On the Second Cleanse
Nelly on the second cleanse — the most underrated minute of your week.
Nelly on the second cleanse — the most underrated minute of your week.
The second cleanse has a reputation problem. It sounds like a step invented to sell you a second bottle, and I understand the suspicion, because I held it for years. I washed my face once, at night, with whatever was standing by the sink, and I took the tight feeling afterwards as proof that the job had been done properly. It had not. The sunscreen was still on, the jaw was still faintly shiny, and my skin was paying for the effort of a cleanse that was trying to do two jobs at once and doing both of them badly.
Here is the whole argument, so you can stop reading if you are in a hurry. The first cleanse takes off what you put on your face. The second cleanse cleans the face. Sunscreen and makeup are designed to stay put through a day of weather, coffee and other people, and things designed to stay put do not come off with one pass of anything gentle. You can either cleanse once and harshly, or twice and kindly. I have tried both, and only one of them leaves a face that feels like a face at eleven at night.
I call it the most underrated minute of your week, not of your day, on purpose. I do not do it every night. I do it on the nights that ask for it: the nights with sunscreen, which in my flat is most of them, and the nights with makeup, which is fewer. On an evening when I have been indoors with a bare face and a book, one gentle cleanse is plenty, and I would rather you heard that from me than worked it out after a month of over-washing.
Beginner · About three minutes, one of them the second cleanse · Nights with sunscreen or makeup · Two cleansers and a clean towel
You can cleanse once and harshly, or twice and kindly. Only one of them leaves a face that feels like a face at eleven at night.
One minute, after the first one.
Step one · 60 seconds — The first cleanse, on a dry face.
Balm, oil or micellar water — whichever you already own is the right one. What matters is that it goes onto a dry face with dry hands, because the whole mechanism of a first cleanse is that oil dissolves oil, and water on the skin gets in the way of that before it has started. Work it over the face slowly, with flat fingers, including the hairline and the sides of the nose, where sunscreen hides. If it is a balm or an oil, add a little water at the end so it turns milky, then rinse. If it is micellar water, use a properly soaked pad rather than a stingy one, and do not scrub.
Do the eyes in this step, not the next one. Hold a soaked pad against the lashes for a few seconds and let the mascara dissolve. It comes off. It does not need to be argued with.
Step two · 20 seconds — Rinse, and actually look.
Lukewarm water, a few splashes, and then thirty seconds of honesty in the mirror. Look at the hairline, the jaw, the corners of the nose, under the chin. If there is still a sheen, or a faint line of foundation at the edge of the face, you are looking at the reason this piece exists. The first cleanse took off the bulk. It rarely takes off everything, and the bit it leaves behind is the bit sitting in the places you were not looking.
Do this check in ordinary bathroom light, not under a magnifying mirror. You are looking for residue, not for flaws, and a magnifying mirror cannot tell the difference.
Step three · 60 seconds — The second cleanse, a gentle gel.
A small amount of a gentle gel cleanser — the kind labelled for sensitive skin, with no fragrance and not much foam — worked into damp skin with the fingertips. The foam is not the point. A cleanser that foams up like a bath is usually one that will leave you tight, and tight is not clean; tight is a face that has lost more than it should have. A pea-sized amount is enough for the whole face. Spend the minute where the first cleanse was weakest: hairline, jaw, sides of the nose, the strip under the chin that everybody forgets.
A minute is longer than you think. Count it once, properly, and you will know what it feels like for the rest of your life. Most people stop at about fifteen seconds and wonder why they still see sunscreen on the towel.
If you own an acid cleanser, this is the step it belongs in, and not every night. Once a week is how I use mine, and the reasoning is at the Sunday-only routine.
Step four · 20 seconds — Rinse lukewarm, then pat.
Not hot. Hot water feels thorough and it is the quickest way I know to a red, tight face before bed. Lukewarm, several splashes, until the skin stops feeling slippery. Then a clean towel, pressed against the face rather than dragged across it, until the skin is damp rather than dry. Damp matters, because whatever goes on next works better on skin that still holds a film of water.
A clean towel every couple of days costs nothing. A towel that has been doing the job for a fortnight is putting back some of what you have just taken off.
Step five · However long you like — Then leave it alone.
The second cleanse is not the beginning of a treatment hour. It is the end of the day. Whatever you put on afterwards should be short and plain — the jar, or a few drops of oil, or both on a cold night — and the full order I use is written up in the evening wind-down. If you are tempted to add something because the skin feels unusually clean, resist it. Clean skin is not a vacancy.
The shelf — what this actually needs
- A first cleanser: a balm, an oil or a micellar water, whichever you already like
- A gentle gel cleanser with no fragrance and very little foam
- Reusable cotton pads, if your first cleanse is micellar
- A clean towel, more often than feels necessary
Clean skin is not a vacancy. You do not have to fill it with something because it is suddenly available.
How to know it is working.
Give it two or three weeks of sunscreen nights before you judge it. The changes are quiet, and most of them are things that stop happening rather than things that start.
- The towel stops coming away with a faint beige or white smear after you dry your face.
- The little bumps along the jaw and at the hairline — the ones you had filed under hormones or stress — start to settle.
- Your face feels comfortable a few minutes after rinsing, not tight and not slippery.
- Whatever you put on afterwards behaves better, because it is going onto skin rather than onto yesterday.
- If your face feels tight or looks pink after the second cleanse, the gel is too strong or the water is too hot. Change one of those before you abandon the step.
When it isn't going to plan.
Is twice a night not going to strip my skin?
It can, if both cleansers are harsh or the water is hot. Done the way it is described here, it is usually gentler than a single aggressive wash, because neither step is being asked to do everything. The first one is oil, which does not strip. The second is mild and short. If you still feel tight, use less of the gel, rinse sooner, and skip the second cleanse on bare-faced nights.
Do I need it every night?
No. Sunscreen nights and makeup nights, yes. A night spent indoors with nothing on your face needs one gentle cleanse and nothing else. A routine that does not distinguish between those two evenings is a routine that has not been thought about.
Can I use the same cleanser twice?
If it is a gentle gel and your first pass was makeup-free, it will do. It is not ideal for sunscreen, because a water-based cleanser is mediocre at lifting the films that sunscreen is built to form. That is why the first step is an oil or a micellar water. Two different jobs, two different tools.
My skin is oily. Should I use something stronger for the second cleanse?
Usually the opposite. Oily skin that is cleansed harshly tends to feel tight for an hour and shiny by lunch the next day. A thorough first cleanse and a gentle second one gets more off the face than one strong wash, and leaves you less to compensate for.
My skin is dry. Should I skip it?
Skip it on bare-faced nights, keep it on sunscreen nights, and keep the second cleanse very short — thirty seconds rather than sixty, with the lightest gel you can find. If even that leaves you uncomfortable, a second pass of your first cleanser is a reasonable compromise.
It stings. Is that the step working?
No. Stinging is not a sign of anything good. Stop the cleanser that stings, go back to the first cleanse alone for a few nights, and if the stinging, redness or itching continues once you have stopped, it is worth seeing a dermatologist or your GP rather than experimenting further on your own face.
“It is one minute, on the nights that need it. I have never found another minute in my bathroom that pays back as much.” — Nelly
Filed by Nelly, from the desk · Skin / Cleansing