Beauty bible

Why you need an oil-based cleanser in your skincare arsenal

Celia Walden buys into oil-based cleansers

SQUEAKY CLEAN: it’s what you want for your hair, but never your skin. Back in the day I didn’t know this and would go for cleansers that stripped my face of every ounce of natural moisture – leaving it tight and dry but oh, so clean! Anything rich or balm-like, I reasoned, would surely only fuse with the makeup and the pollution to form a filthy facial oil slick that would block my pores and leave me with the sebumtastic complexion of a teenage boy.

Then I was persuaded to try Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm (£23, johnlewis.com) by my best friend, who has always sworn by it (and likens using it to spreading butter on toast and watching it melt). How a solid balm could rinse off with no greasy residue was miraculous. So was my skin afterskin wards: soft, supple and hydrated, it was also less prone to pimples. ‘That’s because balms help to soothe the skin,’ explains London-based facialist Amanda Lacey, whose Cleansing Pomade has long been considered a hero product by her clients (Gwyneth Paltrow, Annette Bening and Emily Mortimer among them). ‘Balms don’t strip the skin of its delicate acid mantle, but work in conjunction with the skin’s own sebum levels. And because oilbased cleansing balms glide on to the effortlessly, it allows you to really massage them in.’

Lacey does caution against using mineral-oil-based products, however. ‘These can be comedogenic and clog the skin.’ And she always encourages her clients to use a muslin washcloth (my favourite, by Liz Earle, are two for £4.50 at fabled.com) to ensure your skin is left silky soft.