Cleansers

How to choose a cleanser

Cleansing is the step everything else depends on. Nothing you apply afterward works properly on skin still carrying the day's sunscreen, sebum and city pollution. But a cleanser that strips too hard does more damage than one that under-cleans, because it dissolves the lipids holding your skin barrier together.

For normal, dry, combination or sensitive skin, a low-foam formula is the safer default. If you are genuinely oily and shiny by mid-afternoon, a foaming cleanser earns its place.

Use it twice a day, lukewarm water, 30 to 40 seconds of massage. More often than that and oily skin responds by producing more oil, not less. There is more on where cleansing sits in the wider routine in our guide to the daily skincare routine for glowing skin.