How Often Should You Wash Your Face: 4 Steps for the Best Technique

For a healthy, clear complexion, keeping your skin clean is essential, but it takes more than just splashing some water on your face. Knowing how often to cleanse could make the difference between glowing, healthy skin vs. a breakout of acne.

Learning how to properly wash your face takes time and attention, but cleaning your skin thoroughly isn’t just for removing makeup or when you feel dirty, like after a workout. Of course, it’s important for that, but it’s key in removing dead skin cells and anything else that clogs up your pores and causes your skin's natural glow to dullen.

Most people can benefit from adopting a twice-a-day face-washing routine. Let’s explore the answer to “How often should you wash your face?”, learn the best techniques to use, and find the best cleanser that can help you achieve clean, healthy, and clear skin.

• How Often Should You Wash Your Face?
• Why Is Proper Face-Washing Technique Important?
• What Type of Cleanser Is Best for Your Skin?
• How to Wash Your Face
• Face-Washing Do’s and Don'ts

How Often Should You Wash Your Face?

How often should you wash your face? Generally, twice a day should suffice.

Clean your face once in the morning to eliminate impurities that settle on your skin throughout the night and once at night to remove dirt, grime, and any makeup or product used throughout the day. Nighttime face washing prepares your skin for overnight renewal and regeneration processes.

While this is the unofficial standard for how often you should wash your face, the right frequency of washing your face depends on your skin’s specific needs and your lifestyle.

If you have extremely dry or sensitive skin, you may want to prioritize washing your face at night to remove the build-up of daytime grime, and then just rinse your face in the mornings with warm water. It's the same if you suffer from or have a flareup of eczema or rosacea or if you’re finding using cleanser twice a day is irritating.

That brings us to our next point: the cleanser you’re using should be gentle and safe for sensitive skin, like Barrier Pro™ 1-Step Cleanser, which is suitable for all skin types. This cleanser is designed for the twice-a-day regimen.

Finding out how often you should wash your face, what works best for your skin type, and developing a personalized skincare routine is essential to maintaining healthy, glowing skin.

Why Is Proper Face-Washing Technique Important?

Ultimately, how to clean your face and proper face-washing technique is crucial in maintaining healthy feeling and looking skin. Build-up from your daily activities and exposure to environmental factors and pollutants on your skin can lead to irritation and other skin problems if the dirt, oil, and other gunk isn’t removed.

Twice daily cleansings can prevent your skin from looking and feeling greasy and help keep it healthier.

Face washing is also key in preventing the spread of some diseases and conditions. Think about all the things your hands touch in an hour and then how many times you touch your face throughout the day. Germs can easily enter your body through your eyes, nose, and mouth.

Appropriate personal hygiene and frequent washing of your hands and face can protect you from infection.

What Type of Cleanser Is Best for Your Skin?

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to choosing the best cleansing option for your skin. There are quite a few types of cleansers when it comes to consistency and ingredients. Knowing the difference between each will allow you to filter your options and make searching for the right product a piece of cake.

These are a few of the most popular types of cleansers:

• Oil: An oil cleanser is a lightweight formula. Depending on the type of cleanser, it might have olive oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, or sunflower oil, among others.
• Gel cleansers are water-based and have a gel-like consistency. This gel makes it thicker than, say, a foam cleanser.
• Cream cleansers are very lush and creamy in texture and tend to be more gentle and hydrating.
• Foam cleansers fall between cream and gel cleansers that start out as a gel or cream; they burst into a rich, foamy lather.
• Clay cleansers are clay-based and are known for their ability to draw out excess oil and toxins from your pores.
• Micellar cleansers are made from purified water, known as micellar water. Basically, it’s a cleansing water.

Your preference for the type of formula is only one factor to consider. When it comes to choosing which cleanser is best for your skin, what really matters is the ingredients. You want something that’s gentle, will help you fight common skin concerns, keeps your skin looking and feeling healthy, and is also easy to use.

So, what do we recommend? We created a cleanser in collaboration with skin health professionals that can do all of these things and more.

Colorescience Barrier Pro™ 1-Step Cleanser is rich in antioxidants and is formulated to remove makeup, mineral sunscreen, and dirt for all skin types and is even safe for sensitive skin. With no need for a double cleanse! The formula is a multi-benefit, skin barrier-boosting solution that helps support your skin’s microbiome and promotes gentle exfoliation for softer, smoother, healthy skin.

How to Wash Your Face

How to wash your face might seem like the simplest thing in the world, but proper skincare takes time and learning what works best for your skin. Adopting a twice-a-day skincare routine where you wash your face once in the morning and once at night can benefit all skin types and lead to healthy, radiant skin.

Here’s how to wash your face with Barrier Pro™ 1-Step Cleanser:

Morning Cleanse routine - Make sure you do this before putting on makeup and/or sunscreen.

1. Wash your hands and wet your face with lukewarm water.
2. Dispense 1 pump of cleanser into wet hands.
3. Apply cleanser in a circular motion with your fingers to a wet face. Thoroughly cleanse for at least 1 minute. Spending time on your forehead, cheek, nose, chin, and eye areas equally. Avoid getting cleaner into the eyes, and add more water if needed.
4. Rinse thoroughly.

Evening Cleanse routine – Do this to remove makeup, sunscreen, and daily build-up.

1. Wash and wet your hands and leave your face dry.
2. Dispense 2-3 pumps of cleanser into wet hands.
3. Apply cleanser in a circular motion with your fingers to a dry face and massage the product into your skin to remove makeup, sunscreen, and dirt. Add water if needed to increase emulsification. Thoroughly cleanse for at least 1 minute. Spending time on your forehead, cheeks, nose, chin, and eye area equally. Avoid getting cleaner into the eyes, and add more water if needed.
4. Rinse thoroughly.

Post Face-Washing

When you’ve finished washing your face, it is time to complete the skincare routine with a replenishing moisturizer and serums that give you a radiant complexion. For example, serums like those with prickly pear extract can help brighten under-eye circles and help stimulate collagen production.

Moisturizing products like Colorescience Barrier Pro™ Essential Moisturizer can help strengthen the skin’s protective barrier, support and balance the microbiome, refine textures, and overall improve skin health and appearance. Resulting in a more vibrant, plump, healthy, and youthful skin and appearance.

With solutions like Colorescience Barrier Pro™ Barrier Health Dream Duo, which features Barrier Pro™ 1-Step Cleanser and Barrier Pro™ Essential Moisturizer, you can go beyond just washing your face. This duo supports your skin’s microbiome while hydrating and repairing skin cells and preparing your skin to better defend itself with an improved response to environmental aggressors.

When you use the Barrier Pro™ Barrier Health Dream Duo, you can enjoy plumper, smoother, stronger, and healthier, more youthful-looking skin.

Face-Washing Do’s and Don'ts

Here are some essential do’s and don’ts for how to clean your face.

Don’ts:

• Don’t wash your face with dirty hands.
• Don’t use piping-hot water.
• Don’t be rough with your face; the skin is delicate.
• Don’t over-clean or aggressively exfoliate your face.
• Don’t rub your face dry.

Do’s:

• Do wash your hands before face washing.
• Do use lukewarm water to wash your face.
• Do use cleansing as a way to rejuvenate and massage your skin.
• Do find and choose the best facial cleanser for your skin’s needs.
• Do pat your skin dry with a clean towel.

A Powerful Cleanser Can Transform Your Skincare

Now that you know how often you should wash your face and have found a cleanser that’s gentle and suitable for all skin types, you’re ready to take your daily skincare regimen to the next level. Try Barrier Pro™ 1-Step Cleanser today to support your skin’s microbiome and promote softer, smoother, healthy skin.