Throw It Out Thursday: Start Cleaning Your Facial Tools
Ok, so you aren’t exactly throwing anything out with today’s blog, more like throwing out old notions and bringing in a rhythm to your skincare tools usage and cleaning.
Tools. Not the guy at the bar who asks for your number and then turns to the girl next to you with the same line after you turned him down. The kind of tools that we utilize in our skincare routine to get us even better results. For simplicities sake, I am going to break this down into 3 categories: cleansing tools | lymphatic drainage tools | reusables.
These are the most common categories of tools that you will find in a home skincare routine, heard of the Clarisonic? Hopefully when you’re finished reading this, you will feel so confident and have the cleanest (and most used) skincare tools on the block.
“Beautiful skin requires commitment, not a miracle.”
Skincare Tools for Cleansing:
There are a few different types of facial cleansing tools that you might have seen, or even own, so I will lump some together if they are basically the same tool:
Facial Brush/Clarisonic: This can be electric, like the Clarisonic, or manual like the brush pictured to the left, except the brush in this picture is meant for your body not your face. More on facial brushes and exfoliation HERE. As far as cleaning them goes, you typically want to use these 3-4x a week, between usage the brush heads should be stored in a closed container. Clean the brush heads with soap and water right after using them. Yup. Right after. So you cleanse your skin, pop the brush attachment off, wash with soap and water, let dry under a clean face towel, once the bristles are dry you can place it back into your closed container for storage. For a deeper cleaning, you can immerse the brush heads in a solution, honestly I believe ACV + Distilled Water is a great combo as there isn’t any bacteria and its a natural cleaning agent. However, if your don’t like the smell of Apple Cider Vinegar this might not be the combo for you.
Skin Scrubber/Spatula: Now there’s the professional ones we use in the treatment room, and then there are the ones you can buy anywere. The difference is power and functions, but save that for another blog. These have a metal spatula that vibrates to help loosen surface dead skin, you can also use this for extractions. Cleaning it is the same either way you use it. Always keep this tool stored safely, away from water, and in a closed cabinet, preferrably inside a case, like a velvet pouch. Before and after using this tool, wipe it down with Alcohol, make sure it isn’t dripping alcohol into the mechanical part of the tool. I like to use the prep wipes from first aid kits, you can get them in bulk and now you just have more uses for them!
Extractors/Blackhead Removers: Very simply, wipe down with alcohol before using, drying with a clean paper/cloth towel, after using: clean with soap and water and emerse in alcohol for at least 2 minutes. Remove tool and rinse under cold water before drying off and returning to a closed container. Note- your medicine cabinet does not count as a “closed container”, think tupperware or mason jars, something with a lid that cannot let dirt and debris in.
“Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate them”
2. Cleaning Your Lymphatic Drainage Tools
Another fun category that has loads of really popular tools in it! Lymphatic drainage has many benefits, from keeping our bodies healthy to de-puffing a face, there are so many reasons why you want to do this regularly. For more about lymphatic drainage and 8 simple steps on how to do it at home, check out this blog HERE.
The Jade/Quartz Roller & Gua Sha Tools: If you don’t have one of these, GO GET ONE! They are so versatile and can really make a difference on your skin. You can use a Jade Roller daily, I recommend on top of serums or facial oil, but Gua Sha is a modality that like most massage, only needs to be performed at the most once weekly. Now that you’re using your tool, let’s clean it! Before using your tool, wipe it down with your trusty alcohol wipe, make sure to dry any residue off as you don’t want alcohol on your freshly cleansed skin. After using, gently clean with soap and warm water, dry and store in a closed container (seeing a pattern with where you store things?) the same is true for cleaning your Gua Sha stone. Another thing is you might want to “charge” your tools. “Charge” you say? Like plug it in? No, not exactly… stones come from the earth, and like most things on this planet they get “fueled” by the sun and the moon. I have always made it a habit, since learning about caring for stones, to treat my Jade and Quartz Rollers the same way. Once a month, at night, I will lay my rollers on a silk scarf in a windowsill and let them bathe in the moonlight. The following morning, after soaking up some sunshine, I wipe them down, dry them off and store them. Give it a try, what’s the wrost that happens, your family thinks your strange? Too late 😄
The Vivitar/Facial Vibrating Tool: So, I don’t really know what to call this one as so many people have different names for it, so I am calling it by the brand I bought mine through “The Vivitar”…at Marshall’s. That’s right, you don’t need to be extra fancy all the time when investing in your skin. Sometimes amazing skin changing tools can be found while you’re getting a great deal on home goods. Cleaning this tool is exactly like the Skin Spatula and Extractor, wipe down with alcohol both before and after using, store in a closed container making sure to not get any liquid inside any battery areas. This is an AMAZING tool! If you have one, use it just like the Gua Sha, once a week. If you don’t have this and have no idea what I am talking about, click here. Just remember you can find them in a lot of stores so you don’t have to spend $60.
3. Using & Reusing the Reusables
There are some things we use for our skincare that are disposable, and that can hurt our heart and the earth to be adding undue waste. Fortunately, science and advancements in skincare have made many of these previously disposable products reusable.
Reusable Cotton Wipes: Similar to what you would picture if I said “eye makeup wipe” these are great for applying your toner with, or removing masks with. Simply use them once, toss them to be laundered, once they’ve been washed and dried, store them in, you guessed it, a closed container like a ziplock baggy. You will probably want to replace them after 1-3 years, similar to your bath towels.
Face Towels: Now I am adding this here becuase I am learning that we tend to have some weird habits around our linens, so just to clear things up here it is. Only use your towel once, and then toss it in the hamper. Wash in hot water with a disinfecting soap, like the Lysol one that is being promoted for killing covid. The important part is you keep your clean towels in a closed cabinet and not out in your bathroom, and wash after each use.
Disposable Compressed Sponges: These are super neat and kind of a novelty, esepecially if you have the reusable cotton wipes. However, still an important tool to discuss! If you have one, once you have added water to it, it is only good for 5 days. Keep it in a ziplock baggy and toss in the trash after five consecutive days, not five usese, FIVE DAYS.
“Laundry, the never ending story”
Cleaning anything can seem like a chore, but when you attach the results you’re going to see on your skin to the reason behind the chore, it makes it worth it. Doing these little extra steps mght seem like a lot at first, but soon they will become habit and you’ll notice how tidy and clean your whole life is becoming!
A few Throw It Out Thursday’s ago I wrote about expired product. I wanted to share that chart here as this is always good to refresh ourselves on.
Check out that blog on expired product HERE and make sure you are not using old, expired product with your new clean tools!
Even though I feel like we touched on a lot of the tools that are being used at home, I am sure I missed a few. If your tool was not listed, but has similar properties to any of the ones mentioned, chances are the cleaning steps are the same. What matters is how you store the tool, how you clean the tool and that you are actually using that tool!
Go through your skincare stuff and see if you have anything that needs a good cleaning. Don’t have any of these tools? Choose the one that makes you the most excited (for me this was Jade Rollers!) and invest in it. Start off with one tool to ensure that you’re more likely to use it, having all the tools but never using them is not the situation we want to find ourselves in. I hope this was helpful, head over to my Eri the Esti Instagram and tell me what your favorite skincare tool is!
Till next time, be good to your skin and even better to yourself,
xx eri