Quest Over: The Perfect Soap-Free Cleanser

I feel like I have been searching for the perfect soap-free cleaner forever. For years I have picked through the beauty aisle at Walgreens, combed through magazine ads and read articles in my quest to find facial cleanser that fulfilled my three simple (or so I thought) requirements:

1. Non-drying

2. Available in a pump (I share with my family, and my son requires things dispensed with pumps)

3. Inexpensive

I’ve come across many options that were close. For years I used Walgreen’s generic version of Cetaphil cleanser, but it wasn’t always available in a pump, and quite frankly I missed bubbles. But bubbles usually equal drying. After resisting for a long time (the generic Cetaphil was so cheap!), I decided to spend a bit more and try Purpose Gentle Cleansing Wash.

I haven’t looked back since. It’s a bit more expensive than what I’d been buying, but it’s soap-free, foaming, comes in a pump and smells a little bit like baby soap. The label claims it’s as gentle as plain water. Did I mention it was also an Allure Editor’s Choice Award winner? In addition to being soap-free, it’s oil-free, hypoallergenic and won’t even sting your eyes.
But what’s most important here is that it doesn’t make my face feel tight after I wash. It feels clean, it feels smooth, but neither dried out nor oily.

Since I started using Purpose, I haven’t felt the need to try anything else. After all these years, that’s really saying something.

You can find Purpose Gentle Cleansing Wash at Walgreens, CVS, your local grocery store, Amazon , Drugstore.com and probably a whole bunch of other places (another point in its favor!).  It’s also available in bar form if you’d prefer.

Cleansers for oily AND dry skin?

I love it when people ask me questions.

It makes me feel smart and better than you.  I mean, helpful.  It makes me feel helpful.

My point is – someone asked me a question.

Elizabeth asked:

“do you know of any good facial cleansers that control oily and dry spots? As in, both at the same time? My forehead is both. I have no idea how this is scientifically possible, but my old cleansers aren’t working anymore. Help!”

Allow me to pretend to be an expert in skin care.

My immediate answer is your skin is probably not actually both oily and dry.

Truly oily skin is very, very rare.  And while cosmetic companies have been talking about “combination” skin for pretty much EVER, that is also pretty rare.

And yet, you’re breaking out AND having parts of your skin flake off, right?

Been there.

In fact, I actually had black heads and zits once right not top of skin that was dry and flaking off.  I googled and googled and then finally broke down and scheduled an emergency facial.

And then I rolled around for a few minutes in the idea that I was someone that scheduled emergency facials.  I started imagining myself using terms like “the help” and “my Jimmy Choos” and “that lovely woman who does my toes.”

But back to my schizophrenic face.

As it turns out, what was actually going on was that my face was really, really, really dry.  The blackheads and zits and oiliness were a result of my skin trying to work overtime to make up for the fact that I was stripping away the moisture in my skin by trying to fight the zits.

At least, that’s what the very expensive esthetician told me.

I didn’t believe her, of course.  Because it doesn’t make sense that dry skin would have blackheads and oil slicks.  And also – maybe I made my skin more dry by trying to fight the acne, but I had to do that because the acne was there in the first place, right?

My very expensive esthetician told me to shut up and do what I was told.

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