The NUMBER ONE rule for having good, clear skin is to clean it the right way. A clean skin is a healthy skin.

Proper cleansing removes the irritating and poisonous agents and germs that could hurt your skin or, by absorption through the skin, actually cause harm to other parts of your body. There are many ways to clean your skin, but the good, old-fashioned soap and water routine is really the best, most efficient and least expensive method.

What are some of the things you want to wash away to keep your skin clean and healthy-looking?        

First of all, you have substances produced by your own body:

• Dead, horny cells from the very upper layers of the skin. If these are not regularly washed off, your complexion will be dull and lifeless.

• Sweat from the millions of sweat glands all over your body. A lot of this sweat is responsible for body odor.                  

• Sebum, the oily material that gives the skin its softness and elasticity. When this oily substance builds up, acne pimples result.

• Ear wax and old hair and nail cells, just sitting there on your skin, up to no good.

Then there are the substances coming from the environment:

• Pollutants found in the air, such as smoke, soot, dust, pollens, and exhaust fumes from cars, busses, trucks.

• Materials around your work place, such as grease and grime from gas stations and fast-food restaurants.

• Things found in your own home. These could be paints, glues, resins, clothing, bedding, carpeting, house sprays­ even belly-button lint!

• All the bottles, jars, and sprays of "who-knows-what" you apply to your skin by design, such as cosmetics, suntan lotions, perfumes, and surface medications.

• Various" friendly" germs which live normally on your skin.

Regular washing with soap and water rinses and flushes this skin garbage away, cleans the pores, reduces odor, and cuts down the risk of infection and disease. Your clean skin will look soft, glowing, and healthy. Its circulation will improve, encouraging the growth of healthy cells, and your skin will breathe better. All this, by just washing your face three times a day.

A word on cleansing creams used mostly to remove make-up. While your make-up seems to disappear, you're actually left with an irritating combination of cream, leftover make-up, and other impurities that were already on the skin. This leftover mess not only irritates your skin but also can clog the pores, leading to blackheads and whiteheads. If you try to remove it with tissues, you only further clog up the pore openings.

Let’s face it, only soap and water will really get your skin clean. Washing your face three times a day with a mild, gentle soap is the most important advice I can give. If you want to take off make-up with a cleansing cream, follow it up with soap and water to get rid of all that mess than can only cause problems.

The kind of soap-you use on your face is a matter of personal choice, but watch out for the ones that are irritating or can't be completely rinsed off. The so-called cold cream soaps, although they are fairly mild and gentle, always leave a film of cold cream, plugging up the oil glands which are already working hard to get rid of their normal oil supply. The deodorant and antibacterial soaps can be especially irritating to facial skin because they leave a residue of chemicals on your skin to destroy germs. If you have a body odor problem, use these types of soaps only below the neck.