The quickest way to test if your skin is congested or not is to simply run your hand over your facial skin – does it feel bumpy or smooth? If it feels bumpy to touch then your skin is probably congested. So what does this mean and what is congestion?
Congested skin can show as a number of things: whiteheads, blackheads, acne or clogged pores. There are a number of things that can cause this such as:
- Touching your face a lot
- Not changing pillow covers often enough
- Excess sebum
- Dehydrated skin
- Everyday pollution
- Not cleansing or exfoliating correctly
It’s not just oily skin that can get congested, as we may assume. Dry skin can also begin to produce excess sebum to make up for lack of moisture (dehydrated skin).
There are also external factors that can cause congestion such a dirt build-up due to touching your face with unclean hands or phones or not changing your pillow case often enough.
We often forget about how much environmental pollution can affect our skin, it can make it dry, dull or lead to premature aging. Look for moisturisers with vitamin E which helps to block free radicals, which are found in our environment, from entering the skin. Our Green Angel Daily Moisture Face Cream contains vitamin E to help block free radicals from the body.
There are a number of steps that we can take to try and combat this congestion:
- 60 second cleansing
We’re all guilty of washing our face for 15 seconds and calling it a day, but studies have shown that to really benefit from your product’s ingredients you should cleanse for 60 seconds before rinsing it off. It has also shown that it helps to improve skin’s natural glow and overall texture.
- Double cleansing
We should really be double cleansing every evening if we’re wearing makeup or just from our daily lives. The first cleanse serves to remove all the dirt, makeup, sweat and oils our skin has picked up or produced throughout the day and the second is to really get down into our pores and cleanse deeper. For our 60-second rule this would mean 30 seconds each cleanse or the full 2 minutes – but do beware of over-cleansing which can leave skin dry and irritated! Pay attention to your own individual skin’s needs, as we’re not all the same.
- Exfoliation
An essential step to help get that baby-smooth skin. Exfoliating helps to remove dead skin cells and rejuvenate the skin by stimulating new cell turnover. Dead skin cells will lead to congested skin if not removed. We should exfoliate 2 times per week (maximim) to keep on top of our skin routine and to help prevent build up and congestion in our skin.
- Masking
A deep pore cleanse at least once a week is important. It helps to relieve pores of any dirt that it has collected from makeup, pollution or just touching our face – that sometimes cleansing alone cannot reach. It will help to lift our any congested build-up in the skin and help reveal a smoother complexion.
- Stop touching your face
It seems a simple step but we’re all guilty of touching our faces more than we should – we even do it unconsciously. But what we forget is what we are putting on our faces when we touch them – bacteria, dirt, oils. Especially now more than ever, due to COVID-19, it is important for our general health and for our skin’s health that we stop touching our faces as much as possible.
- Lifestyle changes
Everything from our sleep pattern, to our diet impacts on our skin’s health and so we should be mindful of what we put into our bodies and more than likely it will come out in our skin. Try to minimise junk foods and alcohol and instead focus on fruits, vegetables and drinking at least 2 Litres of water every day. Of course don’t forget to treat yourself – but everything in moderation! This will be easier on our systems and skin, as the less toxins we put in the less we have to put out.