The Cleanser Edit: Cleansing Balms

Your face cleansing routine can be a lightning fast, two-minute scramble before bed or it can double in as your ‘me’ time where it can take anywhere from ten to thirty (or more?!) minutes. Clinique’s Take the Day Off, arguably one of the most purchased, OG cleansing balms is aptly named. For many of us, stepping into our bathrooms at the end of a long work day and cleaning our skin, removing the gunk and grime of sunscreen, makeup, and life, really does feel like ‘taking the day off’ not just from our faces but from our minds.  Most of us don’t have the luxury of even a ten-minute cleansing ritual every single night and some of us just want to hit the sheets at the end of a long day. So the few minutes we can squeeze out are precious and with all things valuable, we want to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, and if possible, the joy we get out of our cleansing ritual. This is usually the criteria through which I decide if I like a cleanser. Is it effective in removing makeup and sunscreen – i.e thoroughly cleansing my skin? Is it efficient – does it cleanse quickly without too much effort on my part and does it rinse clean so I don’t have to fluff about removing it? And finally, as an added bonus, does it bring me any textural, visual, olfactory, or general sensorial joy?

It is in this spirit that I want to share these four cleansing balms that I am currently using and loving. For me, to date, the quickest and most effective first cleanse that removes all my makeup and sunscreen is Shu Uemura’s cleansing oil. However, balms lend themselves to a decidedly more texturally luxurious and sensorially satisfying cleanse and of late, I’ve been gravitating more towards balms over oils – though I am not sure I would ever want to be without at least one bottle of the Shu Uemura at hand (especially for the nights when I do just want to fall into bed and want the quickest destroyer of makeup on my face). This post focuses on four cleansing balm formulas that I have been loving recently from Elemis, Oskia, Biossance, and Then I Met You.

Elemis Rose Cleansing Balm: While everyone loves Elemis’ original cleansing balm, my favourite from Elemis’ offerings is the Rose version. Of all the cleansing balms I own and have tried, the texture of the Elemis balms is my favorite. This is a rich, dense, emollient cleansing balm with an impossibly silky texture that just stretches over my skin. You could almost characterize this as a particularly rich version of a gel-balm because of its silky spreadability. As a total sucker for rose scents, this balm is an olfactory hit for my brain. The rose is English and the fragrance is potent. It goes on beautifully, obliterates makeup and sunscreen as you massage it in, and rinses off absolutely clean. The skin is left feeling soft and supple. If you want just one cleansing balm that ticks off every point in my little criteria spiel in the introduction, get this one. You don’t need anything else.

Then I Met You Living Cleansing Balm: After seeing the internet exploding over how amazing this offering from Then I Met You is, I eventually caved and bought it. Unlike the Deviant Cleansing Balm which also broke the internet but whose smell I couldn’t stand, Then I Met You’s Cleansing Balm stands up to all the hype. This is a thick, bright yellow, rich, oily balm that melts slightly in the heat of my palms and spreads like a solidified but incredibly creamy butter on my face. The smell is herbaceous, it removes makeup perfectly, and rinses clean. Spreading it on the face is a pleasurable experience and I find myself a little mesmerized by its deep yellow hue. This balm is a star. While I slightly prefer the Elemis Rose over this on account of texture and scent, they are both do their jobs with equal effectiveness and efficiency. In the end, if you were choosing between the two, it would really come down to your personal preference for one texture and scent over the other. Both are also lovely to use as morning cleanses – they leave my skin glowing.

Elemis Superfood AHA Glow Cleansing Butter: This balm is a newer offering from Elemis and admittedly a little different from its existing range of cleansing balms. The texture is delicious and one of the main reasons I love using it– it’s a bright, orange cream that feels almost pudding-like in the jar and goes on exactly like its namesake – butter – when applied. As it spreads over the face, it sort of evolves into a buttery, emollient cream that if massaged into the skin long enough, is effective at removing makeup and sunscreen. The downside is that you do have to massage it in properly for it to remove everything but the upside is that it rinses out completely clean. This balm has a significant and immediate brightening effect on my skin – probably owing to the AHAs in the formula. For that reason, I actually enjoy using it as my morning cleanse – it wakes up my skin. However, I wouldn’t use it every day – on my sometimes-sensitized skin, that can be exfoliation overkill.

Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel: This is Oskia’s famous gel-balm cleanser and texturally, it does not disappoint. Its elegant, salmon-pink gel-like balm formula is impossibly silky and spreadable, and so sensorially satisfying that if I had money to burn, I would literally be squeezing it out into my fingers all the time and rubbing it into my face for fun. However, I use this cleanser in the morning because unfortunately, as delicious as its texture is, the cleanser itself doesn’t come off my face without a washcloth and struggles to remove hard-core makeup when it’s just rinsed off. However, as a morning cleanse, I sometimes leave it on for a few minutes or massage it into my skin and then use a regular hydrating gel cleanser to take it off. Too much hassle? Maybe. But I do really love the color and the texture and when I use it the way I just described, my skin really glows. Also, there is really nothing like this gel-balm anywhere else on the market – so for now, I am keeping it.

Biossance Squalene and Elderberry Cleanser: This gel-balm cleanser is my newest find and while not a dupe by any stretch of the imagination, a less expensive alternative to Oskia’s famous Renaissance cleanser. The formula of this cleanser is a pale pink gel-like balm, less emollient and silky than Oskia, and thicker in texture, but spreads nicely on my face and yes – rinses off well without a face cloth – which is a massive win over Oskia. If I was the formulator, the only thing I would change is the scent and scent is very personal so you might love it even if I don’t. To me it smells a little like cocoa butter or coconut oil – not my favorite scent in a cleanser. Like Oskia, I would not use it to remove my makeup because I find that it struggles to do that without the additional support of the surface of a fabric. However, as a morning cleanse, especially for dry skin folks, this cleanser is a win. If you love the Oskia but hate that it doesn’t come off by itself, try the Biossance – decidedly more affordable, and definitively more efficient.