I will probably gross you all out after you've finished reading this. But I know I'm not within the norm, and I'm just curious about how often most girls do it. The general consensus is at least once a day, but more often it happens twice in a day.
By "it", I mean: how often do you wash your face?
This is where it gets a little gross. But this is a beauty confession, so I will be frank. In a day, I wash my face on average about... oh, never.
The only time I wash my face is when I'm in the shower (sometimes) and after I've been wearing makeup and need to remove it. I have a shower once a day, occasionally twice (if it's "that time" of the month, before going out at night, if I need to shave my legs etc).
When I'm in the shower, sometimes I decide to wash my face with a cleanser, and other times I don't bother with a cleanser. I'll just use plain water. This is usually determined by when I last washed my face i.e: did I wash my face just before getting into bed last night? If that was the case, I'll just splash my face with water and call it a day. However, If I last washed my face in yesterday's early morning shower, I'll wash my face again. I guess I give myself a daily allowance of just one time to wash my face (with cleanser).
Most girls will wash their face upon waking, then again before getting into bed. Do I bother to wash my face before getting into bed? Generally, no. Even if I had gone out that day. The only times I will wash my face before bedtime is if I had been wearing sunscreen, if I had been wearing makeup, or if I had been excessively sweating from exercise (which let me just say, occurs as frequently as a mass extinction on Earth i.e: once every 26 million years)!
I know that you should wash your face before getting into bed, to wash away all the dirt and toxins that have accumulated on the skin throughout the day, as well as all the free radicals collected from our environment. So why don't I?
Two reasons: one - I'm lazy. And two - I don't really go out all that frequently. I'm at home most of the time, therefore I don't think my skin gathers as much crap as say, someone who works 5 days a week in the city. I have found that not washing my face often has actually improved my skin. I'm not as greasy as I used to be. I don't ever get pimples (I used to get a lot!), except for the occasional hormonal breakout of one or two baby zits before my period.
This is how I see it: the less you do to your skin, the less you need to do to maintain it. The more you wash your face and apply oil free moisturisers and yada yada, the more your skin will produce sebum to compensate, therefore your skin looks more oily, therefore you wash even more and find harsher cleansers to combat the oil, therefore the more sebum your skin produces, therefore the more oily you look and so forth. It's quite a nasty cycle. I believe this may have been why my skin was so atrocious a few years ago where I was obsessed with washing it twice daily and using oil free products so I wouldn't be a grease ball.
Of course, I can't speak for everyone. Maybe washing regularly works well for you. And if that's the case, then I'm sure you're happy with your routine.
My skincare routine goes something like this: wash face, either with or without cleanser. Apply eye cream. Spritz face with a toner mist. Pat on rose hip oil as a moisturiser. The end.
Every now and then I'll do a clay mask, and twice a week I'll exfoliate with a granulated scrub which also contains a chemical exfoliant.
These days, I have pretty nice, normal skin. Right now I have a zit on my cheek which can be attributed to my menstrual cycle, but other than that it's pretty clear. If I have moisturised my skin well, it appears quite even toned and the texture is soft and smooth. I get asked all the time which foundation I'm wearing, or if I'm pregnant (because I apparently "glow" like a pregnant lady). The answer is always "I'm not wearing any foundation!" or "Why, do I look fat to you?!"
So, how often do you do it?
