Cleanser

A cleanser is a facial care product that is used to remove make-up, dead skin cells, oil, dirt and other types of pollutants from the skin of the face. This helps to unclog pores and prevent skin conditions such as acne.

Many people use a cleanser once or more times a day as part of their skin care regimen together with a toner and moisturizer.

Using a cleanser to remove dirt is considered to be a better alternative to bar soap or another form of skin cleanser not specifically formulated for the face for the following reasons:

• Bar soap has a high pH (in the area of 9 to 10), and skin's natural pH is 5.5^{[citation needed]}. This means that soap can change the balance present in the skin to favor the overgrowth of some types of bacteria, increasing acne.
• Bar cleansers in general, soap or not, have thickeners that allow them to assume a bar shape can clog pores, leading (once again) to acne^{[citation needed]}.
• Using bar soap on the face can remove natural oils from the skin that form a barrier against water loss. This causes the sebaceous glands to subsequently overproduce oil, a condition known as reactive seborrhoea, which will lead to clogged pores^{[citation needed]}. Conversely, in order to prevent drying out the skin, many cleansers incorporate moisturisers.