Wednesday, 23 March 2011

My Night-time Cleansing Routine - step by step!

Hello lovelies,

I don't know what's possessed me, but i've decided to make a blog post AND video of my night-time cleansing route, AS I DO IT, so you can see me in all my no-makeup glory (turn away if you're of a weak disposition har har).

This is me before make-up removal....

First things first, the vital tools...
  • Cotton wool (preferably pads, mine are of the sealed-edge variety from Poundland!)
  • Muslin cloths or face cloth
  • Eye make-up remover - in my case i'm using olive oil from the supermarket!
  • Cleanser - i'm using No7 Age Defense Cleansing Balm - review to come!
  • Toner - Mine is Boots Botanics toner
  • Eye moisturiser - i'm using Boots Vitamin E
  • Facial moisturiser - i've got some Ponds moisturiser (nothing special!)
  • And a hair bobble and hair band if you've got long hair like me
So, Step one - I usually take my eye make up off first to save smearing it all over my face later. I've started using a method picked up from Lisa Eldridge whereby you take a cotton pad, cut/tear it into 2 halves, soak in your make-up remover, then place under your eye area...!

This helps protect your delicate eye area, where i've started noticing fine lines (I think harsh scrubbing with wipes are to blame).

Step Two - Soak two more cotton pads in your make-up remover, then place over each eye, preferably for 10-20 seconds. This helps effectively loosen up your mascara, eyeliner, even falsh-eyelash glue, and allows you to simply "slide" it off rather than scrubbing at your eyes.  
("Aye aye captain!")
After the 10-20 seconds start gently patting your eye under the pad, then slide the pads off. You should now have a lovely clean eye area, like so ("naked" eye on right, made-up eye on left):

If you have any make-up residue left over, simply dab/pat at the area with your pad and remover, and very gently wipe round and this should sort the problem!


Step three - Cleanser. I do the "double cleanse", whereby the first one is simply to remove make-up, and the second is a proper deep cleanse of your skin.
Now,  for my first cleanse I massage it in, then soak a muslin/face cloth in hand-hot water, place it over my face (and let the steam get to work in my pores) then gently work round my face, which not only helps remove make-up but acts as a gentle exfoliant. Of course you could always just wipe the cleanser off with cotton wool, its your choice (and depends on the cleanser).
For the second cleanse I apply more cleanser and spend a bit more time working it into my face and neck. Then I simply wipe off with cotton pads.


Step Four - I use a toner to ensure I have removed all traces of cleanser and to tighten up my pores after being opened from the hot water (insert very cheesy pic here!).


Step five - apply eye and facial moisturiser.

And...voila! Lovely clean skin ready for bed!

It looks like a lot of steps, but it takes about 5 minutes, and I like knowing my face is squeaky clean!
Obviously my morning routine is far less extensive. I wash my face with water, use some Nivea daily facial scrub, sometimes tone, then apply my daily moisturiser (followed by Clinique City Defense).

Care to share your cleansing routine?

Melanie x

P.S. Here's the video I made, which is basically the exact same thing but you can see it in action!!

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