I’ve had those long, lazy days on the weekend sometimes where I’ve already washed all the makeup and dirt and grime from the day off of my face the previous night, and I’m sitting at my computer, getting errands, run or doing whatever in the morning, that I just plain forget to wash my face the next day. What’s the big deal anyways, it’s already washed the night before, why not give my skin a total break from soap, water, and whatnot the next day?

It depends on how oily your skin is, but you may very well be able to get away with these occasional entire days without washing your face, unless of course you need to put on makeup, then it’s entirely advisable that you wash your face in the morning to prepare your skin and prime it with protective moisturizers and SPF for the day to come.

Many times though, especially if it’s a day where I know I’m not going to be exposed to UV in the winter, and I really don’t want to dry my skin out all the time by washing it twice a day, and it’s a weekend day where I don’t have to put on face paint for my job, I enjoy just leaving my face be and going washless for the day. I just use a blotter mid day to blot off the excess oil, and I’m good to go.

Then, the funny thing is, when I do finally wash my face in the evening (I still do wash it the once at least, don’t want too much toxic stuff and oil to build up, and I want my face to be clean from debris when I sleep), my face feels baby smooth. It’s almost like your skin needs a break from washing, and needs to bathe it’s own protective oils all day once in a while.

It’ sort of like a vacation for the skin, is the way I look at it. And so far, this practice has not made me break out at all. I think that having acne, unless you have severely oily skin, we tend to think that we have to constantly wash and dry out our skin, and in fact that damages it more and just makes us break out more in the end. It’s good to give your skin a break from washing and makeup every once in a while – it allows it to breathe and be free of anything, just for a little while.