Don’t Be Dirty!

Posted: Friday 14 January 2011 07:00am

Does your skin feel tight or dry, with premature lines or wrinkles? Are you fighting a losing battle with breakouts, sensitivity or redness? Before you outlay a fortune on products or treatments for “problem” skin consider the question: how clean is it?

Like most Australians, you’ll have grown up with the mantra that, no matter how big a night you’ve had or how tired you are, you must never go to bed without taking off your make up, washing your face of accumulated daily grime and cleaning your teeth.

You’d be a rarity if this ritual was scrupulously observed night after night, but it’s doubtful you will have woken with a face full of spots or loose teeth as a result of the occasional lapse.

Imagine, though, how your skin would look if you went to bed every night for a month without washing your face properly. Or, conversely, stripped it on a daily basis.

That’s what many of us are doing. For all best intentions we’re either cleaning our skin not well enough, or too much, leading to a range of troubling conditions.

Experts from across the skin care spectrum explain the problems under- and over-cleansing can cause, and offer their solutions.

Wipe away the years

“Research has clearly demonstrated that regular cleansing can have multiple benefits,”says cosmetic physician Dr Peter Bakaric, of Sydney’s Collagen Face Centre. These include:

• Increased cellular turnover with associated anti-ageing benefits.
• Stimulating collagen and elastin production
• Removing potentially toxic and carcinogenic material from the skin
• Reducing bacterial load and unclogging pores in conditions such as acne
• Decreased incidence of pre skin cancers such as solar keratoses or sunspots
• Increased uptake of active cosmeceuticals

Dr Bakaric points out that skin cleansing used to rely on a person’s diligence (or lack thereof), but “fortunately, methods of cleansing have evolved to the extent that they are now simple, cost effective and actually a pleasure,” he says.

“The latest innovation is the Clarisonic, which was developed and researched by the inventors of the Sonicare toothbrush. It has, and will continue to revolutionise skin cleansing techniques in much the same way that the electric toothbrush has done for dental hygiene.

“I’ve introduced the professional version, Clarisonic Pro, into my clinic (a home version is also available). Topical anaesthetic creams applied prior to potentially painful procedures [such as dermal fillers, muscle relaxant injections, laser and chemical peels] work much more quickly and effectively on adequately cleansed skin; when all of the debris and dead cells are removed from the epidermis.

“I believe the main benefit of Clarisonic will ultimately be the increased absorption of active creams. The penetration is up to 10 times more effective when the skin is cleansed with the Clarisonic system prior to application.”

by Jenni Gilbert

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