How to Pick the Best Exfoliating Cleanser for Your Skin

Published on: November 17, 2022

Adding a bit of exfoliation into your daily cleanse delivers serious benefits for scrutinizingly every type of skin, helping to soften, clear, brighten, and smooth your complexion. More-intense exfoliants veritably have their place, but the summery daily lamina turnover you get from an exfoliating cleanser helps all the other skin superintendency in your routine sink in better, as well as stealthily helping to stimulate collagen, enliven unrewarding skin, and alimony pores well-spoken over time.

Chemical exfoliation uses acids (such as glycolic acid) or enzymes (pineapple enzyme is an example) to gently loosen cells, whereas physical (or mechanical) exfoliation involves more-textured ingredients like jojoba beads, ground minerals, or grains that manually scrub yonder dirt, pollution, makeup, sweat, and any other buildup (skin brushes and plane washcloths moreover fall into the physical exfoliation category). The two types of exfoliants can work together beautifully, or they might function largest on their own, depending on whether your skin skews dry, oily, mature, or sensitive.

Finding the right exfoliating cleanser for your skin—there are versions that exfoliate with enzymes, acids, microminerals, rice particles, bamboo fibers, and more—involves a squint at the ingredients, withal with some trial and error. With that in mind, we chose the unelevated all-stars by skin type to help you zero in on your ultimate daily cleanser.

Dry Skin

The gradual, gentle work of daily exfoliation really helps dry skin largest swizzle moisturizer, and function largest overall. These formulas unhook moisture-locking butters and oils, withal with both chemical and physical exfoliants, to hydrate, and they moreover sweep yonder dead, dry skin.

Antioxidant-Rich Moringa Seed and Castor Seed Oils

YINA Bioadaptive Cleanser goop, $68
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Plumping Cocoa Butter and Bakuchiol

Alpyn Beauty Juneberry & Collagen Hydrating Cream Cleanser goop, $39
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Organic Macadamia and Coconut Oils

MAKANAI Clean Cleansing Morning Zen goop, $35
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Oily Skin

Cleansers made with a combination of both chemical and physical exfoliants can help tenancy oil production and sieve and resurface skin—we love the powerful plant enzymes here, and the luscious formulas that soften and luminize.

Fruit Enzymes and Bitter Orange Peel Powder

goop Beauty GOOPGLOW Cloudberry Exfoliating Jelly Cleanser goop, $35/$25 with subscription
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Ruby Crystals and Organic Red Tea

Goldfaden MD Doctor’s Scrub Advanced goop, $98
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Glycolic Wounding and Rice Particles

Humanrace Lotus Enzyme Exfoliator goop, $46
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Vitamin C and Cellulose

Dr. Barbara Sturm Enzyme Cleanser goop, $75
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Mature Skin

As we age, the rate of lamina turnover slows, so our skin can handle more-powerful exfoliation—think grittier textures or more-potent ingredient concentrations—on a daily understructure to patina and smooth.

Diamond Powder and Rose Water

The Organic Pharmacy Rose Diamond Exfoliating Cleanser goop, $73
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Apricot Microbeads and Neroli

Tata Harper Regenerating Cleanser goop, $88
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Bamboo Fiber and Pomegranate Enzymes

FāTH The Resurfacing Botanical Cleanser goop, $82
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Sensitive Skin

Many people with sensitive skin stave exfoliating altogether, but using a super gentle exfoliant every day can unquestionably be incredibly beneficial. It’s important to go slowly when trying a new product and, for some, to use an exfoliating cleanser less commonly (say, every other day) to help skin retread to the new regimen.