Should we all be double cleansing our skin?

We’re here to answer the age-old beauty question: Should we, or should we not be double cleansing our skin? Double cleansing, as the name suggests, calls for washing your face twice, with two different cleansers. The first cleanser is to lift off any surface dirt and make-up, while the second one deep-cleans the grime hanging out under your make-up.

Though the process may seem laborious, it’s a hallmark step in every clear-skinned girl’s beauty routine and is revered by industry experts and skincare enthusiasts. Which had us thinking that there might just be something in all this lather, rinse, repeat after all.

To investigate, we asked the skincare Gods (a.k.a. certified Dermatologists) to see if double cleansing really is all that it’s hyped up to be. Separating the beauty fact from the fiction, here’s what we found out.

DO: Double cleanse at night

Dermatologists believe that in fact yes, double cleansing in the evening really does make a difference to the skin. Not only does it get rid of the grime that sits on top of your skin along with makeup, but it’ll also cleanse away excess oil and product, which is especially essential if you live in a polluted city or wear SPF every day. It also makes sense that leftover makeup residue can clog up pores, causing unwanted acne, inflammation and redness - 3 things that we all want to avoid. And lastly, by making sure your skin is thoroughly cleansed, this allows for moisturisers, serums and creams to be more easily absorbed, and thus work faster at doing their magic.

You can, however, have too much of a good thing and overdoing it on the cleansing will strip the skin and cause irritation. Which is why derms say that it’s best to stick to double cleansing only at night and instead just do a quick cleanse in the morning. If you suffer from a rosacea or acne breakouts, this is especially important as you don’t want to be over stripping the skin of its natural oils.

There is one caveat here though, which is that you’ll still want to double cleanse in the morning if you’ve gone to the gym or have worked up any kind of sweat. This is because all that sweat can potentially clog up your pores and you guessed it, cause acne. For sensitive skin folk, make sure to go in with a gentle cleansing milk or oil as this will prevent you from over-stimulating the skin or aggravating any skin issues further.