Why You should Be Double Cleansing Your Oily Acne Prone Skin

Double cleansing has been around for a while but in the past few years, it was brought to the limelight by the Koreans in their famous 10 steps Korean skincare. Since then, it has been a huge trend and for good reason too. It has a lot of skin benefits especially for oily skin and in today’s post I will be sharing the benefits of double cleansing oily acne-prone skin, how to double cleanse, and the best products for double cleansing oily skin.

So as usual, grab a cup of coffee, tea, or something… and let’s dive in

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Table of Contents

Double Cleansing Oily Acne-Prone skin

Double cleansing as the name implies is cleansing your skin twice. The first step is an oil cleanse while the second is a water-based cleanse

Step 1: Oil Cleansing

The first step is the oil cleanse, it involves cleansing your face with oil. For many with oily skin, it may sound counter-intuitive to apply oil to already oily skin. But oil cleansing is based on the premise that “like dissolves like”.

Using an oil-based product ensures a deeper clean. The oils go in and break down sebum, water-proof makeup, and pollutants. For those of us with oily acne-prone skin, keeping our pores unclogged is the goal of our skincare routine.

Back in the days, people with oily skin leaned towards using drying cleansers to control their oiliness. But that did more harm than good. It stripped the skin of its natural oils and left the skin dry and dehydrated.

When you strip the skin, the sebaceous glands which are the oil-producing glands sense the dryness and then try to counteract this by producing more oils. This leads to a vicious cycle of excessive oiliness which clogs the pores and causes acne.

What can you use for your oil cleanse?

There are a couple of options for the first cleanse and they include:

The downside to using natural oils as opposed to cleansing oils and balms is that a lot of these oils are heavy and comedogenic(meaning they can clog the pores) and leave an oily residue on the skin. The cleansing balms and oils, on the other hand, are formulated with emulsifiers which make the oils and balms turn creamy white on contact with water, leaving your skin clean but not stripped.

Step 2: Water-based Cleansing

The second step is targeted towards getting rid of dirt and residue left on the skin after the first cleanse. All cleansers are not made equally. You should look out for cleansers formulated for your skin type.

For dry skin types, using a creamy cleanser cleans out the skin mildly without stripping it. For this skin type use cleansers with skin hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid.

For oily acne-prone skin, using a gel or foaming cleanser with salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide will add an acne-fighting step to your cleansing routine

How To Double Cleanse Oily Acne Prone Skin

To begin your double cleanse you want to start off on dry skin. I prefer to double cleanse at night. This helps to get rid of makeup, sunscreen, and excess oil.

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Firstly you go in with a cleansing oil/ balm/ micellar water.

Take a few drops/scoops and then massage unto your skin. Making sure you have massaged every part of your face.
After about 30-60 seconds, wet your hands with lukewarm water, you will observe that the cleansing balm/oil now emulsify.
Rinse off with Luke warm water
Drop a few pumps of your water-based cleanser unto your palms and lather it up
Apply the lather to your face and massage unto your skin for about 60 seconds
Rinse off and then follow up with the rest of your skincare routine.

I use the Cerave renewing SA cleanser and let it sit on my skin while I shower to allow the salicylic acid to do its work. And then I rinse off afterward.

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Final Take Home

Double cleansing is not just a trend, it’s a simple way to effectively clean your oil acne-prone skin of excess oil that can clog your pores and cause breakouts. So if you aren’t oil Cleansing already please jump on the bandwagon.