Top Cleansing Balms for £10 (ish)

I’ve been writing about my skincare routine for the past couple of weeks. If you missed the first post, which was my easy-to-follow daily routine, then you can catch up here.

My Skincare Routine at 43

That post also gives a bit of context when it comes to my forty-three year-old face and what I will and won’t do to it. It’s a good solid piece to refer back to, if you ever find yourself thinking do I really need an eight step skincare routine? (Answer: no. Unless that’s your bag and you love a lengthy process.)

What the post doesn’t have, and this was kind of on purpose, is a big convoluted list of product recommendations for each step of the routine. I didn’t want to make a long post even longer by going off on a tangent every thirty seconds to tell you about this favourite serum or that top retinol cream.

And so I thought I’d do a bit of a deep dive, for the next few weeks, looking at the individual skincare categories I use the most and some of the best products available on the market. This week: top balm cleansers. Except - plot twist - they all cost around a tenner.

Cleansing balms are my cleanser format of choice: I love the way that the solid balm feels so luxurious to apply and massage into the skin and how effective it is at removing everything from eye makeup to longwear foundation. I just think that it’s a really foolproof method of deep, thorough cleansing: it takes everything off easily but doesn’t dry out the skin or make it feel tight when you’ve flanneled it all away. Neither does it leave a greasy residue.

I do honestly, honestly think that if you have issues with your skin but you currently perform your evening cleanse using a splash-off wash, or wipes, or micellar water, it is worth swapping to a good balm cleanser before you look at changing anything else. They suit all skin types, even oily, and if your skin usually feels uncomfortably dry or tight or itchy after cleansing then you will not believe the difference it makes swapping to a cleanser that respects the skin barrier and nourishes the skin rather than stripping oils away.

I apply my balm cleanser to dry skin and massage until it turns oily. I pay particular attention to my eyelids and lashes to break down makeup and then remove with a flannel and warm water. Don’t apply to wet skin, it just turns the formula milky and dilutes the effectiveness - you’ll end up using loads more product - wait until you’re ready to remove and even then, use the dampened flannel rather than splashing a load of water on!

You can get some astonishingly expensive cleansing balms, ones that will set your soul alight with just how beautiful they smell, or feel, or how gorgeous they look in their fancy pots. But all of the cleansers I’m about to tell you about are inexpensive and yet still do the very same job. You may thank me later.

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Inkey List Oat Balm Cleanser - £11.95 here*.

Could this be my pick of the bunch? It’s a tough call. The texture of this unfragranced balm is sort of grainy, but the grains melt down to a smooth, brilliantly effective oil.

In a nutshell: excellent price, high performance, no-frills packaging, huge great wanging amount of product.

Buy Inkey List Oat Cleansing Balm*

E.L.F. Holy Hydration Makeup Melting Cleansing Balm, £11 here*.

Ooph. Another brilliant one where you get a whacking great load of product for near enough a tenner. There was a time, not too many years ago, when it was a struggle to find just one good cleansing balm at an OK price-point - the mainstream high street brands generally still haven’t cottoned on to this type of cleanser - so it’s an absolute joy to have a few of them to recommend.

This is very similar in look and feel to Clinique’s Take The Day Off cleansing balm, which has to be one of the best-known original products. That now retails for £34. I’m sure (though I may be mistaken) that it was around £18 when I first started writing about it.

Anyway, the E.L.F.: unscented, very basic-looking and in a very unexciting plastic pot but with as much cleansing power that you would ever need to call upon. Just melts stuff away. Flannels off to leave skin feeling supple yet with no greasy residue.

Buy Holy Hydration Cleansing Balm*

Q+A Grapefruit Cleansing Balm, £9 here*

Hurrah, one with a scent! I know we’re not supposed to love scent in skincare, because it supposedly serves no purpose, but I love it. I find a scent-free routine to be totally soulless, and inwardly jump for joy when someone comes out with a product that does what it says on the tin but also has a lovely smell. (I’m still upset over the demise of Darphin, who produced the most incredible face oils in dinky little bottles. Everything was just so uplifting and made you want to do things to your face, rather than it being a perfunctory drill.)

Anyway, it’s not as though the smell of this one will make you swoon, it’s just zingy and fresh as a grapefruit would tend to be, but still. Nice. Sparks the senses into action. This one is very similar to the Oat Balm though I would say that in very warm temperatures (eg if you leave it right next to the hot tap!) this separates out. Store somewhere slightly cooler if you can.

Buy Grapefruit Cleansing Balm*

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Now for some alternative cleanser options: these perform just as well as a balm but have a slightly different texture. Just as rich, just as decadent in feel but without that “melts down to an oil” aspect. Because - I get it - not everyone loves the same buttery, massage-y kind of texture.

I don’t find cream and gel cleansers to be half as good as balm ones for removing eye makeup, but if you tend to remove your eye makeup separately beforehand anyway then you won’t find this to be too much of an issue.

Nip + Fab Hyaluronic Fix Cleansing Cream, £12.95 here*

A soothing, gentle cream formula that leaves skin feeling soft and hydrated. Fragrance free, feels lovely if your skin is a bit sensitive!

Buy Nip + Fab Hyaluronic Fix Cleansing Cream*

Superfacialist Rosehip Creamy Cleanser, £6 here*

Yes, six quid. I have loved this cleanser for years and years - this review on my website is from 2013! - and it has barely changed in price. In fact - wait - when I reviewed it, eleven years ago, it cost £7.99! This is unheard of in the beauty industry. It should cost at least ninety-five pounds by now.

Anyway: as above, a soothing, gentle cream. You really can’t go wrong with this. It smells gorgeous, does well at its primary task, which is to cleanse, and even if you’re going in with kid gloves, pressing a soft washcloth to your sensitive skin rather than scrubbing a flannel about, it leaves no greasiness behind.

Buy Superfacialist Rosehip Creamy Cleanser*

The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, £8 here*

A cream is still too massage-y for you? Want something lighter? I think that this Squalane Cleanser from The Ordinary is quite extraordinary. I’m pretty sure they made a version of it for The White Company a long time ago - yes they did, oh look whose review pops up on Google - and no wonder, because this is a winning formula. Deeply hydrating and with a pleasing gel-cream texture that feels lightweight and fresh. But is a far cry from the usual “lightweight and fresh” cleansers that turn your face into a desiccated landscape of dehydrated skin crags. This feels cutting edge, this texture. Hugely enjoyable to apply and work in, easy to remove.

Buy The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser*

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Join me next week for my deep dive into “highly potent skincare serums and treatments that won’t make your face fall off”. I need to think of a snappier title, that one is a work in progress…