Restore Your Skin Barrier With TikTok's "Water Cleansing" Hack

At the start of the pandemic, I began religiously washing my face day and night. In the morning, I'd use my favorite cleanser before going through the rest of my skincare routine and would repeat these steps before bed, thinking I was being diligent about facial cleansing. It's only after a whole year of doing so that I realized I had been over-washing and stripping my skin of those essential oils it needed. Here's where "water cleansing," a minimalist skincare hack coined by TikTok user @glowwithava, comes to rescue.

In a TikTok clip, beauty influencer Ava Lee explains that water cleansing "literally means you're cleansing with just water, with no cleanser in the mornings." It's considered a safe method to restore one's damaged skin barrier. Lee advises in her video that this method works well only if you double cleansed the night before.

For myself, I now keep a very tight skincare routine. If I've worn makeup during the day, I'd make sure to double cleanse in the evening. And in the morning, I stick to water cleansing, applying my toner, serums, moisturizers and sunscreen after that.

For more details about the water cleansing method, watch Lee's video below.

@glowwithava Reply to @em_s010 important: assuming you double cleansed and went to bed with a clean face!!! #watercleanse #beautytipswithava ♬ original sound - AVA

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