Cleansers
Where a routine starts, and the step most people get wrong. A cleanser that strips the skin makes everything after it work harder.
What a cleanser is for, and what it is not for
A cleanser has one job. It removes the day off your skin, the sunscreen and makeup and everything the air stuck to them, and then it goes down the drain. It is not the step that treats anything. Nothing you rinse off after thirty seconds is going to shift pigmentation or soften a line, and a cleanser sold on that promise is being sold on the wrong promise.
What a cleanser does decide is how well everything after it works. Zyderma describes its Foam Cleanser as cleaning thoroughly without the squeaky stripped feeling that drives more oil production, and that is the whole argument in one sentence. The tight, squeaky feeling a lot of people read as clean is usually the barrier taking the hit, and skin in that state stings when a serum goes on, which is how the serum quietly stops being used.
The cleansers we stock
Cream, gel, foaming, active and physical. The formulation matters more than the name on the bottle.
Foam Cleanser
150 ml
In clinic only
Acne Clarifying Cleanser
HydraBoost
Purifying Gel Cleanser
SensiCalm
Complexion Renewal Pads
In clinic only
Gentle Cleanser
180 ml
In clinic only
Dead Sea Mineral Salt Soap Bar
In clinic only
Dead Sea Mud Soap Bar
In clinic only
Konjac Facial Sponge with Tourmaline
In clinic onlyHow to choose between the ones above
Match the texture to what your skin is actually doing. Cream cleansers such as HydraBoost and SensiCalm are pH balanced and aimed at dry, tight or redness-prone skin. Gel cleansers such as the Purifying Gel Cleanser are for skin that is shiny by mid afternoon. The Acne Clarifying Cleanser is the active option, built around 2% salicylic acid, and it is for congestion and breakouts rather than for everybody. The ZO Skin Health Gentle Cleanser is the all-rounder, described by its maker as suiting dry, oily, sensitive and combination skin alike.
Two things in this list are not cleansers in the ordinary sense. Complexion Renewal Pads are an exfoliating step used after cleansing, not instead of it. The Konjac Facial Sponge is a physical tool for gentle daily exfoliation. Both are useful, and both are easy to double up on by accident if you are already using an exfoliating treatment.
The Dead Sea bars sit apart from all of it. They are pleasant, simple soaps, and we are straight with people that they are not a medical-grade regimen and were never meant to be one.
Where it sits in a routine
First, and then out of the way. AlumierMD numbers its own collections in the order the products are meant to be used, and the cleanser is always Step 1: cleanse, then treat with a serum, then hydrate with a moisturiser, then protect with SPF in the morning. If you buy nothing else on this site, buy in that order.
The mistake people make with it
Stacking. An active cleanser, then exfoliating pads, then a scrub, then an acid serum, all in the same routine, and then a fortnight of wondering why the skin has turned red and reactive. Cleansing is the step where doing more is least likely to help you, and it is the first place we look when somebody arrives with an irritated face and a shelf full of products.
The other one is buying a cleanser to solve a problem that belongs to a different step. If the concern is clogged pores, acne or rosacea, the cleanser is a supporting part at best. It is worth choosing well and it is not worth agonising over.
Ask us before you start, if
You have recently had a medical-grade peel, microneedling, or a resurfacing treatment. The written aftercare for those covers cleansing specifically and tells you when actives can restart, and an active cleanser inside that window is exactly the wrong thing. The same applies for a day or so after a HydraFacial.
Your skin is reactive, flushing or newly irritated. That is a reason to simplify what you are already using before adding anything, and it is a conversation rather than a purchase.