The first official traditional cleanser trial of The Acne Experiment was a weeklong study of Paula's Choice Earth Sourced Cleanser. I discovered this stuff on Pinterest over a year ago, before I knew anything about Paula's Choice; the green bottle and 99% natural ingredients were too damned alluring. When I saw that it's also sulfate free, and possibly the gentlest of Paula's face wash offerings, I decided it would be the most logical choice for the inaugural cleanser test.
Ingredients:
- Paula's Choice Earth Sourced Perfectly Natural Cleansing Gel (Water, Decyl Glucoside, Glycerin, Sodium Cocoamphoacetate, Lauryl Glucoside, Coco-Glucoside, Glucose, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Sodium Lauryl Glucose Carboxylate, Glyceryl Oleate, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Xanthan Gum, Carrageenan, Sodium Phytate, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol)
- St. Ives Exfoliating Pads (water, lactic acid, glycerin, tocopheryl acetate, prunus armeniaca (apricot) fruit extract, vaccinium myrtillus fruit extract, saccharum officinarum (sugar cane) extract, citrus limon (lemon) fruit extract, citrus aurantium dulcis (orange) fruit extract, acer saccharum (sugar maple) extract, betaine, sodium hydroxide, polysorbate 80, polysorbate 20, DMDM hydantoin, fragrance)
- Spot treatments as needed
Method:
- Obtain a few sample packets of Paula's Choice Earth Sourced Cleanser.
- Make sure your hands are clean, then wet your face with warm water.
- Cut the corner off one of the packets and put a half-dime-size amount of the gel in your hand.
- Lather it between your hands then gently rub all over your face.
- Rinse well with warm water.
- Pat your face dry with a clean towel.
- Use a small binder clip to keep the packet closed. You will be using this same packet for as long as possible, you cheap bastard.
- Apply additional products as appropriate.
- Make that one sample packet last for a full 5 days. Hot damn.
- Congratulate yourself for being such a economical/amazing human being.
Conclusions:
Despite how boring it is to dedicate a single face wash to an entire blog post/review, this was actually a super important trial for me. I say this because it was during this trial that I confirmed that foaming face wash gives me cystic chin acne.
Allow me to explain.
Allow me to explain.
I have been using foaming face wash for as long as I can remember. I have no clue what I used in high school because I guess I blocked out that period of my life. I didn't actually have any acne issues until I was in college, so this point is moot. In college, I used Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel, then switched to Cetaphil post college when the real world sat on my ribcage. About a year ago, I started using sulfate free cleanser for the first time (Trader Joe's All-In-One Facial Cleanser) in an effort to curb my Perioral Dermatitis (PD). I continued using the TJoes because it was gentle, cheap, and I heard it's actually $50 cleanser in a $6 bottle; it didn't make much a difference with the PD though.
Throughout these years, a decade in total, I've had continuous painful acne on my chin. It got particularly bad during my mid 20s, but I chalked it up to hormones, face fingers, and stress. No dermatologist or doctor I saw for acne gave me any indication that it was caused by anything else.
So here's the interesting part:
For the last 10 years, the period of time when I had the least chin acne was during my very first Acne Experiment trial, ie the no face wash month. I didn't want to believe it could be "gentle face wash" that was causing this, so I tested the Trader Joe's cleanser again just before the Jojoba trial. For my efforts, I got two cystic zits on my chin within a few days. I still wasn't convinced.
I figured if something "ideal for baby too" still gave me chin zits, then my face must hate cleanser in general. So here are the results of the Earth Sourced Cleanser trial:
Before & After Paula's Choice Earth Sourced Cleansing Gel |
POOF. Three cystic chin zits, where there were no cystic chin zits before. I'm like some kind of acne magician.
Before/After Paula's Choice Earth Sourced Cleanser "Hormonal Acne" |
It's a shame because I was actually really enjoying the cleanser. It is very mild and didn't dry me out at all, so if you can tolerate foaming cleansers, I do recommend this one. I was also really looking forward to air travel with sample packets like a rich people do, probably. C'est la vie.
In conclusion, I'm both relieved and horrified. The skin on my chin is uneven and lumpy because of 10 years of cystic acne, and I did it to myself with ignorance. Holy hell.
Next Up: Neutrogena Extra Gentle Cream Cleanser (psych!) Rosehip Seed Oil
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All Acne Experiment Posts + FAQs are in The Acne Experiment MOTHER HUB
This Cleanser Made Me Rethink My Hormonal Acne - The Acne Experiment