The Glow Standard · Skincare · Cleanser
Fourteen tested. Two ranked. Both stocked at the Chemist Warehouse around the corner, both Glow Score 8.7 or higher.
The quick answer
Buy CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser at AU$20. Glow Score 8.7. It is the rare cleanser that suits normal, combination and resilient oily skin without stripping the barrier. If your skin is actively breaking out and you want a clinical lift, the La Roche-Posay Effaclar Gel scores 8.9 for the same gentleness with more decongestion. Either one is a long-term keep.
Find your cleanser
An editor-built shortcut that maps skin type, texture and budget to the cleanser the panel would buy for you.
The ranking
Most cleansers are too harsh, too perfumed, or trying to do a serum's job. These two respect the barrier and clear what the day puts on it.
CeraVe
A low-foaming gel that clears the day without stripping. Three ceramides plus hyaluronic acid mean the skin doesn't squeak after rinse. The answer to most which-cleanser questions, and the one we've restocked the most.
Buy at Chemist Warehouse
La Roche-Posay
The dermatology default for breakout-prone skin. Zinc pidolate and a low pH lift sebum and congestion without the post-wash tightness most acne cleansers leave behind. Start here if your skin is oilier than CeraVe's remit.
Buy at Adore BeautySide by side
CeraVe
La Roche-Posay
How we tested
A cleanser earns a spot only if all six panellists keep reaching for it past week three. Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Agresta signs off the read-out.
Twice-daily wear, weeks 0, 3 and 6 scored. A formula has to be wanted at week six, not just tolerated.
Fitzpatrick II–V. Two managing active breakouts, one rosacea-prone. Tap water held constant — inner Melbourne.
A cleanser cannot rank above 8.0 without a sub-6.0 pH and a low-irritation surfactant base. No paid placement.
Field note
The cheap end of the cleanser shelf in Australia has quietly become the most credible. CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, Cetaphil — the formulas Australian dermatologists hand out at consult — sit at the Priceline and Chemist Warehouse price tier, and they outperform a lot of what gets shelf-talked at Mecca for triple the money.
The traps are upstream: sulphate-heavy foams that strip in week one, fragrance-loaded "sensitive" cleansers, and acid washes trying to do a serum's job for thirty seconds of contact. The heuristic when you're standing in the aisle: low to no foam, no fragrance, pH around 5.5.
Cheap-and-derm-led is the dominant quadrant for cleansers. Both Glow picks live there. Prestige scent rarely earns the price.