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.
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.
