Sensitive Skin

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Skin is a finicky organ. It responds to external factors efficiently. If you are overly-cleansing your face, your skin responds by producing more sebum to counter the drying effects of your cleanser. If you are using an overly-drying bar of soap (or any cleanser, really), you will experience breakouts because your pores cannot keep up with the sebum being produced and pores will get backed up and bacterial growth occurs.

The instinct when dealing with breakouts is to treat them like the devil. Resist that. I personally do wash my face with soap. But it’s a mildly cleansing bar. Also, I apply moisturizer when my face is still just damp because our skin absorbs topicals better when it is damp. If you are using a more drying cleanser, following up immediately with a moisturizer will remedy skin's natural pendulum tendencies. "Toners" are typically thought of astringent. But the right toner simply prepares your skin for moisturization. Which is why I personally use rose hydrosol right after I wash my face, then pat dry, apply (with my hands) the hydrosol, and then immediately moisturize. The hydrosol/toner helps the skin absorb the moisturizer more readily and effectively.

Washing your face with nothing more than warm water and a washcloth works because the fibers of the washcloth along with the water break the surface tension of whatever is on your face, as long as there isn't anything else on your face. If you have makeup or "dirt" on your face, you'll need something else to decrease the surface tension between that substance and your skin. That is basically what soap does: it decreases surface tension.

People with acne often omit a moisturizer BECAUSE they think it will exacerbate the acne. The opposite is true. A good moisturizer will alleviate the acne because the skin won't respond by producing excess sebum.

Acne is a response to trauma. Stress, hormones, harsh chemicals, exposure to bacteria (my daughter experienced a severe acne bloom from using makeup sponges to apply her foundation—those sponges create a lot of bacteria in between uses), inappropriately excessive exfoliation, over-exposure to sun, certain medications, etc.
 
Also, when I hit 40 I experienced SEVERE acne. My life at the time was a mess. My daughter was falling apart academically at school; my job was very stressful; my husband was extremely stressed from work and financial stress (which was stressing me out); I was swimming laps 3-ish days/week in a brackish pool (which was drying to my skin); and I was drinking way too much coffee, which was putting my body in a constant state of an adrenaline rush, which was igniting a cortisol response. All of those factors manifested in an excessive amount of sebum and painful and unsightly cystic acne. I still have acne scars. :(

I began drinking less coffee (which was REALLY HARD), quit my job, got my daughter help at school, stopped swimming, and changed my skincare routine.
 
This is just me but I am appalled by the medical profession's inability to offer natural alternatives to the (more often than not) ineffective drugs and pharmaceuticals they inflict on their patients. Oh, the stories I could tell! NOT meaning to start a brouhaha... just speaking from my experience. My brother ("His Royal Highness" LOL) was a doctor and we used to go round and round about this. GAH!
Yes yes yes!!! I too do not want to start a brouhaha and I have been blessed with incredible doctors in my life. I have shared on this forum ad nauseum that for 3 decades I tried every prescription and OTC lotion and potion -- including one dermatologist prescribed lotion that nearly landed me in the hospital (in retrospect I should have gone to the ER). My skin only DRASTICALLY improved when I started to use my own soap and lotion bars. Now when I see dermatologists, I tell them that. I just get shrugs and "hmm." I think when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Okay, rant over.
I know I hijacked this, sorry. I'm still sending healing wishes to you, @_Corrine12_ !
 
Thank you everyone for your advice. It baffles me that my bars are great in my hair and on my body, but not on my face.
Doctor gave me an antifungal cream because that’s what he guessed was the issue, but after using it I do not think it is.
Okay! Another new piece of the puzzle. I did not realize your skin condition was isolated to your face! That makes a big difference.

Not everyone who uses soap on their bodies uses soap on their face. I do not use soap on my face, and don't intend to ever try and switch. I see no reason to try to create a facial soap simply because I have no interest in switching from what I've been using for the last 55 years.

Now you may want to, and that's fine. There are several people here who do make specialized facial soap. I am sure if you look for "Facial Soap" in the search here, you'll find suggestions more in tune with what you need.

Personally, I would avoid using the soap that bothers your face in your hair. I learned that some things I used in my hair and nowhere else on my body would cause horrible red blotches on my face & sometimes on my neck. So I stopped using anything in my hair that caused that reaction. I had very long hair when that first happened and now it is very short, but even so, I don't put anything in my hair that I know causes those blotches on my face.

Perhaps if you stop using your soap in your hair, the face will clear up sooner. That is if you are still using it in your hair.
 
@The_Phoenix I am with you. I use Rose Hydrosol to wash/cleanse and while face is still damp, moisturise with jojoba oil. I have horses and we've had a bit of a drought this year so conditions are very dusty, sun screen also doesn't help. I'm quite disgusted with the amount of dirt I wipe off my face at night.

@_Corrine12_ Hopefully your skin will settle down, it just may take a while to work out what best suit you, at least there are plenty of options for you to try.
 

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