Jumat, 18 Juli 2014

Oil cleansing

Yes, it was THAT day yesterday. I'm officially 43 years old. Happy Birthday to me.
And if someone had told me just a few years earlier that on my 43rd birthday I'd be posting selfies on them Innernetz for all to see, I'd be laughing like from here to Alaska.

But such is the power of them Innernetz. Sometime last year I discovered the world of beauty bloggers (not only Polish, or rather - also Polish) and suddenly I realized that, hot damn, I don't look half as bad as I had thought.


And all this - thanks to the endless army of women who blog about cosmetics. Thank you so much, ladies! You gave me a much needed boost of self-confidence.
Because if some of you (and I am using the term "you" in general here, without pointing any fingers) are half my age and look roughly my age, then I don't feel so bad about myself anymore.
Because if some of you wear in public and post photos of yourself wearing the style of makeup so beloved by cheap, tranny hookers, yet consider themselves "beauty gurus", then I can sleep peacefully tonight.
Because if some of you don't see your poorly groomed eyebrows, dull skin and zitty complexion, yet can give advice about skin care and makeup, then I feel like a bloody expert.
Because if some of you are so colorblind you can't see that your foundation is about five shades darker/ lighter than your neck, yet still blog about and review color makeup, then I don't feel like an idiot without a clue about makeup anymore.
I could go on and on, but that's no way to win friends and influence people.
Luckily, the blogs that I read more or less regularly are mercifully free of the above-mentioned beauty blogging mishaps. But even then, not always.



Tak, wczoraj byl ten dzien. Jestem oficjalnie stara baba. Mam 43 lata. Sto lat dla mnie.
I jesli kilka lat wczesniej ktos powiedzialby mi, ze w wieku 43 lat bede wstawiac selfies w internetach, to bym go wysmiala po prostu.
Ale wielkie sa sily internetow. Jakos tak w zeszlym roku odkrywlam blogi kosmetyczne (nie tylko polskie, a raczej - rowniez polskie), i nagle do mnie dotarlo, ze jak na stara babe, to wcale nie wygladam tak zle.


A wszystko to dzieki armii kobiet, ktore pracowicie bloguja o kosmetykach. Dziekuje Wam z calego serca, to dzieki Wam nagle proprawilo mi sie moje samopoczucie.
Dlaczego? Ano dlatego, ze skoro niektore z Was (i uzywam tutaj tego slowa w bardzo ogolnym znaczeniu), sa o polowe mlodsze ode mnie, a wygladamy na tyle samo lat, to znaczy, ze wcale nie jest ze mna tak zle.
Ano dlatego, ze jesli niektore z Was uwazaja sie za znawczynie makijazu, ale na fotkach wygladaja jak wytapetowani cross-dresserzy dorabiajacy pod latarnia, to juz nie obawiam sie wlasnego makijazu.
Ano dlatego, ze jesli niektore z Was nie widza swoich beznadziejnie wyskubanych brwi, zlego stanu skory i wypryskow, ale nie przeszkadza Wam to w dawaniu porad kosmetyczno-makijazowych, to ja czuje sie jak kosmetyczna ekspertka.
I jesli niektore z Was nie sa w stanie zauwazyc, ze Wasz podklad jest co najmniej o 5 odcieni za ciemny (jasny) i odcina sie brzydko od szyi, ale wcale nie przeszkadza Wam to w dawaniu eksperckich opinii na temat kolorw, to juz nie czuje sie jak totalna idiotka przy polce z podkladami.
I moglabym tak dlugo, ale w ten sposob nie zyskam nowych przyjaciol i nie zjednam sobie ludzi.
Na szczescie, te blogi ktore czytam regularnie, sa prawie wolne od wyzej wymienionych wpadek ;-)

I to w koncu wprowadza nas do kolejnego selfie.
Bez krzty makijazu.
Z czysta twarza.
Bez filtra, bez kremu i bez korektora.
Bez zupelniego czegokolwiek.
Tylko ja i moja czysta facjata. Pstryknieta w moje 43 urodziny.

And that brings me to today...
And that brings me to yet another selfie.
No makeup selfie.
Clean face selfie.
No sunblock selfie.
No corrector and no nothing selfie.
Just me and my clean face. On my 43rd birthday.



Szczegolny nacisk idzie na slowo "czysta", bo to wlasnie na czyszczeniu chce sie skupic dzisiaj.
Jak oczyszczam twarz, czesc 1.

Po pierwszym bezmakijazowym selfie na IG przyszlo dosc sporo maili z pytaniami o moja codzienna pielegnacje. Wiec choc wyjde na zadufana (tak, to ja!), przemadrzala (tak, to rowniez ja) babe, to postanowilam podzielic sie z blogowym swiatem moim lazienkowym rytualem.

With the emphasis on "clean". Because that's what I want to talk about today.
My cleansing routine. Part 1.

After my first no makeup selfie, I got quite a lot of emails asking me to share my skin care routine with the world. So today, at the risk of appearing self-obssessed (yes, that's me) and utterly self-absorbed (yes, that's me again), I bring you the first installment of my daily evening bathroom ritual.




Ale, od poczatku.
Kiedy zachodnie blogi i fora kosmetyczne z takim przejeciem opisuja azjatycka pielegnacje, zawsze skupiaja sie na fakcie, ze jest to proces wielo-etapowy. Ze jest w nim 7, 11, albo i wiecej krokow, ktore kazdego dnia summiennie wykonuja Azjatki.

Jest to o tyle dziwne, ze pytajac sie o zdanie Azjatek naokolo mnie (a raczej, Japonek, bo z takimi mam glownie kontakt, jak rowniez i Koreanek oraz paru Filipnek), dostawalam odpowiedz, ze kroki w pielegancji sa dwa.
Tak. Tylko dwa. Jak to mozliwe? czyzby te Azjatki nie mialy najbledszego pojecia o pielegnacji? Albo moze guzik ich to obchodzi?
Wiec dla swietego spokoju zapytalam sie zawodowej pani kosmetyczki, co ona o tym wszystkim sadzi. No bo kosmetyczka z doswiadczeniem i dyplomikiem, a do tego Japonka, powinna znac sie na rzeczy, czyz nie?

But first things first...
When reading western beauty blogs and forums, every so often you can spot references to the multi-step cleansing routines of Asian women. Or you can read full-blown descriptions of 7, 11 or however many steps, that Asian women go through as part of their everyday skin care regimen.
That's very odd, because if you ask a random Asian woman, or rather - a Japanese woman, because I just happened to have a few of those around me (and to be honest, I only know Japanese and Korean women, with a sprinkling of Filipinas thrown in for balance), they claim there are just two steps in their daily beauty ritual. Only two steps? Blasphemy! Surely these Japanese women have no idea what they are talking about. Or maybe they simply don't care.
So just to be sure, I asked a licensed esthe specialist (that's a beautician in other parts of the world) about her opinion. As a beauty professional surely she should know, right?

A co ona mi powiedziala?
- Oczywiscie, ze sa tylko dwa kroki w mojej codziennej rutynie:
Krok numer 1 - oczyszczanie.
Krok numer 2 - nawilzanie.

I tutaj cala zachodnia blogsfera puka sie palcem w czolo. A co z olejem, pianka, tonerem i innymi bajerami?


And what did I hear from her?
- But of course there are only 2 steps in my daily beauty routine. Step 1 - cleanse. Step 2 - care.

Insert here the collective groan of western self-proclaimed beauty experts blogging on Asian skincare.


So what about the small steps? The oil, the foam, the toner, emulsion, blah blah blah...


A ona mi na to:
- No chyba zartujesz sobie. To tak jak idziesz do kibla. Najpierw sciagasz spodnie w dol, potem gacie, potem siadasz, walisz kupe, czytasz ksiazke, wycierasz tylek (lub uzywasz washleta). To jest jeden process wykonywany w pewnej ustalone odgornie kolejnosci (tak, pewnie mozesz zamienic to i owo, ale wtedy ryzykujesz obkupkaniem majtek) i jesli powiesz komukolwiek, ze potrzeba 7 roznych krokow aby sie wysrac, za przeproszeniem, to Cie wysmieja.
Tak samo jest z oczyszczaniem twarzy. To jeden proces, ktory odbywa sie w pewnej ustalonej kolejnosci. Robisz tak, bo po prostu nie masz innego wyjscia. I jesli twierdzisz, ze jest tego 7 roznych krokow, to najwyrazniej jestes obcokrajowcem. Lub redaktorem pisma dla kobiet.

- Oh, come on, you can't be serious - she said.
- It's like when you go to the toilet to poop, first you pull down your pants, then your underwear, then you sit down, then you shit, or read a book, then you wipe, or wash (washlets, folks, are the best inventions ever) and so on. It's one process. You go through the motions in a certain order, because you have no other choice (yeah, I guess you could, though you'd risk crapping your pants), but if you say that it takes 7 steps to take a dump, people would laugh at you. It's the same with cleansing. It's one process. You go through the motions in a certain order, because you have no other choice. But if you say it takes 7 steps to cleanse your face, you are clearly a foreigner. Or a beauty editor at a women's magazine.


I tak to, zupelnie rozczarowana i zamieszana, pytalam sie dalej.
I nadal slyszalam te dwie odpowiedzi, ze:
1. umyc i
2. nawilzyc.

Wiec o matko jedyna, pani kosmetyczka miala racje???
Wychodzi na to, ze naprawde, w japonskiej pielegnacji sa tylko dwa kroki:
1. oczyszczanie
i
2. nawilzanie.

A ze na kazdy z tych krokow sklada sie wiele malych czynnosci, tym najwyrazniej sie japonskie kobiety w ogole nie przejmuja.

And so utterly confused and disappointed I pressed on and kept asking.
And the answers I kept getting from women around me were:
1. I clean my face, and
2. I moisturize my face.

So, for the holymotherofbatman! The esthe expert was right.

There are just two steps in the Japanese beauty routine:
1. cleansing, and
2. caring

And apparently, that both of these steps consist of a multitude of smaller actions is of no significance whatsoever to your average Japanese woman.


And here the western blogging experts on Asian skincare sigh and think I clearly have no friggin' idea what I'm talking about. Yep, don't lie. That's what all of you just thought.



I to w koncu niesie nas do dzisiejszego tematu.
Tematem dzisiejszym jest jedna z tych czynnosci wykonywanych w ramach codziennej pielegnacji.
A mianowicie - uzywanie oleju do oczyszczenia skory.

And finally, that brings us to today's topic.
Which is one of those small motions in a greater cleansing routine.
More precisely - we'll talk about oils tonight.



Tak oczyszczam moja twarz olejem. Kazdego wieczora. Po oczyszczaniu olejem, zmywam jego reszki pianka do twarzy. Ale olej to podstawa mojego oczyszczania.

Kiedy przychodze z pracy do domu, zmywam makijaz oka dwufazowka. Przelatuje tez po twarzy micela. I zyje wlasnym zyciem az do czasu wieczornej wizyty w lazience.

Podczas tej wieczornej wizyty w ruch idzie olej. Myje i masuje twarz olejem.
Tak, kazdego dnia. Nie, nigdy nie pomijam tego oczyszczania. To juz cos zupelnie naturalnego dla mnie.

Yes, I clean my face with oil. Every night. After cleaning it with oil, I wash it with something else.
But as far as cleansing goes, this is the foundation of my evening cleansing routine.

When I come home from work, I usually remove my makeup. I use eye makeup remover for my eyes, and a micellar cleanser for my face. Then I can go about my business until bedtime without my face feeling dull and nasty.


And then, before bedtime, it's time for a proper cleansing procedure.

Yes, I do it every night. No, I never skip this step. It's second nature to me now. Just as is washing my hands with soap.
I wash my face with oil.

W chwili obecnej uzywam czterech olejow, ktore mozecie zobaczyc na zdjeciu powyzej.
Currently I am using the four oils you can see above.

- AHA by Cleansing Research Cleansing Oil,
- Shu Uemura Skin Purifier Ultime8 sublime beauty cleansing oil (f*ck them, couldn't they come up with a longer name? juz dluzszej nazwy nie dali rady wymyslic?),
- Shu Uemura Skin Purifier Fresh pore clarifying gentle cleansing oil,
- DHC Deep Cleansing Oil.

Lubie Ultime8, a moj zwiazek z DHC do tej pory byl najbardziej burzliwy. Ale to moze ze wzgledu na obecna pogode - jest parno i goraco, a skora reaguje przeciez roznie w roznych porach roku.

Kiedys tam dawno temu bylam przekonana, ze DHC to dar bogow dla kobiet. Ale to dlatego, ze zbyt wielu olei wtedy nie znalalam i przez to sklanialam sie ku znanym i popularnym markom. Takim jak DHC. Potem sprobowalam Sofiny i myslalam, ze nagle znalazlam sie w raju. DHC przestal dla mnie istniec. Potem sprobowalam Shu Uemura i nagle uznalam, ze Sofina wcale nie byla taka dobra. Potem uznalam, ze wydawanie takiej kupy kasy na olej mija sie z celem i sprobowalam najtanszy olej a linii Softymo.
Wielki blad!!!
Jedyne co mi to dalo, to to, ze zaczelam doceniac lepsze oleje.

Of these four I really like Ultime8, and my relationship with DHC has been the most complicated of the bunch. But that may be due to the current season, in winter my opinion might be different.

Long long time ago, I thought that DHC was the gods gift to women. But that was when I hadn't tried very many cleansing oils and thus stuck to what was popular and recommended. And hot damn, DHC is still popular. Then I tried Sofina cleansing oil, and thought I died and went to heaven. DHC stopped even registering on my cleansing radar. Then I tried Shu Uemura and decided that Sofina wasn't that great after all. Then I thought it's pointless to spend so much money on an oil, for cristsakes, and I got the cheapest Softymo Deep Cleansing Oil out there.
Biiiiig mistake!!! But at least it made me appraciate higher quality oil cleansers.

Teraz mam i selektywna marke (Shu Uemura) i zwykla drogeryjna (DHC) i kto jest czystym zwyciezca??? Niespodzianka!



DHC.

Jest bardzo naturalny i lekki w dotyku. Swiezy. Delikatny na skorze i nie wysusza tak jak potrafi to robic Uemura. Wiem, ze Ratzilla nie zgadza sie z moja opinia, i wiem tez, ze wiele osob uwaza sie za ostatczna guru jesli chodzi o japonskie kosmetyki. Ale sorry, czasem jej wynurzenia mozna sobie o kant czterech liter obic.

Now, that I have both a fancy brand at home (Shu Uemura) and not fancy (DHC), the clear winner for me is.... surprise surprise.... 
DHC.

It feels fresh and natural. It's gentle on my skin, and it doesn't dry me out the way Uemura does. I know that Ratzilla doesn't agree with me, and I also know that many consider her to be the ultimate Asian cosme guru, but sorry folks, her picks are total nonsense most of the time.

Shu Uemura (probowalam wszystkich ich olejow), w porownaniu do DHC, maja one bardzo chemiczna nature. Czuc plastik, czuc chemie, i nie jest to bynajmniej przyjemne odczucie. No plus jest to, ze nie wysuszaja tak mojej cery jak inne oleje Shu Uemura). Ale czy warte sa swojej ceny? Moja opinia? Zdecydowanie nie.
Jedyne co zrobily, to pomogly mi docenic Sofine, o ktorej teraz mam duzo lepsze zdanie i do ktorej najprawdopodobniej powroce jak skoncze obecny zapas.

Shu Uemura (I tried the entire line, not just the two I have at home), when compared to DHC, feels nasty and chemical heavy. It feels plastic. Ultime8 anf Fresh don't dry out my skin like the other Uemura oils out there. But are they worth the price? My verdict is - no. Definitely no.
At least trying them made me appreciate Sofina all over again, and probably I will return to that oil when my current stash is all used up.

AHA olej z sokiem jablkowym byl przymusowym zakupem, kiedy nagle znalazlam sie bez oleju. I po mojej poczatkowej nieufnosci, moge powiedziec, ze sie polubilismy. Pachnie cudnie (jak jablka), zmywa co ma zmywac, nie podraznia, nie wysusza.

Te dwa oleje Shu Uemura zostaly wybrane po wyprobowaniu calej linii i spodobaly mi sie najbardziej.

Nie jestem skladowa snobka, ale tak sie akurat zlozylo, ze ponoc wszystkie cztery moje oleje nie maja w skladzie parafiny.
DHC jest oparty na oleju z oliwek, a AHA ma nawet w skladzie sok jablkowy.

AHA apple oil was an emergency purchase when I needed something to cleanse my face in a hurry. And after my initial apprehension, I have grown to quite like it. It smells divine (like apples!), it does the job competently and it doesn't irritate my skin.

The two Shu Uemuras were selected from a wide range of oil products offered by this firm. Why I picked those two? I had tried the entire line in sample form, and found these two to be the most agreeable.


While I'm not an ingredient obsessed snob, all four of those are supposedly paraffin-free. DHC is based on olive oil, if I'm not mistaken, and AHA has apple juice as one of the ingredients.


Na tym zdjeciu widac ich kolory i konsystencje:

Here's a photo to show you how different their colors and consistencies are:



Jak latwo zauwazyc, DHC jest najbardziej zolty. Potem kolorystycznie plasuje sie Ultime8, potem AHA i na samym koncu Fresh, ktory wyglada po prostu jak woda.

Ich konsystencje sa rowniez bardzo zroznicowane.
Fresh nie tylko wyglada jak woda, ale rozlewa sie tak jak woda, a nie jak olej. Ma najbardziej chemiczny feel ze wszystkich czterech.
Ultime8 jest do niego bardzo podobny.

Nie wiem nawet czy mozna je nazwac olejami. Nie sa ani bardzo oleiste w dotyku, ani nie zachowuja sie jak typowe oleje do oczyszczania. Jak dla mnie sa to bardziej typowe face washe, ktore sa odrobinke oleiste.

Jesli ktos siega po Shu Uemura i oczekuje bogatej, olejowej substancji, to sie gorzko rozczaruje.

As you can see DHC is the yellowest of the bunch. Then Ultime8, then AHA, and Fresh is basically just like water. 
Their consistencies are also very different. You can see in the photo that Fresh behaves basically the same as water - it spreads out and doesn't look one bit oily. It's the most chemical feeling of the four as well. 
Ultime8 is very similar in that regard as well.
I am not sure if they even should be called "oils". They are more like slightly oily face washes than typical cleansing oils. So if you are expecting a rich, textured, oily substance and reach for these two, you might be sorely disappointed.

AHA wyglada jak olej. Zachowuje sie tez jak olej, kiedy rozlejemy go na plaska powierzchnie.
I na koniec Deep Cleaning Oil z DHC - takze zachowywal sie jak olej, ale dawal odczucie duzo lzejszego niz AHA. Nie mam pojecia dlaczego kiedys uwazalam go za "ciezki" i "toporny" olej. Nic bardziej blednego. Chyba, ze w miedzyczasie zmienila sie formulacja tego produktu i ja to przegapilam.

AHA looks oily alright. It actually behaved like a true droplet of true oil on a flat surface.
And finally Deep Cleansing Oil from DHC - it also behaved like oil, but felt a lot lighter than AHA.
I don't know why I used to think this was a heavy oil. Nothing can be further from the truth. Unless, of course, the formula has changed within the last year, or so, and I missed the memo.

Kazdy wie, ze oleje to najlepsze srodki do usuwania makijazu. Ale nie kazdy wie, ze japonskie oleje to nie tylko produkty do demakijazu. To rowniez srodki do mycia twarzy, dzialajace jako cleansers. Choc osobiscie, nigdy nie poprzestaje na myciu mojej twarzy tylko olejem. Zawsze po oleju uzywam rowniez pianki.

People know that oils are excellent make up removers. But what they don't know is that Japanese cleansing oils do much more than that. They are not only make up removers. They are also facial cleansers. Though personally, I would never wash my face with just oil and leave it at that. The next step involves a foamy face wash.

Wiec czy te oleje zrobily cos dla mnie? Czy po dlugotrwalym, sumiennym uzywaniu widze zmiany w stanie mojej twarzy?

Tak. I jeszcze raz tak.
Moja cera wyglada teraz zupelnie inaczej. Lepiej.
Czy mozna usunac blackeads przy uzyciu oleju?
Choc wydaje sie to calkowicie sprzeczne - tak. Mozna.
Czy mozna oczyscic pory uzywajac oleju?
Jestem dowodem na to, ze mozna.

So what have these oils done for me? Has my face really improved since a couple of years ago when I finally (better late than never, folks!) started to use them daily, religiously?

Yes, it has. The quality of my skin is completely different now. Can you unclog your pores using oil? As counter-intuitive as it may seem, yes, you can. Can you get rid of blackheads by using oil? Apparently, yes, you can.


Aby przetestowac ta teorie, na 10 dni odstawilam oleje. Reszta mojej pielegnacji zostala dokladnie taka sama.

Aby nadrobic brak oczyszczania olejem, musialam bardziej gorliwie myc twarz pianka. To z kolei zaczelo wysuszac moja skore. Pierwsze widoczne zmiany pojawily sie po 3 dnia. Poczatkowe przyjemne czyste "skrzypiace" uczucie i napiecie skory zamienilo sie w sucha, sciagnieta, zestresowana cere, ktora domagala sie natychmiastowego tonera (lotiona, softenera, jedno i to samo). Po 7 dniach toner juz nie wystarczal, musialam uzyc sheet maski, aby ukoic skore. Musialam tez siegnac po bardziej tresciwa emulsje i krem, aby nawilzyc twarz.

Skora naokolo nosa stala sie bardzo wrazliwa i zaczerwieniona.
Pomimo starannego mycia, pojawily sie zatkane pory i blackeads. Musialam uzyc delikatengo enzymatycznego peelingu, aby sie ich pozbyc. Choc delikatny, moja cera byla bardzo podrazniona.
Po 10 dniach bez olejow mialam zatkane pory, czarne zaskorniaki, przesuszona skore, podraznione obszary na brodzie i naokolo nosa.
Juz na pierwszy rzut oka widac bylo pogorszenie stanu skory.

I choc bardzo lubie byc wlasnym krolikiem doswiadczalnym, bo hej, eksperymentowanie to frajda, to z ulga wrocilam do mojego olejowego oczyszczania.

To test the theory that oil cleansing is beneficial for my skin, I've gone without it for exactly 10 days. The rest of my beauty routine was exactly the same.

To compensate during the cleansing process, I had to be a bit more vigorous when washing my face with foam. That in turn started to slowly dry out my skin. The first visible results appeared after about 3 days. My skin felt dry, tight and stressed and demanded a toner (lotion, balancing softener, same thing, different names) immediately after washing. After 7 days a simple toner application wasn't enough anymore. I had to put a sheet mask to restore the moisture balance. I also had to start using heavier emulsion and cream to relieve the dryness.

The skin around my nose started to get irritated and became red. 
Despite diligent non-oil cleansing, first blackheads began to appear in that reddish area. To remove them I used a gentle enzyme peel, which even though gentle, further irritated the already irritated skin. 
When the 10 days were over, I had blackheads, dry skin, problematic areas on my chin and around my nose. Overall, the quality of my skin visibly deteriorated.

And as much as I like to be my own guinea pig, because, let's admit it, experimenting is a lot of fun, I was very relieved to return to my oil cleansing regimen.


Ten wpis to czesc serii Moje Kosmetyczne Skarby zorganizowanej przez Hexxane.

This post is included in the Moje Kosmetyczne Skarby series organized by the lovely Hexxana.

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