everything dries out my face, even olive oil soap

Obviously regular bars of soap are a no-no for the face, but the aloe/olive bar I bought today also gave my face that familiar "moisturize me NOW" scaly look. Any recommendations? I'm thinking I could use the bar on oil cleaning days, but that's all I've come up with.

(EDIT: yeah, 100 posts!)

An olive oil soap isn't a guarantee of a good moisturizing soap. In face, although I use Kiss My Face basic olive oil bar in the shower, it's actually somewhat harsh and drying. You need something else besides the saponified fat if you want moisturizing, I suspect.

Best bet then is to use a moisturizer after you are done.

Try a wash specifically for your face and one that caters towards dry skin. My suggestions would be aubrey organics http://www.aubrey-organics.com/store_locator.aspx I love this stuff, even in the dry winter months, or a local drugstore should carry cetaphil. Many people love cetaphil for being so gentle, personally I thought it was still a bit much in the winter. Good Luck, and yes as mentioned earlier a moisturizer would help as well.

Here's the thing. Are you talking about washing your face while you're in the shower? If you are, then too much heat is one of the problems. Most people like to take showers that are actually too hot for your skin (I do.) This is why (I'm almost positive) that a lot of people say they feel itchy after they shower. All that hot water sparying down on your body for 10-15-20 minutes sort of boils your body's moisturizers out of you. For me, even though I actually have OILY skin, my face always dries out a little bit after a shower, even if I don't actually wash it.

There's a couple of options that I bet will work for you in any case.

Cetaphil. You can find it very easily locally. It's extremely mild. I believe they make a wash specifically for your face, as well as body.

Nancy boy Mild Facial Cleanser. This stuff if awesome. It's actually very similar to Cetaphil in color and scent (neither are scented but have a unique scent to them.) However, it lathers just a tad more, and I don't think it's quite as mild as cetaphil, so it cleans a little more.

Try them out. Just remember that any kind of hard soap that has saponified oils is going to have a little roughness on your face.

My personal preference is Dermalogica´s Ultracalming Cleanser. Quite costly but worth it (for me). I´ve also heard good things about Cetaphil.

I've had very good results with Sue's Jumbo Shea Butter bar from Honeybee Soaps.

A dermatologist on the show 'The Doctors' was addressing this problem recently, he suggested washing your face no more than twice a week and only in warm, not hot, water. He also said for dry skin, the more oily and heavier the product usally the better 'slather it on at night'. Things like A&D, Aquafor, and cetaphil cant be beat. During the day, things with SPF are prefferred.

Always use liquid soap he commanded, and preferably ones with moisturizers and made for the face.

If your face were more prone to break outs, I've heard, not from him, you can use herabal facial cleansers.

There is also that whole movement to only wash your face with steam, castor oil and evo, but I dunno anything about that.

I'm also now paranoid about mainstream 'beauty products.' I feel like most of them make things worse once you stop using them. Like dandruff shampoos that 'burn away' what is essentially very dry skin, soaps that have chemicals that just make your skin feel better, and actually dry them out later, acne cleansers that are incredibly harsh to most peoples faces...

Seems like we have more skin issues today than we have ever had!

Wash your face with Dove unscented then moisturize with something heavy.

Moisturel is a phenomenal product.