Your most important step in daily skincare routine is cleaning. No matter what you say or do, if your routine includes ‘cleansing’ your face only with wipes, and then applying expensive moisturizers or serums to your skin, you will be wasting your time and money.

Double cleaning is something you might be already doing, or you have no idea what it is. Lets see. You are effectively double cleansing if you use more than one product to remove makeup in the evenings.

If you first cleanse your skin with a micellar oil or eye makeup remover (this is the best way to remove it) its great. To remove all other products, you should follow that with a good cleanser. This is your second cleanse. A micellar water is not the second cleanse.

Speaking about mornings let’s get this out of the way: there is no double cleansing. Get up and wash your face. There is no need to remove any makeup or sunscreen. So it’s easier. Evenings are more important.

There are many types of cleansers for morning and for evening

Mornings

• Non-foaming gels
• Milks
• Lotions
• Balm Cleansers
• Oils
• Cleansers made from clay
• Anything, except:
• Wipes
• Micellar water

How your skin feels at the start of the day and how you spend your day will be determined by what your morning routine looks like. If I have a long day ahead and am wearing makeup, I might use oil to clean my skin. My skin feels soft, holds on to moisture longer after cleansing. This has a knock-on effect and prevents my makeup from getting patchy in the afternoon.

If I’m at home, I’ll use something slightly stronger, like a strong acid cleanser and heavy moisturizers.

You should treat your skin like a spa day if you know that you will be staying at home during the day. Cleanse, exfoliate and treat your skin. You only need to repeat the treatment, not the whole routine!

My skin looks amazing if I work from home for a few days and then looks just ok if I go to town for appointments every day.

Wipes or micellar water aren’t great for mornings. They can only be used in an emergency to remove makeup.

Evenings

Double cleansing is often confused with using oil and foam. No. Take the necessary steps to correct any damage done to your skin. Your face/routine is more important than any beauty counter.

Do you use a lot of eye makeup? It’s best to remove it immediately when you’re at home.

Do you love SPF? You need to take care of this first.

Both? Use grease. If in doubt, use grease. Consider all the Hollywood movie stars who used grease to remove their faces. It works.

1.First cleanse:

• Eye makeup removers
• Micellar waters
• Greasy balms – not necessarily the most expensive, but ones that remove makeup well – such as Clinique TTDO or The Body Shop Camomile Butter
• Cleansing creams, preferably thicker ones. Clarins Extra Comfort Cleansing Cream is a great example.
• Oils – Oils are great for removing make-up, but you don’t need to spend a lot of money on your first cleanse.

2. Second cleanse

This is the place to use your most expensive cleanser. Its purpose is to ensure your skin is healthy, balanced, and comfortable so you can apply any other products. Now it’s time for you to put your best stuff.

If you are concerned about your budget, you can use the same cleanser for both. If you have to choose, you should buy the best cleanser you can afford.

Apply a little bit of one product to the first cleanse. This is mainly for loosening eye makeup and the cheeks (where we apply the most SPF). Apply a flannel to remove the product and then go back in with another round.

Not the first cleanse, but the second cleanse is the massage stage.

These are the best products for second cleansing:

• Good cleansing balms. These are plant-based and greasy. Greasy in the best possible way
• Cleansing milks
• Cleansing gels – non-foaming
• Cleansing creams
• Clay cleaning

The great cleanser is oil and balms. They’re good  for making sure everything is clean and don’t disrupt the acid mantle too much. It is important to do this every day without fail.