This morning I was poking around one of my favorite style-photography sites (the toujours-charmante Garance Doré’s) and saw the headline “Water.” In it, she pays her dermato a visit with a long list of questions and skincare concerns and comes away with just one startling piece of advice:

“Your skin is very good. It’s just exhausted. The only thing you need is to: Stop water.“

I almost started to cry. I’ve been told for years that water is not good for my skin (is it good for anybody’s skin?) but I resist. I rebel. For me, being clean equals using water and something that foams a lot. I knew that one day at the turn of my century, I would pay the price of my mindlessness, but not unlike Pete Doherty, I prefered to ignore the advice of people who cared for me.

I was always choosing the dark side of the force, and that is to say : WATER

I’ve heard of this before and I think it’s definitely a French thing, but it got me thinking. How do you keep your face from getting wet in the shower? And if you’re not using any water but you are wearing makeup, then whaaaa? Using a cream cleanser and wiping it off with cotton? Wouldn’t that leave residue that you would then need a toner or something to get off? Seems laborious to me! And it also seems like it would necessitate more products, not fewer, which is not in keeping with my less-is-more philosophy. Maybe Garance’s skin is exhausted from the foaming cleanser she’s using? Who knows! My suspicion has always been that water is less of a problem; it’s what you use with it that can make your skin sad.

We’ve talked about being dirty over here before. We even roped you all into a no-soap challenge that was, in our estimation, a pretty big success! But we exempted washing your hair, your face and your underarms/privates because, well, that seemed the right thing to do.

There were times (years, actually) when I didn’t feel clean unless I washed my face upwards of three times a day, and wiped it down with alcohol-laced toners. Now I know better, and what works best for me is if I only wash my face at night, to get off my makeup, sunscreen and grime from the filthy city I live in. But I don’t wash it in the morning; I use a clean muslin cloth and wipe down with…water. At night I use Tata Harper’s Regenerating Cleanser.

What’s your take? Do you wash your face twice a day, and if so, why? And have you ever forsaken water?

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Below is a post from Well+GoodNYC, a web site devoted to beauty, health, wellness in its many forms that we absolutely love. Founded by journalists Melisse Gelula and Alexia Brue, W+G has become a go-to for us, and we hope it will be for you, too. You’ll see them around these parts every week, and we’re thrilled to have them!

Cetaphil probably has the best PR of any facial soap. Beauty magazines gush over it as a no-frills $8 must-have. Dermatologists love to recommend it as a mild and non-irritating facial cleanser for two reasons: it doesn’t contain fragrance and, more tellingly, because MDs have a big Pharma love affair with the manufacturer, Galderma, the offspring of Nestlé and L’Oréal, which also makes acne drugs like Differin.

And yet there’s nothing healthy about this face-washing prescription.

It’s obviously a great time to be a dirty bird. In July we confessed our hatred of soap and in November we felt vindicated by a New York Times article about people who are forgoing soap and other cleansers in an effort to embrace a more laissez faire (and healthy) approach to personal hygiene. Now, there’s a piece flying around the internet about a guy who stopped using soap and shampoo for a whole year, and liked it so much he has announced he’ll be sticking with it. My friend Patrick James, a great writer who I used to work with at GOOD, alerted us to it the other day with his post, which you can—and should—read here.

It probably goes without saying that this great unwashed boy blogger Sean Bonner is our new hero. We haven’t smelled him or anything, but we believe him when he says he banished his BO and finds his hair more manageable than ever before.

He wrote about it for BoingBoing last week and here are his results:

—My skin feels better than ever before. Not that it ever felt bad, really, but it feels awesome now.

—Still no stink at all. I swear even when I’m really active and sweating I don’t notice any B.O., and I used to be über self-conscious about this and would think I was stinking if I walked up a flight of stairs too quickly.

—Dandruff is history.

—My previously wavy and mostly unmanageable hair now seems much more willing to bend to my will, a dream of mine since I first looked in a mirror, brush in hand, then tried and failed to make any sense of that monster.

—Unexpected bonus: travel is much easier.

We agree! His conclusion:

I will definitely be sticking with this. I’m still annoyed it took me 35 years to learn what I clearly already knew as a baby kicking and screaming when my parents tried to wash my hair. I know now, but I’d still rather not think about how much I spent on soap and shampoo and related products over the years when they were likely causing all the problems I was trying to protect against.

Amen.

Image that doesn’t really make sense given the topic of the post via

This is not the first time we talk about Tata Harper and her clean line by the same name, nor will it be the last. Last month Siobhan raved about her new favorite cleanser, and this past Friday I got a facial from the lady herself while she was visiting L.A. I’m feeling pretty lucky about it too.

Harper (who is seen above making lab glasses look chic) is the picture of an exciting entrepreneur. Sure, it helps that she’s jaw-drop beautiful and has luminescent skin—but it’s even cooler that before she was into beauty she was an industrial engineer, and that she spends half the week on her organic farm in Vermont where she grows many of her own ingredients.

During my facial she explained that it was her stepfather’s cancer diagnosis that set her down the clean path—when doctors at the Mayo Clinic recommended he stop using all of his products that contained synthetics and carcinogens (which was exactly all of them), a dumbstruck Harper had her a-ha moment. Since then she spent six years formulating her perfectly clean line, which launched a few months back.

Is it expensive? Yes, but it is also genuinely high-performance stuff. It won’t be for everyone but if you are in search of luxurious, clean products that deliver, do check them out. The line wasn’t out when we wrote the book but you can be sure that we will continue to review individual products as we try them… In fact, I left my facial with a few pretty bottles in hand, and I look forward to testing them all.

Right now you can find Tata Harper online at their site and at Spirit Beauty Lounge, at Evolue in Los Angeles and at Space NK in New York.

Image of Harper via her site

I haven’t exactly hidden my love of honey—I pretty much mention its antibacterial wound-healing powers every chance I get. But, truth is, I only got turned onto its magic in earnest a few months ago…

See, back in May the lovely Simone invited me to join her at a natural beauty house party—yes, this is how we roll in Los Angeles—where guest speaker Dae Williams sat at the center of our cross-legged lady circle, expounded on the many benefits of natural ingredients, made us laugh, and made us blush. For real. Dae is what you’d call a character, and she takes her act on the road, peddling her lovely clean products and educating women about their bodies. A hippie after my own heart.

That’s where I first tried Dae’s honey face wash, which I immediately bought and fell in love with. Now that my bottle has run out though, I’ve been playing with my own version.

It sounds weird but you can essentially just wash with honey if you’re very sensitive and looking for a really gentle cleanse. Lately I’ve been adding a little baking soda to the mix for a subtle scrub—as in helps with circulation but doesn’t tear off your top layer of skin. This is what I do:

—One tablespoon raw organic honey

—Combine with one teaspoon baking soda in palm

—Rub together and then massage gently in circular motions on face

—Let sit for a minute (or don’t) then rinse thoroughly with warm or even cold water

If this is all sounding a little crunchy, consider this: Last week we were guests on Dr. Doris Day’s Sirius XM radio show, and even she—dermatologist to the stars (and Siobhan)—was going on about the benefits of using honey topically. It’s also popping up in some of our new favorite natural brands, but more on that another time…

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We have a little secret. Maybe not something to bring up at a dinner party or in mixed company, but here among friends? Why not.

Alexandra and I both hate soap.

Aside from certain obvious body parts (the sexytime ones, and our pits), we don’t use the stuff. Basic hygiene, yes? Soaping up our…calves? And elbows? And the small of our backs? Why on earth!

Since we both stopped using soap, we find our skin much softer and naturally balanced, which obviates the need for body lotion. We like this, because it supports one of the central tenets in the book, which is that the fewer products you use, the fewer products you need. And when you’re buying less stuff, you can afford to get things you absolutely love when you do go shopping.

Back to faces for a second. We won’t use soap or anything foaming on our mugs. Our skin needs the natural oils that live on its surface and below. When we strip that with harsh, carcinogen-contaminated chemicals, our skin acts like a moody teenager.

Still, if you wear sunscreen and makeup, and who doesn’t, you obviously have to wash at the end of the day. I use a new Tata Harper cleanser some days, and an Evan Healy milk on others (reviews to come!). In the morning, I gently wipe my face with a clean wash cloth and water. That’s it.

Alexandra has lately been experimenting with honey. When she bothers to wash her face at all, she skews more DYI: a little honey as a cleanser here, coconut oil to remove makeup there. The point for both of us: Our bodies are marvellous! They do all kinds of magic tricks on their own. Let them be, and they work juuuust fine. And no, you won’t stink, we promise.

What about you? Do you use soap?