Summer loving had me a….face full of hyperpigmentation, rogue acne, and rosacea galore. When the fall months hit, skin needs to be coddled more than Sandy at a sleepover—and the first product that you might want to swap out in your routine is your facial cleanser. While summer calls for heavy-duty doses of surfactants to dry out oil production and rid your skin of bacteria from sweat and grime, the cooler months tend to ask you to replenish and hydrate your skin. So it’s no surprise that MD Solar Sciences, known for its stellar lineup of sunscreens, has released a Wash Away cleanser that’s meant de-grease (…see what I did there?) your skin without stripping it at a time when your complexion needs it the most.
The MD Solar Sciences Wash Away Cleanser unites two powerhouse cleansing oils—argan and grapeseed—to dissolve makeup, impurities, and sunscreen. That last one is important because sunscreen filters like zinc and titanium dioxide are meant to lock onto skin to protect it from UV rays, and weaker cleansers or not cleansing for long enough can sometimes keep those blockers on the skin. And by the way? You should still be wearing even after summer days have drifted away, which makes this gentle-yet-effective face wash just as useful in January as it was in July.
The way that the oil-based cleanser works is via the “like-dissolves-like” phenomenon. So, the oils in the cleanser not only nourish your skin and support your barrier as your whir them around on your face, they also break down the oil-based ingredients on your skin so that water can wash those away. Because of this principle, that means that the formula doesn’t have to have a bunch of other soaping agents—which are typically drying—to chemically break those ingredients down, so this formula is actually an excellent one for those who have sensitive skin.
To return to the Grease metaphor for just a sec: While the cleansing agents are undoubtedly the Sandy and Danny of the formula—aka the stars of the show—there are other things going on as well. The Rizzo is, perhaps, the potent antioxidant blend of pomegranate, cranberry, green tea extracts, and vitamin C that seek to stop free-radical damage. The Kenickie is maybe the hydrators—panthenol, vitamin E, aloe, hyaluronic acid—that lock onto skin and leave it super moisturized all day. The Frenchy is certainly the pineapple and apple extracts that help to slough away dead skin and will never leave you feeling like a “Beauty School Drop Out.”
Have I taken this whole thing way too far? Certainly. But the formula truly does leave you wanting to sing a whole musical of songs about what good skin care can do for you. To use it, you apply it to dry skin because oil and water don’t mix, rub it in for about a minute, and then you’re ready to wash off. When you do, you’ll notice that skin almost feels like you’ve just applied a serum because it’s hydrated and dewy. And with that a one, two, three, four….Ramamalama ding dong!
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