Lately I’ve been asked about this matter, as a lot of you suffered worsen fungal acne after cleansing with oils.

Been there, done that, folks! Apparently, my fungal acne prone skin hates olive oil, pronto! So, if I use cleansing oil as the first cleanser with olive oil as one of their main 5 ingredients, that will do bad things. Unfortunately my dear, lots of cleansing oil used olive oil as their main ingredients. And not only most oil is bad news for fungal acne, some ingredients mainly found in cleansing oil like Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Isopropyl Myristate are also a big no no for fungal acne dearest.

How about cleansing balm, some of you asked me. Same thing, lots of cleansing balms, whatever they named them, also contain ingredients that are not safe for fungal acne prone skin.

So, obviously I tried to stay clear of oils and balms, but lots of people still got confused of this first cleanser dilemma. I used to think that nothing could dissolve my oily based makeup and sunscreen except oil-based cleanser. Until I read labmuffinscience post. Yes darlings, we don’t need oil to dissolve oil, but look for surfactant in your cleanser.

Unfortunately, after some trial & error, there are not much first cleanser products that worked best on my fungal acne (in the meaning of they didn’t trigger them to be worse). But, I recommend you to check skincarisma.com if you want to know does your first cleanser safe for your fungal acne.

Personally, I’ve been using these two religiously, as they didn’t trigger my fungal acne.

BIODERMA SENSIBIO H2O: Trust me, I’ve tried many brands but always going back to this. It’s not cheap, yes. But, every single time I bought expensive skincare products, I will keep on telling myself “this Is an investment, I only have one face and I will take care of it the best way I can”. Believe it or not, I’d rather spent my money on expensive skincare products that really worked, rather than buying designer shoes nowadays.

LANEIGE LIP & EYE REMOVER WATERPROOF_EX: No wonder this costs a lot for a bottle of lip and eye makeup remover. It didn’t blur and sting my eyes. It removed matte lip color, waterproof mascara and eyeliner well. And tada!!! It’s safe for fungal acne according to skincarisma.com. If you’re also prone to milia under the eyes, don’t worry, this won’t make them bigger.

TIPS: immediately wash with second cleanser aka your facial wash after using first cleanser. Personally, I love using round cotton pads, so I can detect how clean I cleansed.

PHOTOS: SHINTA ROSVITA