.html. Please comment there using OpenID.