How we are using face cloths

Most people buy these for one job. Dry your face, bin it, done. That is the job they were made for and it is the one I care most about.

But there are three others I use them for constantly, and two of them are the reason I keep a box on the counter rather than in a cupboard.

Drying your face after cleansing

The obvious one, and still the one that matters most. You have just washed your face. Everything you do next lands on skin that is clean, which is exactly why the towel you reach for is worth thinking about.

A fresh cloth every time limits your exposure to the acne causing bacteria that live in a bath towel. That is the whole argument. It is not a treatment, it removes a variable.

If you break out along your jaw and cannot work out why, this is the cheapest thing to rule out.

Taking off a face mask

Wet the cloth and wipe. No mess, no clogged sink, no ruined hand towel that you then have to deal with.

Anyone who has tried to rinse a clay mask off over a bathroom basin knows exactly why this one is on the list.

As a warm compress

Wet it with warm water, wring it out, and rest it on your face for a minute before you cleanse.

Warmth softens the skin and loosens what is sitting on it, so everything after goes on easier. It also just feels good, which is a real reason to do something.

Drying your brushes

This is the one nobody expects. After you wash your make up brushes and sponges, dry them on a face cloth rather than the towel on the rail.

Think about it for a second. You have just cleaned your brushes properly, then you lay them down on the same fabric you have been using all week. Everything you washed off goes straight back on, and then onto your face.

The thread running through all of it

Every one of these is the same idea wearing a different outfit. Whatever touches your face should be clean, and the easiest way to guarantee that is for it to be new.

One towel, one use. That is genuinely it.

Elle x