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I both love and hate thinking about how dirty my face is.
The combination of joy and disgust comes from knowing how filthy New York City (or most any city) is, and how much (mostly invisible) grime collects on my face. For example, an estimated 5.6 million people, including me, ride the New York City subway each weekday, on average. That’s 5.6 million people touching food, phones, significant others, doorknobs, toilets, computers, and themselves, and then coming into contact with things I might sit on, lean on, or touch — and risk putting in the vicinity of my face. Then there’s all the bus and car exhaust burping aboveground, in addition to who knows what other kinds of air pollution.
And in the summer, there’s heat and humidity simmering this entire broth.
That’s all on top of the general filthiness of being human: the sweat, the oil produced by our skin, the layers of sunscreen and/or makeup we might wear, and perhaps some residue from an oversize salad, burger, or side of fries that a napkin didn’t fully wipe away. Multiply some of these concerns by at least two if you’re in a romantic relationship with someone, and if you have young children, factor in their inevitable grubbiness as well.
To get rid of this swirling dirt patina glomming onto my skin, I’ve learned to take joy in washing my face. And every time I wash my face, I wash it twice.
The formal name for this routine is what skin care gurus call “the double cleanse.” With origins in the 10-step Korean skin care routine, the double cleanse quite simply means using two different cleansers — one with oil, followed by another with water — to try to get your face as clean as possible, without irritating your skin. The method hinges on the science-backed principle that the oil-based cleanser will remove excess oil and oil-based product residue, and the water-based cleanser will get rid of any pore-clogging dirt that remains, revealing perhaps the cleanest skin and clearest pores you’ll ever know.
Skin care fanatics swear by it, as do celebrities and politicians. In January, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez endorsed the double cleanse. Meghan Markle is a fan, as is Kerry Washington. So are a bevy of Korean male celebrities.
Skin care and beauty companies have leaned into the rising interest in the regimen. Earlier this year, the boutique skin care company Drunk Elephant launched a balm cleanser, on the heels of a new cleansing balm from Pond’s, the creator of the classic cold cream.
And the double cleanse offers more than just a fresh face.
“It’s my favorite step in my skin care routine because it’s extremely tangible in its results and also feels the best,” Pelin Keskin told me. Keskin is a friend of mine and a video producer at Vox sister site Eater; she’s also an active and knowledgeable participant in Vox Media’s private skin care Slack channel. “There’s a satisfaction in watching your makeup being smeared all over your face and then the transformation to an incredibly clean and fresh face,” she says.
I know what she means. The double cleanse has become a moment in my day when the world gets quiet, and it’s just me washing my face. Meditating, knitting, listening to music, reading, exercising, watching TV — humans have invented all kinds of ways to relax, to unspool the toils of their day. For me, double cleansing is one of those things.
With summer in full swing — and all kinds of sunscreen, sweat, and additional grime in the mix — there’s no better time to consider the double cleanse. Not only will it get your face clean, it might become a newfound source of relaxation and relief.
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Why science supports the double cleanse
For practical purposes, we all know what it means to wash our face — using some kind of cleanser or soap to clean the skin from ear to ear, and from the top of our foreheads down to our chins. On top its importance to basic hygiene, washing your face is vital to keeping your skin looking its best.
“Basically, buildup of residue, oil, dirt, cosmetic products left on the skin can leave the skin looking dull in appearance, and it also contributes to clogging your pores, which then can lead to acne or enlarged pores,” Megan Rogge, a dermatologist with UT Health and UT Physicians, told me, explaining that ideally we should all be washing our faces twice a day. “Those are the main things that can occur when you don’t wash your face.”
But while the act of washing one’s face is an understood term, there are all kinds of variables that make it anything but a universal experience. For example, my mother’s face sharpens into a spear of frustration and horror every time I ask her if my father still uses Irish Spring bar soap — soap that’s meant for the tougher skin on one’s body — to wash his face.
Now consider my father’s drastically no-frills approach relative to the sticker shock of La Prairie’s $90 facial foaming cleanser, $90 on something that is literally meant to be rinsed down the drain. Inexpensive bar soap versus a luxury product with a high price tag represents two ends of the face-washing spectrum — but while someone on the La Prairie side is more likely to partake in the double cleanse, the practice can benefit anyone.
The double cleanse brings a little more clarity and science to getting your face skin clean than what high-end products might promise, and it doesn’t need to be expensive. All you need is an oil-based or balm cleanser (balms have a waxier, more solid consistency) to use as a first step, and then a different, water-based facial cleanser to get rid of any of oily residue. If the buildup of oil, dirt, dead skin cells, sunscreen, and cosmetic products can leave your skin looking dull, double cleansing aims to help you achieve your best-looking skin by eliminating all those things.
All the dermatologists I spoke to stressed that they can’t affirm or deny every claim made by specific skin care products, because there isn’t enough unbiased, thorough testing of said products, including cleansers, being conducted by independent researchers.
“It’s not like I can open up a medical dermatology journal and give you information [on a specific commercial product] that’s been verified,” Rogge told me, explaining that the type of analysis she and other dermatologists can offer is instead based on individual ingredients and chemicals and how they’re known to function in relation to skin. “[It’s] more by just reading the ingredients and kind of trying to understand” what kind of benefits and differences exist, she said.
So while she can’t vouch for promises that a specific skin care company might make about its cleanser fighting acne or making your pores appear smaller, she can analyze the ingredients in said cleanser, and say why it should or shouldn’t work on your skin type.
Ellinor Quay Coyne, a dermatologist based in Washington, DC, believes there is a benefit to using two different cleansers because of the scientific principle that “like dissolves like” — meaning that oil-based cleansers can better remove oil-based dirt, cosmetics, and residue, and water-based cleansers can better remove non-oil-based dirt, cosmetics, and residue.
“The oil-based cleanser in the double cleanse method is a great way to remove sebum (overproduced in acne) and makeup and sunscreen at the end of the day,” she told me in an email. “You can then penetrate the pores more deeply with the water-based cleanser.”
The double cleanse is specifically designed to be gentle yet thorough
On a day-to-day basis, the heaviest product I put on my face is sunscreen; sometimes I dab a little concealer under my eyes if it’s a rough morning. Couple that with the heat and humidity of a New York City summer and having to use a subway that’s as grimy as it is hot (read: extremely), and the thing I look forward to most upon getting home is cleaning my face and melting away the day’s grime.
From personal experience, using a balm or oil-based cleanser feels a lot gentler on my skin. Theoretically, the science agrees.
That’s because, while washing your face is essential to keeping your skin happy, over-washing it can have the opposite effect. It’s a tricky balance; many cleansers use chemicals to eliminate dirt, but those chemicals can be harsh and dehydrate your skin.
And that’s where oil-based cleansers can be beneficial, Rogge says.
“From looking at the ingredients list and how these oil-based cleansers work, they have more emollients in them, which are basically skin protectants, things that protect your skin from harsh chemicals or drying agents,” she told me. “If you have sensitive skin, I think that an oil-based cleanser may have some benefit for you in just protecting your skin [from irritation] as you wash it.”
One oil-based cleanser I’ve used and liked is Living Cleansing Balm, from the skin care company Then I Met You. It has the consistency of slightly softened butter (it stays in the container if you flip it over), and you smush a dollop of it right onto your face. It melts into your skin, creating a slippery surface that dissolves and lifts dirt, sunscreen, and makeup so you can rinse it away. The stuff also smells like a smoothie.
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“I have dry skin and hormonal acne, so I wanted to ensure the Then I Met You Cleansing Duo [the Living Cleansing Balm comes with a supplemental water-based cleanser] would be nourishing and non-stripping after use but at the same time prevent breakouts,” Charlotte Cho, the creator of Then I Met You, told me. Cho is a licensed aesthetician and is also a co-founder of SokoGlam, a website that curates and sells Korean skin care products.
A similar ethos went into the creation of Tatcha’s Camellia Cleansing Oil, a beauty favorite for its efficacy in removing layers of makeup while being gentle on skin. It comes in an easy-to-use pump dispenser, making it a little less messy to use than a more solid balm. And it’s known for making quick work of sticky stuff like sunblock and waterproof makeup, without resorting to harsh cleaning agents or requiring too much skin-irritating scrubbing.
“I think the biggest mistake people make in the Western world is that they use harsh, aggressive cleansers, which is why so many people think they have dry or sensitive skin,” Victoria Tsai, the founder of Tatcha, told me via email, stressing the dangers of being overzealous about washing your skin. “You need to unburden your skin every day, whether from makeup, pollutants or dead skin cells; but if you use cleansers that are too harsh, you strip the skin of its natural barrier.”
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According to Dr. Coyne, the risk of overwashing is the most important thing to keep in mind if you’d like to try double cleansing for yourself.
“The main thing to watch out for especially in the winter time is overly drying the skin,” Coyne said. “If you don’t have acne/oily-prone skin or don’t wear lots of makeup, double cleansing might not make sense for your skin and can do more harm than good.”
The clinching step of the double cleanse is using a water-based cleanser to get rid of any remaining dirt or product residue. This is where the more traditional water-based cleanser — including my dad’s Irish Spring — comes in. The simple trick to finding out which cleansers are water-based is checking the ingredient list on the back of a bottle: If the first ingredient on the list is water, then you’ve found a water-based cleanser.
I’ve been married to Indie Lee’s Brightening Cleanser for the past year or so, mainly because it smells like strawberry pie, and it’s pretty light and gentle on the skin.
And again, that gentleness is absolutely integral. While you may not be using harsh made-for-your-knees bar soap like Irish Spring on your face, if you’re using two cleansers, both of them need to extra gentle so that you don’t over-wash and irritate your skin.
Cho and Tsai both advised that people who double cleanse should pay attention to the pH level of your water-based cleanser and to follow up by moisturizing your skin immediately and thoroughly.
The pH levels they referred to are the same ones that many of us learned about in science class, which designates whether something is alkaline/basic or acidic. Any pH level below a 7 is considered acidic (tomato juice has a pH of 3.5 or so), and anything higher is alkaline (bleach has a pH of about 12). Human skin’s natural pH hovers around around 5 or 5.5, making it slightly acidic, and using a cleanser in the same or a similar range will help keep your skin happy and neutral and balanced.
Cleansers whose pH level is either too low or too high, even those marketed for use on “sensitive” skin, could end up irritating or drying your skin or stripping it to the point where it becomes more vulnerable to acne-causing bacteria. (Helpfully, skin care gurus and active citizens of the “skinternet” have compiled databases of pH levels in popular products.)
“If you’re dry like me, you can make sure you’re getting the right water-based cleanser for your skin type by looking for a low pH formula — anywhere between 4 and 6 — and it helps if there are emollients in the formula,” Cho told me.
Essentially, the double cleanse aims to clean your skin as thoroughly as possible by using the two kinds of cleansers to get rid of the different kinds of dirt on your face. Your face is getting cleaner than if you used only one cleanser that might not fully take off the makeup or sweat or SPF. And you’re cleaning it in the gentlest way possible.
Many people also find the double cleanse to be therapeutic
When she explained the double cleanse concept to me, Cho said she wanted to make using her products feel like a treat — to make double cleansing feel like a relaxing experience. She said that she wanted to emulate the sentiment that’s prevalent in South Korea, where skin care is treated less like a chore and more like an indulgence.
Similarly, when I was talking to Keskin about her experience with double cleansing, she described it as rewarding.
“The first step is more the ‘spa-like’ experience out of the two. I’ve become remarkably attuned to how gentle a cleanse is,” she said. “If I have sunscreen on — which is every day — I don’t touch my face at all. So the double cleanse gives you that face-touching reward for being so diligent throughout the day. And by ‘you,’ I mean ‘me.’”
While I haven’t conducted any lab tests on my own skin, I’ve come to understand what Cho and Keskin are talking about. This is especially true in the summer; as the temperature creeps up, my body responds in kind by sweating profusely. Then it sweats even more if I feel like people can tell I’m sweating profusely.
I get twitchy thinking about the filth that collects on my face over the course of a day. And there’s a sweet relief that comes with knowing all this gross stuff on my face is about to be rinsed down the drain, to reveal soul-affirming cleanliness underneath. Perhaps that’s a metaphor or some kind of projected wish that life’s complications or difficulties could be as easy to deal with as washing my face. But that seems like another article, or a session with a therapist.
My skin feels and looks a lot better thanks to the double cleanse. It’s especially noticeable in the summer, as I’ve been putting on more and more sunscreen. The science of keeping my skin clean and knowing I’m doing something to keep it looking great are both assuring. But the least tangible thing is the most important — double cleansing is something that makes me feel good and happy, and I’m glad I’ve found it.
