What exactly do skincare products such as cleanser and moisturiser do to the skin?
In: 10
Your skin absorbs stuff. Like if you put sunblock on, it basically sinks into your skin. When you use a moisturizer, it does the same thing but scientists made it so it makes your skin healthier.
For cleansers, it’s generally the same as any soap. *But* your face skin is sensitive. *And* sometimes you’ll have stuff that is made to stay on, like lipstick.
What the scientists have done is also make a soap that’s really good at getting all the unwanted stuff off your face. Sometimes there’s what feels like sand or something – this helps scrub your skin gently. They have also made the cleanser so it’s nice to your skin.
Usually the cleanser strips oil your skin makes so it’s a good idea to use a moisturizer. It serves as a barrier to all the nasty stuff in air and helps your skin stay soft!
E: if you’re looking for an actual answer to what these products do in any sort of technical sense, r/askscience or the like.
Your skin absorbs stuff. Like if you put sunblock on, it basically sinks into your skin. When you use a moisturizer, it does the same thing but scientists made it so it makes your skin healthier.
For cleansers, it’s generally the same as any soap. *But* your face skin is sensitive. *And* sometimes you’ll have stuff that is made to stay on, like lipstick.
What the scientists have done is also make a soap that’s really good at getting all the unwanted stuff off your face. Sometimes there’s what feels like sand or something – this helps scrub your skin gently. They have also made the cleanser so it’s nice to your skin.
Usually the cleanser strips oil your skin makes so it’s a good idea to use a moisturizer. It serves as a barrier to all the nasty stuff in air and helps your skin stay soft!
E: if you’re looking for an actual answer to what these products do in any sort of technical sense, r/askscience or the like.
Your skin absorbs stuff. Like if you put sunblock on, it basically sinks into your skin. When you use a moisturizer, it does the same thing but scientists made it so it makes your skin healthier.
For cleansers, it’s generally the same as any soap. *But* your face skin is sensitive. *And* sometimes you’ll have stuff that is made to stay on, like lipstick.
What the scientists have done is also make a soap that’s really good at getting all the unwanted stuff off your face. Sometimes there’s what feels like sand or something – this helps scrub your skin gently. They have also made the cleanser so it’s nice to your skin.
Usually the cleanser strips oil your skin makes so it’s a good idea to use a moisturizer. It serves as a barrier to all the nasty stuff in air and helps your skin stay soft!
E: if you’re looking for an actual answer to what these products do in any sort of technical sense, r/askscience or the like.
Your skin is covered in gunk. Dead skin cells, dead mites and bacteria, dirt, leftover makeup, whatever else you’ve gotten on your face lately. This gunk sits on your face, and eventually settles into your pores and clogs them. These clogs turn into blackheads and pimples, which we don’t want.
Your skin is also constantly producing oil. This oil helps keep the skin healthy – it creates a little oily barrier between your face and the outside world that prevents it drying out. Your skin needs that oily layer.
All skincare products can be split into stuff that cleans your skin (removing the unwanted gunk from the first paragraph, but also removes the oil), and stuff that replicates the oil layer.
So:
**Cleansers** are chemical-based gunk removers. They clear the gunk from the surface layer of your skin and help to dissolve gunk clogging tour pores. They do this with ingredients like soaps and other detergents – chemicals designed to dissolve oils and fats, which are what most gunk is made of.
**Exfoliants** are also gunk removers, but they work in a different way. Exfoliants are usually gritty. When you rub them onto your skin, the gritty particles in them gently scour your skin, almost like polishing or scraping it at the micro level. This helps scour away away any gunk that the cleanser couldn’t shift, as well as encouraging your face to shed any dead skin cells promptly.
**Moisturisers** contain oils and fats designed to replicate your skin’s natural oil layer. Cleansers and exfoliants both remove that layer – especially cleansers.
Most moisturisers are a watery suspension of a mixture of oils, easily absorbed by the skin when rubbed in. They often include chemicals that are basically supplements for your skin – generally things like vitamins A, C and E.
All skincare items can be broadly described as either a cleaner, an exfoliant, or a moisturiser. But there are a few sub-products that have special names.
**Toners** are a type of cleanser. They’re a bit strange, and becoming less popular year on year. They help cleanse your skin, but they’re supposedly focussed on making your pores seem smaller.
**Serums** are intense moisturisers, usually targeted at specific parts of the face, or to address specific problems. You can find serums for basically any problem you may have with your face.
We should also mention **sunscreen**. Protecting your skin from UV radiation is arguably the best possible thing you can do, so sunscreen is considered a standard part of any skincare routine these days. Some moisturisers now include UV protection, so you can double up.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention that the skincare world is full of snake oil. It’s difficult to price that a given skincare ingredient provides a genuine, observable difference to your skin, or if it’s just a gimmick. There are a small handful of supplementary ingredients which definitely work (retinols, AHAs, niacinamide, vitamin e), some that very likely do (caffeine, vitamin c, aloe vera, witch hazel) to straight up nonsense, of which there is too much to list.
Your skin is covered in gunk. Dead skin cells, dead mites and bacteria, dirt, leftover makeup, whatever else you’ve gotten on your face lately. This gunk sits on your face, and eventually settles into your pores and clogs them. These clogs turn into blackheads and pimples, which we don’t want.
Your skin is also constantly producing oil. This oil helps keep the skin healthy – it creates a little oily barrier between your face and the outside world that prevents it drying out. Your skin needs that oily layer.
All skincare products can be split into stuff that cleans your skin (removing the unwanted gunk from the first paragraph, but also removes the oil), and stuff that replicates the oil layer.
So:
**Cleansers** are chemical-based gunk removers. They clear the gunk from the surface layer of your skin and help to dissolve gunk clogging tour pores. They do this with ingredients like soaps and other detergents – chemicals designed to dissolve oils and fats, which are what most gunk is made of.
**Exfoliants** are also gunk removers, but they work in a different way. Exfoliants are usually gritty. When you rub them onto your skin, the gritty particles in them gently scour your skin, almost like polishing or scraping it at the micro level. This helps scour away away any gunk that the cleanser couldn’t shift, as well as encouraging your face to shed any dead skin cells promptly.
**Moisturisers** contain oils and fats designed to replicate your skin’s natural oil layer. Cleansers and exfoliants both remove that layer – especially cleansers.
Most moisturisers are a watery suspension of a mixture of oils, easily absorbed by the skin when rubbed in. They often include chemicals that are basically supplements for your skin – generally things like vitamins A, C and E.
All skincare items can be broadly described as either a cleaner, an exfoliant, or a moisturiser. But there are a few sub-products that have special names.
**Toners** are a type of cleanser. They’re a bit strange, and becoming less popular year on year. They help cleanse your skin, but they’re supposedly focussed on making your pores seem smaller.
**Serums** are intense moisturisers, usually targeted at specific parts of the face, or to address specific problems. You can find serums for basically any problem you may have with your face.
We should also mention **sunscreen**. Protecting your skin from UV radiation is arguably the best possible thing you can do, so sunscreen is considered a standard part of any skincare routine these days. Some moisturisers now include UV protection, so you can double up.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention that the skincare world is full of snake oil. It’s difficult to price that a given skincare ingredient provides a genuine, observable difference to your skin, or if it’s just a gimmick. There are a small handful of supplementary ingredients which definitely work (retinols, AHAs, niacinamide, vitamin e), some that very likely do (caffeine, vitamin c, aloe vera, witch hazel) to straight up nonsense, of which there is too much to list.
Your skin is covered in gunk. Dead skin cells, dead mites and bacteria, dirt, leftover makeup, whatever else you’ve gotten on your face lately. This gunk sits on your face, and eventually settles into your pores and clogs them. These clogs turn into blackheads and pimples, which we don’t want.
Your skin is also constantly producing oil. This oil helps keep the skin healthy – it creates a little oily barrier between your face and the outside world that prevents it drying out. Your skin needs that oily layer.
All skincare products can be split into stuff that cleans your skin (removing the unwanted gunk from the first paragraph, but also removes the oil), and stuff that replicates the oil layer.
So:
**Cleansers** are chemical-based gunk removers. They clear the gunk from the surface layer of your skin and help to dissolve gunk clogging tour pores. They do this with ingredients like soaps and other detergents – chemicals designed to dissolve oils and fats, which are what most gunk is made of.
**Exfoliants** are also gunk removers, but they work in a different way. Exfoliants are usually gritty. When you rub them onto your skin, the gritty particles in them gently scour your skin, almost like polishing or scraping it at the micro level. This helps scour away away any gunk that the cleanser couldn’t shift, as well as encouraging your face to shed any dead skin cells promptly.
**Moisturisers** contain oils and fats designed to replicate your skin’s natural oil layer. Cleansers and exfoliants both remove that layer – especially cleansers.
Most moisturisers are a watery suspension of a mixture of oils, easily absorbed by the skin when rubbed in. They often include chemicals that are basically supplements for your skin – generally things like vitamins A, C and E.
All skincare items can be broadly described as either a cleaner, an exfoliant, or a moisturiser. But there are a few sub-products that have special names.
**Toners** are a type of cleanser. They’re a bit strange, and becoming less popular year on year. They help cleanse your skin, but they’re supposedly focussed on making your pores seem smaller.
**Serums** are intense moisturisers, usually targeted at specific parts of the face, or to address specific problems. You can find serums for basically any problem you may have with your face.
We should also mention **sunscreen**. Protecting your skin from UV radiation is arguably the best possible thing you can do, so sunscreen is considered a standard part of any skincare routine these days. Some moisturisers now include UV protection, so you can double up.
Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention that the skincare world is full of snake oil. It’s difficult to price that a given skincare ingredient provides a genuine, observable difference to your skin, or if it’s just a gimmick. There are a small handful of supplementary ingredients which definitely work (retinols, AHAs, niacinamide, vitamin e), some that very likely do (caffeine, vitamin c, aloe vera, witch hazel) to straight up nonsense, of which there is too much to list.
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