Why is using a wash cloth such an important part of the routine?

Every once in a while we will get an email from one of our long term regular customers. They’ll start out almost always the same way. I’ve been using your product for over a year and it has given me wonderful skin, (here comes the “but”) but lately my skin is starting to breakout. Have you changed the product?

No, we haven’t changed the product although it might vary in color or consistency). It is the same effective product.

Almost without fail they will tell us they’ve been skipping the lathered up wash cloth after each treatment. Just using their hands and the soap. We ask them to go to the routine we laid out originally and usually their skin returns to the clear skin they wanted to begin with.

Why? The reason for the wash cloth has to do with how Benzoyl Peroxide works. It has been on the market for many decades. Benzoyl Peroxide in our product does a wonderful job.

The actual function of the wash cloth is to sweep out the Benzoyl Peroxide from the pores of your skin after it has done it’s job of diminishing the acne causing bacteria on your skin’s surface. Leaving tiny bits of benzoyl peroxide on the skin (as spot treatments and ointments do) after a while starts to affect the good healthy bacteria your skin needs to stay clear. More about that below:

If you believe what I’m saying then no need to read further. Just follow the directions. We know they work. Yes you might read a posting somewhere that someone got good results without the wash cloth. I doubt this will continue.

We aren’t interested in you getting short term results. We want you clear forever!

We’re a small business. We can’t afford to spend millions of dollars on advertising and/or trapping you into some sort of “club”. We have to give you clear skin as long as you use our products, or you won’t reorder. If people don’t reorder, we are out of business. Right now we get a lot of reorders. So we know we are helping people.

Science and acne:

I always laugh when someone tells me science “understands” acne. We’ve all seen those drawing of a blocked pore. It simplifies things but doesn’t explain anything. Indeed, acne is caused by a bacteria. Allergies also can sometimes play a role in how you deal with these bad bacteria. Nobody really understands why these bacteria act out of control in some people and not in others. Hormones do play a role. We don’t believe they actually cause acne. During that “time of month” they seem to create a better environment for the bad bacteria to act up.

There are both good bacteria and bad bacteria. Other acne products treat the bacteria as all bad. Lets get rid of them? Even if that was possible, it wouldn’t be good for your skin. Without good bacteria, we would not be able to survive. They are involved in every aspect of our body!

How can bacteria be good?

Besides health inside of our bodies, bacteria also plays a role in helping our skin to reproduce and dispose of older skin cells. They act as a defense barrier against bad bacteria. Without good bacteria on or near the skin’s surface, your skin becomes less healthy. Stressed.

How does Clear and Smooth treat the bacteria differently than other acne products?

Other acne products hit the bad bacteria hard. Trying to remove them with strong washes and stay on the skin ointments. These do work at first very well. Ointments may work for years. The problem is these products also affect the good bacteria. Sooner or later, you continue to use ointments you will go into burnout. As we noted adult acne is much more prevalent today than 40 years ago before these strong washes and ointments came on the market. We want you to use the wash cloth to make certain none of the Benzoyl Peroxide in our product remain on the skin after a shower.

If you did our treatments over the sink. Or without a wash cloth, you aren’t going to be able to thoroughly remove these tiny bits of Benzoyl Peroxide. Therefore you would be staining towels and clothes and not seeing long term results.

Acne is caused by bacteria. A certain type of bacteria (Propionibacterium Acnes). If these spot treatments and antibiotics worked they would just kill this type of bacteria and you would be acne free. But this isn’t the case. These bacteria are in the air and everywhere. You come into contact with them daily. What you need is a healthy balanced skin to fight them off. Constantly using ointments keeps you from having healthy skin.

40 years ago adults didn’t get acne. At about 18 or so acne usually went away. It was almost purely a teen problem unless there was some health issue (like PCOS). About 30 years ago some “genius” decided that it was a good idea to control teen acne with acids and stay on the skin products like salycic acids and Benzoyl Peroxide ointments and tea tree oils. Yes, these products worked wonderfully… For a while.

A curious thing happened: Teen acne became adult acne. It just didn’t seem to go away.
People used more and more ointments, spot treatments and washes not properly removed (as our natural soap does). The companies kept selling more and more of them. Pretty soon these companies figured it all out. They didn’t care they were ruining peoples lives. These companies were creating long term customers! They made all skin care products acidic!

It’s why we pH balance all of our moisturizers. and ask our new customers to be patient and follow the directions exactly. It isn’t easy to overcome being an ointment addict. But with time, this does work. Some just need more time.

“Pros This product balances my skin – never too oily or too dry. My skin feels and looks healthy. It lasts a long time, is not expensive, and is easy to use.
Cons I can’t think of any.
Bottom line I have had some form of acne for my entire life from 13 years old through my 40’s. I’ve been using Clear & Smooth products for years, and this is the first time in my life I have not had skin problems. The bonus is – for my age, I’m not getting a lot of wrinkles. I wish all teens could find out about this product and not have to worry about their skin. I do have one warning, however. At first, I almost gave up because it took about 2 months for my skin to clear. I would recommend being patient and using the products faithfully in the beginning. Then the results will happen.”
-Tina

What a pain! I’ve got to buy a bunch of wash cloths!

You can buy a stack at Wal-mart very inexpensively. You could also tear up an old terry cloth towel. Or you can get by with just one wash cloth. It has to be washed daily. You can just put one in a microwave safe bowl and bring to a boil in the microwave. This makes sure no bacteria remain. Re-using wet dirty wash cloths means you are reapplying bacteria to the skin. When these wash cloths sit wet in a shower they make a perfect growing medium for the bacteria.

All this is theory of course! It is hard to prove. All we know is this: Following our directions seems to help a lot of people long term!