If you look in the beauty aisle of your local grocery store or pharmacy, you are likely to find several varieties of cleansers for your face, including the latest oil-based brands. It sounds gentle and natural, so shouldn’t it be a good option for your facial skin? Not necessarily. Certain oil-based products on your face can actually be very detrimental and here’s why:
- They may not be as effective as you may think. Many women turn to oil-based cleansers in hopes of easily removing their make-up after a long, busy day. It turns out, these products may just be breaking up your makeup and moving it around in different areas of your face instead of properly removing it. Essentially, you are just adding oil to your leftover makeup and dirt.
- They may not going “skin deep.” A good facial cleanser is able to exfoliate dirt and toxins from all layers of your skin. Unfortunately, oil-based cleansers typically just penetrate the top layer, where only the dead skin cells reside. It may be a gentle cleanser, but its doing a subpar job.
- They can cause dryness. How can an oil-based product contribute to facial dryness? Oil based moisturizers and cleansers can seal in or smother you skin and inhibit your body’s natural process of hydrating your skin based on the surrounding humidity around you. The drying effect on your skin can be a double-whammy because dry skin leads to wrinkles and an aged appearance.
- They can cause skin irritations and acne. Since oil-based cleansers don’t usually penetrate past the top layer of dead skin cells, it sits there and creates the perfect environment for acne-causing bacteria to accumulate.
- They can sabotage the work of other facial products. If you’ve invested in a special anti-aging serum or other expensive products for your face, you could be wasting your money if you are using an oil-based facial cleanser every day. The oil essentially provides a layer of sludge that blocks those products from getting absorbed into the deeper layers of your skin.
Not sure which cleanser to use for your particular skin type? We can help. In fact, personalized skin care is what we specialize in at Olansky Dermatology Associates. Call our Atlanta area office today.
