Do I need to double cleanse if I don't wear makeup?

You spent the day at home. No foundation, no concealer, nothing but moisturizer and the sunscreen you put on before a short walk at noon. At 10 p.m. the cleansing balm is sitting next to the sink, and the familiar question comes up: do I need to double cleanse if I don’t wear makeup? The honest answer depends less on makeup than on that sunscreen, and on what kind it was.

Do I need to double cleanse if I don’t wear makeup?

Not on every bare-faced day. If you wore sunscreen, especially a water-resistant one, an oil cleanse first is worth it. If your skin carried nothing but moisturizer and the day’s own oil, one gentle cleanse does the job.

Double cleansing means two steps: an oil or balm to dissolve oil-based things on the skin, then a water-based cleanser to wash the rest away. Makeup is the obvious reason to do it, but it is not the only oil-based film a face carries. Sunscreen is built to stay put, and that is exactly what makes it harder to wash off. Our guide to how to oil cleanse walks through the method itself.

Do I need to double cleanse to remove sunscreen?

For a water-resistant sunscreen, an oil step makes a measurable difference. For an ordinary sunscreen, a regular cleanser did about as well in the one study that has tested it on faces.

That study, from dermatologists at West China Hospital, applied sunscreen to the faces of 20 participants and photographed the skin before and after washing. They then compared three ways to take it off: water alone, a foaming cleanser, or a cleansing oil.

With an ordinary, non-water-resistant sunscreen, water alone left 54.0% of it on the skin. The foaming cleanser left 15.6% and the cleansing oil left 13.4%, and neither result was meaningfully different from clean, untreated skin, which measured 9.9% on the same scale.

With a water-resistant sunscreen, the gap opened up. Water left 59.3% behind, the foaming cleanser 36.8%, and the cleansing oil 5.8%, close to the 3.2% baseline. The authors concluded that “the non-waterproof sunscreen may be washed off by the cleanser or cleansing oil and the waterproof sunscreen by the cleansing oil.”

So the label on your sunscreen is a reasonable guide. If it says water resistant, plan on an oil or balm first that evening. The study tested only two sunscreens, and the authors call for research on other types, so read the numbers as a starting point rather than a rule.

What are the double cleansing benefits?

The main benefit is a more complete removal of oily films, sunscreen above all, without scrubbing. The same study found a second, quieter benefit: the oil step did not dry skin out more.

In that study, 8 participants reported dry skin after washing with the foaming cleanser, compared with 1 after the cleansing oil. The authors suggested the oil may cause less irritation and dryness than the cleanser. That is a single small study, but it runs against the common worry that adding an oil step must be harsher. If what you are really trying to wash away is small bumps under the skin, our guide to closed comedones covers what reaches them.

Can double cleansing damage your skin barrier?

It can, when it is more cleansing than your skin needs, or when the products and water are harsh. Every wash with a surfactant cleanser costs the skin a little of its own oil.

A review from Unilever’s research team states plainly that “normal skin cleansing is associated with damage to the SC lipids” (the fats in the outer layer of skin that hold water in), because cleanser surfactants pull out some of the skin’s own lipids along with dirt and sebum. The same review notes that fatty acids are pulled out more easily than ceramides.

The type of cleanser matters. A 2018 review in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology explains that alkaline soaps damage the barrier more than synthetic detergents, known as syndets, which tend to cause less irritation and dryness. A 2022 review in Molecules reached the same conclusion, noting that soap-based cleansers tend to disrupt the barrier, dissolve lipids and shift the skin’s pH, while syndets can keep the skin’s structure intact. That review was written by a skincare company’s scientific affairs team.

Water temperature adds to the effect. In a 1995 experiment on 10 volunteers, researchers applied a 5% solution of a common detergent, sodium lauryl sulfate, to the forearm at 4°C, 20°C and 40°C, once a day for 4 days. The warmer the solution, the more irritation it caused. In a 2022 study of 50 healthy adults, hot water more than doubled the water lost through the skin of the hands, from 25.75 to 58.58 g/h/m², while cold water raised it less, to 34.96.

None of this argues against double cleansing. It argues against cleansing more often, more harshly or more hotly than the day calls for. If your skin feels tight within minutes of washing, see our guide to why your skin is more sensitive in winter, when this tends to show up first.

Editor’s note

I have double cleansed with oils and balms for more than ten years, since before “double cleansing” was a phrase anyone used, and I still do a deep cleanse twice a week. In the morning, I wash with a cleansing gel only. My water is warm, never hot, and I wet my skin thoroughly before any cleanser touches it, because on dry skin almost anything stings. Oil is the one exception: it goes on with dry hands and a dry face, gets rolled gently over the skin, turns milky with a little warm water, and is rinsed before a gel or foam finishes the job. When I skipped that second step, my pores felt more clogged, not less. In Bali and Malaysia, with tropical heat and traffic fumes, I made my cleansing more thorough.

Is double cleansing necessary every day?

No. Decide each evening based on what went on your skin that day, not on a fixed rule.

A simple way to decide:

• Water-resistant sunscreen, long-wear makeup, or a long day outside in heat and sweat: oil or balm first, then a gentle water-based cleanser.
• An ordinary sunscreen and no makeup: one thorough wash with a gentle cleanser removed it about as well as oil in the study above. Double cleansing is optional.
• Nothing but moisturizer, or a day at home: one gentle cleanse.

If your skin is dry or reacts easily, lean toward the single cleanse on borderline days. If you are adding a new cleanser to the routine, introduce it on its own first, as our guide to introducing a new skincare product explains.

How do you double cleanse without overdoing it?

Keep each step short and gentle, use warm rather than hot water, and pick a mild water-based cleanser for the second step. The goal is to remove what is on the skin, not to make skin squeak.

• Apply the oil or balm to dry skin with dry hands, and massage gently.
• Add a little warm water until it turns milky, then rinse well.
• Follow with a gentle, syndet-based cleanser rather than a bar soap.
• Pat dry and moisturize. Our skincare order guide covers the steps after cleansing.

If your skin feels tight right after washing, or products that used to feel fine start to sting, treat it as a cue to drop back to one cleanse and see how your skin settles.

This article is for general cosmetic information and is not medical advice. If you have a skin condition, speak with a dermatologist.