The qualities of a good cleanser go beyond removing makeup. They should, but not strip the skin of its natural oils or cause dryness and irritation, and flood the skin with firming, hydrating ingredients ready for moisturiser. Here are the cleansers on rotation in our bathrooms, says editor Trudi Brewer.
Tailor Hydrating Gel to foam Cleanser, $50.
Why we love it: Boy, this brand is on a roll. Hard on the heels of their epic new Restore Melatonin Night Balm, this beautiful gel cleanser speaks to any skin type. Don’t you love an NZ beauty brand knocking it out of the park regarding beauty innovations that women want? This hard-working gel cleanser is a summer essential.
Key ingredients: With 96 per cent natural ingredients, including aloe vera leaf juice, glycerin, milk thistle, green tea, and soothing hydrolyzed oat protein. The foaming suds activated by water are courtesy of coconut oil.
Best for: All skin types, including oily, dry and sensitive.
Jeuneora SoWhippy Pre biotic Cream Cleanser, $58.
Why we love it: Our style director raves about this luxurious foaming cleanser. Ideal to use in the shower, it swiftly removes makeup, helps refine open pores and brightens the skin, but doesn’t leave that tight, dry feeling like many foaming cleansers. Also, the mango-like scent is addictive.
Key ingredients: Made from a prebiotic agave to balance the skin, kaolin clay to remove the day’s grime, wattle seed extract nourishes, while vitamin B3 or niacinamide protects your delicate skin’s barrier.
Best for: Dermatologist-tested ideal for all skin types - including sensitive.
IMAGE SKINCARE The Max Stem Cell Facial Cleanser, $56.
Why We Love It: This luxury, silky cream cleanser becomes a lightweight foam once activated with water. It works overtime to clean the skin and enrich it with age-defying ingredients. It meets the clean clinical skincare standards: parabens, phthalates, mineral oils, artificial fragrances, synthetic dyes and cruelty-free. You don’t know what you're missing until you run out - a little goes a long way.
Key ingredients: Stacked with plant stem cells, with protective and hydrating benefits, as well as skin-firming peptides, soothing oat kernel to keep skin redness at bay.
Best for: Anyone who likes that fresh feeling on the skin post-cleanse.
Dr LeWinn’s Private Formula Vitamin Infused Micellar Cleansing Water, $20.
Why we love it: Micellar water is soft water (without minerals like magnesium and calcium) that contains micelles, balls of oil that draw in dirt and impurities). Boiled down, micelles are essentially surfactants (or “oil in water” molecules), super handy for sensitive skin and challenging cleansing duties like removing stubborn makeup residue (waterproof mascara and long-wear liner). Or anyone with lazy, late-night cleansing tendencies or who loves the freshness of an early morning cleanse before a run. Using it is as simple as placing a few drops on a cotton pad and swiping it across your face.
Key ingredients: Saop-free micelles suspended in soft water, along with vitamin A and E-infused, and niacinamide natural capsules (no microbeads in this formula) that gently burst and absorb into the skin to nourish and correct while cleansing.
Best for: All skin types.
AVèNE Xera Calm A.D Cleansing Oil, $42.
Why we love it: This is your new BFF for anyone suffering from irritated or dry skin. For the face and body, this gentle, soap-free oil cleanser locks in hydration and leaves a protective film on the skin while restoring the fragile skin barrier.
Key ingredients: In a base of soothing thermal spring water, with omega 6, ceramides sterols (plant-based cholesterol), jojoba seed, Simmondsia chinensis seed oils and evening primrose oil.
Best for: Ideal for sensitive, irritated or dry skin, this is a cleanser the entire family can use.
Pure Fiji COCONUT CLEANSER WITH PAPAYA & MORINGA, $50.
Why we love it: It is an understatement to say I was obsessed with this fruit acid-based cleanser. It lifts every scrap of makeup from your face with its delicious coconut, macadamia and moringa oil formulation, which hydrates and gently exfoliates thanks to the papaya extract. Prepare to be addicted - I am.
Key ingredients: In a base of cold pressed coconut oil, vitamin E, skin refining papaya extract and fatty acids, as well as Pacific Island oils. Including moringa oil, macadamia oil, and dilo oil, a powerful skin-repairing oil. As well as the luxurious.
Best for Anyone who has dull skin and needs a pick-me-up.
The latest skin-changing innovation.