Caveman Skin Care Approach- Plain Water Cleansing For The Face: My 3-week journey

Photo Credits: osawaterworks.com

I'm sure you've all heard of Plain Water Cleansing, but have you actually tried it? I did for three weeks because a lot of source say that it's good for acne- prone peeps. But how is it beneficial to our skin and at the most basic level, how do you do it?

Photo Credits: alliancegym.com

Plain Water Cleansing is part of what beauty experts call the Caveman Approach to skin care. Simply put, do what a caveman does to his/her skin: Nothing. No makeup, no skin care, just water or for the hardcore Caveman approach, don't use anything not even water FOREVER. We're not in the stone age anymore, we put on makeup, and pollution and dirt are the things that touch our skin everyday so I guess the hardcore approach wouldn't work for us right now so I opted for just plain water.

The benefits of Plain Water Cleansing are: 1.) Water, in itself, is charged with a lot of minerals (just as long as it's clean!) and they're enough to help your skin heal. 2.) Our skin has an acid mantle which is at PH 5.5 (slightly acidic) that naturally wards off bacteria. With the interference of commercial cleansers,  toners, treatments, and even moisturizers the acid mantle is disrupted and that's when bacteria start penetrating the skin. Also, cleansers leave microscopic residues that could be the culprit behind blocked pores and zits in the morning. Even water could be a lil' damaging to the acid mantle as it's alkaline, but since it's something that's natural to our body, the effect isn't that bad.

For my journey, I overhauled my skin care routine: no facial scrubs, no facial cleansers, no masks, no toners, no spot and brightening treatments, no derma procedures, no moisturizers, and no sunscreen- just makeup (light makeup to be exact) during the day and serum during the night. I only used Not.A.Sponge Konjac Sponge with water to effectively remove grime and makeup, and for the serums, I minimized the products I used to one and opted for the one with a gel consistency and less and natural ingredients. In short, my skin care routine became very, very simple and the products I've used were primarily made up of water.

Click READ MORE and read about my Plain Water Cleansing journey!

FIRST WEEK

- Not much difference observed in the first week. My skin started to feel very light and very clean. I was the one adjusting to the zero presence of my usual skin care products. When I embarked on this journey, I had zits on my cheeks and on my chin due to Adult Acne.

SECOND WEEK

- Surprisingly, the oiliness on my T-Zone was reduced and my zits started fading one by one-they didn't disappear quickly, but they were saying goodbye slowly but surely. I also sleep very late, but to my amazement, I didn't get new zits within this week! As you all know, I have oily skin, but my skin felt naturally moisturized and it didn't overproduce or underproduce oil.

THIRD WEEK

- My skin around this time looked super healthy and all the zits have healed completely (finally!). I'd get bumps every now and then, but they'll just disappear in a day or two and they don't develop into pimples. My skin has never felt this strong, regenerated, and resilient!

Our body as well as our skin are brilliant forces that nature has ever designed, and they have their own ways of dealing with problems- society has just imposed so much standards on us, (apply this, apply that) that's why I'd always remind everyone at the end of all my skin care- related blog posts to only use what you need in any situation. Plain Water Cleansing just reminded me of Occam's Razor's principle: "The best answer to any problem is always the simplest solution." In short, when skin problems get complicated, go back to the basics. A complicated solution more or less complicates the problem!

As I said in the beginning, this type of cleansing routine is good for acne- prone people and I could attest to that, albeit I can't say that it's the miracle routine for everyone because acne (as well as other skin problems) are caused by so many factors including genetics, diet, stress, disease, and other external elements. For those with zero skin problems (or the blessed ones), I'd recommend this way of cleansing--as the old adage goes: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

With the bevy of commercial products we use everyday, our skin could get pretty dependent on them, thus we're sabotaging its own healing process and internal strength. However, I'm not saying that you ditch all your skin care products the next day (heck, I can't even do that!)- all I'm saying is Plain Water Cleansing is a nice breather to any skin care routine to help support your skin's own immunity. Try it for yourself and your skin thank you for that. :)