Why is it important to clean your face at night or . . . never go to sleep with your makeup on!

No . . . this isn’t about messing up your pillow case! This is about your skin regenerating itself overnight. Really. It does that.

I had a client this week that, quite simply said, blew me away! And, not in a good way. She’s there for a European Facial. After getting her hair all tucked away, I began with a good surface cleansing, as usual. She was wearing very heavy makeup. The rinse water was really full of makeup after this first rinse so I changed out the water. Next was a deep pour cleansing. Sponge, rinse, sponge, rinse – the water was full of makeup again.

Looking under my (very) high-powered magnifying lamp, I was astonished to see her pores were still filled – completely impacted with makeup. I applied an enzyme masque for appropriate time, used a hand complexion brush, sponge, rinse, sponge, rinse. The brush was filled with makeup and still tons of makeup remained deep down into her pores! I truly have never seen such a thing.

Now, of course, we need a whole different consultation on home skincare. She tells me she never washes her face before bed. WHAT? Never? No, never.

Her reason was that she has Rosacea. She uses hardcore Dermablend and doesn’t wash it off at night. She applies it all over her face with a sponge every single day and doesn’t wash off the previous layer. Think about it. Not to beat up on this precious client, but it’s like spackling a nail hole over and over. Packing it in – tighter and tighter. Why in the world she isn’t a mess of blemishes is beyond me. She is beautiful . . . and very fortunate.

I’m going to write a future blog dedicated to Rosacea skincare and cover up, but this blog is going to be about cleansing your skin at home – every night!

First thing is how pimples, zits, blemishes, white heads, and blackheads are formed. Blackheads and whiteheads, professionally known as comedones, can be more numerous on the face and shoulders than red bumps filled with pus.

Pores – actually follicles – have oil glands feeding into them. In healthy skin, the oil lubricates the hair and surrounding tissue. When a pore gets filled with plugs of sebum (oil) and sloughed-off cells several things can happen. You know how an apple turns brown when it sits on a counter? That’s called oxidation. Same thing can happen to the “junk” filling or clogging a pore. It oxidizes – turns black. There you have a blackhead.

Now a whitehead doesn’t oxidize so you see a blemish that remains white. If this comedone isn’t opened up and skin covers the clogged pore, the “junk” hardens and this is called a milia. It’s common to find milia around the eye area.

Pustules occur when there is a break in the follicle wall, white blood cells invade, and pus is formed.  A pustule is what most people consider a typical pimple or common zit.

OK . . . yuck! Got THAT out of the way. Now just imagine all of that normal stuff going on above AND continuing to pack makeup into those follicles, too. What a skin nightmare!

If you perspire at all at night, which most people do, then what do you think happens with the leftover makeup on your face? It mingles with the sweat, which can easily clog your pores. If your face becomes oily or sweaty, then all of that makeup that has mingled with these substances is transferred to your pillow, along with dead skin cells, which combined together, will ALSO clog up those pores, resulting in breakouts. If you don't wash your pillow case the next day or change it, then you are sleeping on the previous night's combination of makeup, sweat, oil and dead skin cells. It just keeps building up to more skincare bad dreams!

Your skin really does work hard at night to regenerate itself. Having something on your face that is unable to penetrate it (i.e. makeup) will slow down, if not stop, the regeneration process. My  sweet client was actually suffocating her skin! She is so lucky that she hasn’t had severe adverse reactions. As it is, she has very sandpaper texture to her lovely face. Most people would find that these bad habits can lead to premature aging, excess dehydration/dryness, and can lead to irritation, breakouts, and even true acne.

Finally, leaving on your makeup can easily cause eye infections due to makeup making it’s way into your eye.  It can cause dryness and thinning to your lashes or even loss of your eyelashes.

So . . . as you can see there really is no reason not to wash your face before bed. I would even suggest putting one of those containers of pre-moistened face wipes beside your bed just in case you forget. But don’t they say habits are formed by doing something over and over just three times? Or something like that.

Look for a future blog on night time moisturizing and treatment creams, Rosasea skin care, and camouflage makeup. But for now . . . this is just another day in my life!