This is going to sound completely strange to most people, but this post is all about how wonderful oil is for your face. Yes, you heard correctly, I said "oil." I'm sure that all of us have used an oil-based, eye make-up remover at one time or another and are probably at least vaguely aware that oil-based cleansers are great for breaking down make-up. Oil cleansers have more benefits than just make-up removal, though. It is also good for washing away other skin care products (like sunscreen) at the end of the day and some oil-based cleansers are supposed to be great for getting rid of
sebum and other oils on the face.
As counter-intuitive as it sounds, apparently it is true. I am told that this is how it works: the oils in the cleansers attract the oils that are on our skin already and when we wash off the oil-based cleanser the oil on our face goes bye-bye along with it. I am also told that
Biore Pore Strips work on a similar principal. I have also learned from a few sources that the wash-rinse-repeat routine that most of us do with our shampoo is also the best way to wash our faces. Skin-care specialists refer to this as the "double-cleanse." The double cleanse is supposed to be most effective when you first wash your face with an oil-based cleanser, rinse and then wash your face with a cleanser targeted to your skin type.
I have tried three oil-based cleansers before and liked all three of them. My personal favorite is
Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil. The reason I prefer it to the other two is that there are different ones for different skin types. To be honest, it is quite expensive and I found it to be no more effective than
Dermalogica Precleanse. The third one that I tried is really an exfoliator (
St. Ives Olive Scrub). Though I absolutely loved it, it is not really ideal to use as a first step in the double-cleanse process. I have learned that St. Ives also makes an
Olive Cleanser, but I have not personally tried it. If it is anywhere near as great as the Olive Scrub, it would be a very inexpensive alternative to the Shu Uemura and Dermalogica. If any of you try it, please let us know what you think.
