Cleansing is the foundation of every good skin routine. If you do it right, you are off to a great start. Like everything else we do, when we are intentional about cleansing, we do a better job of it. There are very few simple rules around cleansing since the ultimate goal is make the skin clean. Here are three of our best practices for cleansing:

Start with a pH Balanced Cleanser— this means a pH that closely matches your skin’s pH of about 5.5. It is important in maintaining a healthy skin barrier. A good pH balanced cleanser should leave your skin feeling clean and comfortable. When your cleanser has a pH that is significantly higher than your skin’s pH, it can leave your skin feeling tight and dry, and over time, this can mess with the skin’s barrier function. Higher pH levels are also more conducive for bacterial growth which can result in breakouts.

  
Next is to wash your face for a least 60 seconds. This means 60 seconds of actual washing in a gentle massage motion so as to properly breakdown dirt, grim and sunscreen from your day. It also allows any active ingredient in your cleanser enough contact time with your skin to have the desired effect.

Our final recommendation is to always use a clean towel. We recommend grabbing a fresh face cloth every day to reduce the chances of reintroducing bacteria to your clean skin via a dirty towel.

Follow up cleansing with at toner to balance out the skin. Toners have really come a long way from back when they were mostly astringents and filled with alcohol. Today’s toners are more like essences chock full of great-for-the-skin ingredients. We particularly love ours for the key ingredients we chose:

It’s hard to go wrong with our well-reviewed cleansing duo and they make a great foundation to any routine.