There is a raft of amazing beauty products on offer, thankfully, for many different skin types. But there’s one beauty treatment that’s overlooked…and it’s plain spring water. Not just for drinking, but also as a key part of our facial cleansing routine. Here’s how to cleanse your face in spring water and why it’s so much better than using tap water.
Beautifully packaged cleansers sometimes promise the earth and may even deliver – but then when we remove it with tap water which can be hard and chalky on our face we ruin all the good work and waste our money.
Tap water differs in quality and cleanliness from one area to the next and from country to country. We can never be entirely sure exactly what is in it. Googling ‘tap water and health’ – trusted websites – shows how unhealthy it can be. Tap water is supposed to be drinking quality in many countries, including the USA and Great Britain, but there’s a ‘but’…
Occasional there are problems because of poor tap hygiene or inappropriate plumbing which can cause bad tastes or odours. As converts to using spring water in our beauty routine for over 30 years, we can tell the difference. Spring water leaves the skin feeling fresh and soft. Tap water (depends on the level of water hygiene of your country, and plumbing in your home) leaves the fine skin on our face skin feeling tight and dry.
How to cleanse your Face with Spring Water
Whether you shower in the morning or evening – always cleanse your face before going to bed. Dirt and dust from traffic and outdoor activities should to be removed last thing:
- Massage cleanser gently into your skin on face, neck and chestbone – very gently under the eyes
- Leave for a minute or so to soak up dirt and dust that has settled on your skin
- Remove the cleanser with 100% cotton pads (they’re softer than semi-synthetic pads) – start at the centre of your face and wipe outwards towards your ears
- Go gently on the eye area – rubbing and using circular movements will wear on the skin’s fine surface and promote lines and, later on, wrinkles
- Once the cleanser has been removed, soak a 100% cotton pad in certified spring water to remove any remaining traces of cleanser (a recognised springwater brand)
- Let the spring water dry on your face
- Apply moisturiser
How to choose a Spring Water for your Face
We may not know what’s in the tap water, but we can see what’s in bottled water by reading the label. There are many well-known bottled water brands with different pH values – most bottled water stays between a pH of 5 to 8. pH of 7 is considered normal because it sits between acidic and alkaline. See also below for detailed description of the pH. Beware of un-branded bottles which just say ‘bottled water’.
They may not actually be spring water. Bottled water can be re-processed tap water, but branded bottles contain natural water sourced from one or more recognised springs. They are free from toxins, ready to drink. But even the top spring water brands vary in mineral content and taste.
Each to their own, but we’re partial to Volvic as the ideal beauty tool. Volvic is relatively low in calcium, magnesium and sodium which give it a smooth feel. Other good brands include Evian, Highland Spring, Hildon and Buxton. There are more expensive designer brands coming on to the market as people become more health aware.
Read also our post on health drinks that can help make your skin glow: carrot juice is one of them.
How can you tell the Quality of Spring Water?
Only by trying the different waters will you know which one feels best on your skin. But you can tell the quality of each brand by checking its pH value: pH, which was incidentally devised by Danish biochemist Søren Peter Lauritz in 1923, stands for power of hydrogen – how acidic the water is. It goes from 0 to 14 and 7 being neutral.
The higher the better, ie less acidity, except above 10 is unhealthy for humans (not likely to find bottled water of that pH). The super trendy Acqua Panna Natural Mineral Water has a pH value of 8. While equally designer Actiph Alkaline Ionised purified water is a powerful antioxidant with an alkaline level of pH9.0.
Below we list some of the most key spring water brands on the market and how to cleanse your face, the contents of the waters and where they come from. But read also this fantastic article on MailOnline about the importance of water to our system and why and how to hydrate. We think we know about keeping hydrated, but not enough…this piece is a real eye opener.
How the Water Brands compare
EVIAN:
Contents include: Calcium 80mg per litre, magnesium 26 and sodium 7.
Evian, sourced from natural springs on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, filters for over 15 years through layers of glacial rock in the European Alps.
Ph value: 7.2.
HIGHLAND SPRING:
Contents include: Calcium 41, magnesium 10, sodium 6
Ph: 7.8
From the rocks of Perthshire in Scotland, and collected from boreholes 65m deep.
VOLVIC:
Contents include: Calcium 12, magnesium 8, sodium 12
Ph: 7
Filtered through hundreds of metres of volcanic rock in the Massif Central in eastern France, where it picks up mineral traces.
HILDON:
Contents include: Calcium 41, magnesium 10, sodium 6
Ph: 7.8
From the rocks of Perthshire in Scotland, and collected from boreholes 65m deep.
BUXTON:
Contents include: Calcium 55, magnesium 19, sodium 24
Ph: 7.4
Rainfall which has filtered through the limestone of the Peak District, north of England, for thousands of years.
ACQUA PANNA:
Contents include: Calcium 32, magnesium 6, sodium 6
Ph: 8
This water flows through the Apennines Mountains in Tuscany, Italy, for 15 years before it is bottled.
DUCHY ORIGINALS:
Contents include: Calcium 3, Magnesium 2, Sodium 7
Ph: 6.2
Filtered for 50 years through the granite rocks of the Cairngorms National Park and bottled in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
VOSS:
Contents include: Calcium 5, magnesium 1, sodium 6
Ph: 6
From a spring in southern Norway, this comes in a stylish glass bottle.
FIJI ARTESIAN:
Contents include: Calcium 18, magnesium 15, sodium 18
Ph: 7.7
Extracted from an aquifer in the Pacific Fiji Islands.
Read also our post on beauty hacks you need to know before you’re 30.