Most people use soap to wash their face and whole body. It is like social conditioning.
Let me tell you that being squeaky clean isn’t a good thing!
Here is why soap is the worst cleanser for your face:
1) It Dries the Skin. Harshly stripping the oils from your skin takes away it’s protective barrier. Oil protects and nourishes, keeps us looking young, and we want to keep it! Indeed you want to add oils to the skin.
2) Makes the Skin Overproduce Oil. After soap strips all the precious oils, the skin responds by producing more to compensate. In short, it throws the skins balance off.
3) Does Not Exfoliate. While harshly stripping oils, it does little for removing dead skin cells. This happens through exfoliation which requires more frictions. Cleansing grains are formulated with enough grit to accomplish exfoliation- I really like using amaranth.
4) Habit-Forming. Through the process of removing the oils that are protective and the skin rebounding by overproducing, it is natural to feel like you once again need to remove those oils with soap. Also though, I have head many people say they really like a good lather and have a hard time giving that up. The temporary “fresh” feeling soap gives is addictive.
5) Removes Probiotics. This is especially true if using any sort of antibacterial soaps. There is a tremendous ecosystem on our skin! It is good! Many of these are helpful bacteria that keep the others in check. Soap can remove them all and give not good ones more ground to grow.
6) Only Cleans the Surface. Soap has no drawing properties, like clays or honey. There is no cleansing of the deeper skin layers.
7) Accelerates Aging. With all of this, soap ends up being a very aging product. Youthing (anti-aging) practices include using oils liberally, exfoliating, respecting the balance of the skin.
Click Here for My List of Recommendations Instead of Soap
Photo attribute (before my editing): “Dudu Osun” by Spa Vivent Vertriebs GmbH – Spa Vivent Vertriebs GmbH. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dudu_Osun.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Dudu_Osun.jpg