CeraVe hydrating cleanser was one of the brand's three launch products in 2005, a gentle wash built around ceramides. Here it is with the cream, milk and gel cleansers I would use when skin feels tight.
CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser and the Gentle Washes Built for Dry Skin
When CeraVe launched in 2005, developed with dermatologists, it started with three products: a moisturizing cream, a moisturizing lotion and a hydrating facial cleanser. That makes the CeraVe hydrating cleanser one of the brand's originals, and it still carries the three ceramides and time-release MVE technology found in every formula. It is the one I recommend to anyone whose skin feels tight after washing, because it cleans without foaming away the oils skin needs. The Inkey List was started in 2018 by Colette Laxton and Mark Curry, who met at a British pharmacy chain and put a plain explanation of each ingredient on every label, and its cream-to-milk cleanser adds hyaluronic acid. The Ordinary's glycolipid cream cleanser is non-drying and removes makeup, and Skinfix, which grew from a balm a Yorkshire pharmacist compounded in 1870, makes a pH-balanced gel with ceramides and ectoin that dissolves sunscreen. If you have dry skin or eczema, look for fragrance-free formulas, and see a dermatologist if patches crack or itch.
Cream cleansers
Cream cleansers feel almost like lotion and leave a soft layer behind. Tiffany Masterson started Drunk Elephant as a mother in Houston, naming it for marula oil and the myth that elephants get drunk on the fruit, and Mello pairs marula with colloidal oatmeal. Augustinus Bader's cream cleansing gel is built on TFC8, the complex that came out of the professor's wound gel. Dr. Howard Murad, a dermatologist and pharmacist, founded Murad at 50 after compounding acid formulas for his patients, and his renewing cream cleanser adds peptides. Alpyn comes from Dan Kolb Butler, who moved to Jackson Hole and turned to the wild plants in her backyard when products failed in the dry mountain air; its cold cream cleanser carries vitamin C.
Gel cleansers, and the skip
If creams feel heavy, try a gentle gel. Laneige, named for the French word for snow, built its brand around hydration, and the Water Bank gel removes makeup and sunscreen. Amy Liu started Tower 28 because of her own lifelong eczema and named it for a Santa Monica lifeguard tower; the SOS gel works as a cleanser and makeup remover and is made for sensitive skin. Innbeauty Project, from two colleagues who met at another skincare brand, makes a gel with ceramides and amino acids, and Banu, named for its founder Roz Samimi's great-grandmother, makes a chamomile jelly. What I would skip is scrubbing with a washcloth when skin feels tight. Use your fingertips and pat dry.
Four gel cleansers
A gentle routine
Wash once at night and just rinse with water in the morning if your skin is very tight. Keep the water lukewarm. Apply moisturizer while skin is still damp. Give any new cleanser two weeks before you judge it. Hot showers pull moisture out too, so keep them short in winter, and run a humidifier at night if the air is dry.
