Oil Slick

Summer is officially in full swing - and so is the humidity, thanks to the large amount of rain many of us have been experiencing! As a result, some of you have asked us to "dish" on ways to keep that "morning fresh" look when it is 80 degrees with 80% humidity. Step No. 1 to winning the war on oil (and dirt, exhaust, and heaven knows what else, especially if you live in a city like we do) is your cleanser. Your cleanser should deep clean without drying you out or robbing your skin of those all important natural oils it needs to look its best. Without those oils, your skin loses its soft and youthful look - which is NEVER a good look.

Here are some products that have brought us relief from the "Oil Slick" a/k/a our face on such days. In light of our "Recessionista" status, we love that one can be found at our local Target, Walmart, or drugstore for less than $15 (and with a "bonus gift" sometimes) :


Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser was the answer to our prayers - especially the "Normal to Oily" formula. Not only does it deep clean (the proof was in a relatively clean cotton ball post-toner), but leaves your skin feeling clean and residue-free without that dry/cracking feeling. In fact, it does such a good job, we have forgotten to apply moisturizer (*shhhhhh*) some days because our faces still felt "dewy" yet clean. If you have oily skin like we do, your skin will REALLY appreciate the fact that Cetaphil does not contain those "scrubbing beads" or other exfoliants that cause your already overactive sebaceous (oil) glands to act an even bigger fool.

For you acne suffers, we side with the other "Pros", "Celebs", and magazines out there who call Proactiv the "No. 1 Acne System" on the market. Quite frankly, the stuff works better than any others we have tried, and within days of using it. We also found it to be even more effective during the summer months when used with the Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser. Like Dawn, Cetaphil "cuts" the dirt, oil etc ... that Proactiv's cleanser seems unable to attack. When we use the two, we like to wash with Cetaphil first, then the Proactiv cleanser. The toner is great, as is the Repairing Lotion, although some with sensitive skin have complained of irritation. While we think this product is great overall, we do have a few things we do not like:

1) the "scrubbing beads" in the cleanser - see our earlier point in this post on overactive sebaceous glands.
2) the fact that your skin gets addicted to it (we call it "Face Crack") - if you skip a day (or a step for that matter) your face WILL let you know in the form of blemishes!
3) the fact that the 2.5% benzoyl peroxide can (and HAS in our case) bleached colored wash cloths!

Credits: Cetaphil (Galderma Laboratories, L.P.), Proactiv Solution (Guthy-Renker LLC)