Cleanse, Tone, Moisturise

These days we don’t have enough time for anything so there is no surprise that we try to simplify our beauty routine. Cosmetics companies see that and we constantly have new products that will shave off minutes of our morning and evening maintenance drill. But does it really save us time and, more importantly, money?

Let’s look at the evidence. Long time ago all we had to do cleanse, tone and moisturise, plus an occasional visit to a beautician to pick our blackheads and squeeze our millia.  I’m not even going into the pre-holiday waxing and preening.

When did it all got so complicated. Sure, we use wash off cleansers, moisturisers with built in SPF, shellaq manicures that last longer…. But we use more stuff. I’m as guilty as any of us.

On one side I use a wash off gel cleanser, which in theory, should be enough, but it isn’t. To take make up off properly I still need a nice milky or oily cleanser, eye make up remover and a toner. By the way, toner doesn’t really tone anything, it’s just there to remove the last bit of dirt that cleanser missed.  So I counted four products so far. Plus your cotton wool, muslin cloths etc. You get the picture.

As we try to cut on the time we spend on the cleansing that we don’t do properly in the first place, our skin gets congested so we have to exfoliate, use things like clarisonic, purifying masks, moisturising masks, anti ageing peels etc.

Going to a beauty salon to try new “breakthrough” lifting, poking, prodding, dermarolling treatments all in the hope we would save time at home. Again, you get the picture.

Perhaps it’s time we went back full circle to the old fashioned routine. I know there’s nothing cutting edge about it, but I’m a true believer in proper cleansing. The cleansing will massage and stimulate your skin and you’ll end up with a clearer skin. It will also gently exfoliate the dead skin cells. If you don’t believe me try putting on make up five times in a day and taking it off. Your face will be painfully sore.  So morning and evening would be enough.

If your skin is on a dry side I also believe you will benefit from moisturising waters that most Japanese cosmetics companies do and also Melvita, but deep cleansing masks, lifting masks, scrubs etc will be the thing of the past.

I’ve done this routine before and I need to start doing this again, who is with me?