When choosing product to care for our skin, the go-to is often what our mom passes on to us, or what our friends swear by. If you are lucky enough to have 'normal' skin when you're younger, you can cleanse with most types of products and not suffer big consequences. If you have challenges with breakouts, congestion/blackheads, eczema or psoriasis, or rosacea, there's more riding on your choice.
As we age, other concerns arise - with perimenopause, menopause and hormonal shifts, the skin changes, creating even more reason to choose your cleanser with care. Skin naturally thins as we age, and sometimes we get a whole new bout of breakouts in adulthood. If you've had oily skin your whole life, then cleansing with an oil sounds counterintuitive - it is a big mental shift to embrace massaging cleansing oil into your 'oily' skin.
But here's why oil cleansing works for all skin types: Like Attracts Like.
No one understands this better than Kindred Skincare's founder, Frances, a Materials Science Engineer and formulator. Here's the method behind her botanical oil cleansers:
Based on solid chemistry and thousands of years of use, oil based cleansing works to uniquely and most effectively remove toxins without stripping.
The skin is the body’s largest organ and is protected by the sebum, which consists of triglycerides, wax esters, and squalene. These oils are very effective at shielding our skin from the daily barrage of bacteria and toxins, and play an important role in our overall health. That’s why it’s so important to preserve them.
Our culture has been taught to be “squeaky clean” and use lots of suds to clean the oil, dirt, and makeup from our faces after a busy day. The foaming agents, emulsifiers and thickeners that are part of most facial-cleansing products have given us the texture and viscosity that we equate with “clean” but leave the skin feeling both pinched and dry as well as leaving behind makeup residue.
The polarized molecules in most water-based soaps mix with the water we splash onto our faces as we apply them. They may attract some polarized dirt particles but will never attract oil molecules. Much like when you shake oil and vinegar together in a bottle, when you wash with water the oil and water. molecules on your face move around but do not truly interact.
Kindred’s carefully formulated oils, on the other hand, gently loosen the top layer of sebum that traps dirt and makeup. They clean the skin without stripping the needed sebum, which is deeper in the pores.
“Over cleaning” with conventional soaps can stimulate the production of excess sebum and create unwanted oiliness. Oil cleansing removes foreign particles while maintaining a healthy sebum.
An equally important part of any cleansing process is mechanical action. By using your hands to massage the product all over your face, throat, and chest for a couple of minutes, you distribute its oils and dislodge the dirt and makeup from your pores. Slowly, reflectively massage our inspired, restorative blends, along with their cleansing properties, the essential oils in Kindred Skincare Co. products are formulated to promote a sense of wellbeing.
A few minutes later when you wipe your skin thoroughly with a very warm washcloth, your skin will have a “true clean” and your spirits will feel purified, rejuvenated and refreshed.
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I chose Kindred Skincare because Frances has put so much thought into every single product, vetting each ingredient for purity and effectiveness. She offers two cleaners, one for most skin types - Oil Cleanse, and a Complete Cleanse that works wonders for many skin challenges.
If you'd like help choosing the Kindred Cleanser that's right for you, give me a call or drop me a line!
Brooke
Frances Thrasher's comments via Kindred Skincare.