Dr. Chwalek still recommends that her clients wash their face at least once a day with a gentle cleanser, preferably at night (when your face is coated with a day's worth of dirt). "Not washing your face could cause the buildup of oil and dirt that may lead to acne, more prominent pores, and inflammation," she says.
Washing your skin twice a day is “especially important for those who have acne-prone skin, as facial cleansing removes grime from the skin and pores, which [if allowed to build up], leads to clogging and breakouts,” Geria says.
Old skin cells naturally turn over and are replaced by new ones in 28-day cycles. However, skincare products block our epidermis (the outermost layer of our skin structure) and stop it from naturally peeling off. Due to the blockage, our skin fails to turnover, and its natural renewal cycle is disturbed.
It's pretty bad. Premature aging, dryness, breakouts, even potential infections can result from failure to wash your face before going to sleep. The good news is that skipping your normal skin care routine for one night probably won't do irreparable damage.
Benefits of not washing your face in the morning
My dermatologist explained to me that skipping my morning cleanse could help with my skin's dryness, as it would be one less thing stripping my skin of its natural oils (even though I was using a hydrating cleanser).
It's not necessary to wash your face with a cleanser every morning. Rinsing with lukewarm water will likely be sufficient. However, depending on your skin condition and your nighttime skincare routine, it can be beneficial to wash it with a suitable cleanser.
“Eliminating all products can potentially wreak havoc on your skin, so this is something that I don't recommend,” she says. “For example, if you stop washing your face with a cleanser, dirt, debris, makeup, and oil can build up, resulting in more breakouts.”
Without cleansing, free radicals, toxins, and impurities aren't removed from your skin. For every night you don't cleanse your face, you are aging your skin by 3 months! And, it's accumulative.
However, simply leaving your face alone may not be the best skin care routine for everyone. While it is true that over-cleansing or over-exfoliating can damage the skin barrier, neglecting your skin entirely can lead to issues such as clogged pores, breakouts, and uneven texture.
However, healthy-looking skin can also be achieved naturally with behaviors such as getting quality sleep, exercising regularly, and eating fruits and vegetables. Moisturizers, serums, and face creams may all have the ability to enhance the appearance of your skin.
What Happens When You Stop Using Skincare? The short answer is that it depends on what you are treating with your skincare routine to begin with. “If there is an underlying medical condition that you're treating, such as acne or rosacea, you can experience a flare of either condition if you stop the regimen,” Dr.
"Our skin is busy repairing itself overnight with increased cell repair and regeneration occurring, so there's truth to 'beauty sleep' and waking up with great skin," she says.
If you don't wash your face at all, dermatologist Leah Ansell warns, a buildup of icky stuff will occur, "leaving a film on your skin. Worse, it can lead to bacterial infections such as folliculitis or acne," she tells Best Life. Still, a daily face wash might not be totally necessary, some say.
Ignoring signs of developing acne can lead to more permanent damage, longer healing time, and even pain. The best way to deal with acne is by continuous care and attention, along with a proper skincare routine that is suited for your skin.
"Some people may just not be genetically predisposed to breakouts or may produce less [oil],” says Batra. If that sounds like you, you may actually find your skin looks better when you ditch your cleanser.
In general, you should be cleansing your face at least twice a day. “You should wash your face both morning and night because the skin creates sebum and oil throughout the day,” says Saya Obayah, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist located in Austin, Texas.
Exfoliating removes dead surface skin cells which helps reveal the more luminous, younger looking skin beneath.
Given the increase in oil production, she says your skin will usually look greasier and slightly more inflamed. Zeichner adds that stress acne can also look like a combination of blackheads, whiteheads, red bumps, and pus pimples.
Isotretinoin: This is a potent medicine that attacks all four causes of acne—bacteria, clogged pores, excess oil, and inflammation (redness and swelling). About 85% of patients see permanent clearing after one course of isotretinoin.
However, this acne can also continue to appear due to imbalanced levels of estrogen and progesterone hormones in our body. Usually, it occurs due to several things such as an unhealthy lifestyle, rarely exercising, eating too many high-calorie foods, consuming fatty foods, excess stress, and lack of sleep.