Drunk Elephant Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser - 150 ml/5 fl oz - Travel-Size Gel Face Wash - Clean Clinical Skincare - Cruelty-Free - Dermatologist-Tested - Free of Essential Oils, Silicones & Fragrance

Why it's worth it

A clear jelly that lathers lightly and takes off waterproof sunscreen and long-wear makeup without stripping. Formulated at pH 5.5, with no fragrance, essential oils, silicones, or SLS.

Drunk Elephant formulates Beste No. 9 at pH 5.5, which is squarely inside the 4.5 to 6.5 range dermatologists point to for protecting your acid mantle. Cleansers above pH 7 raise your skin's surface pH and leave it more vulnerable to irritation and flares. Plenty of prestige cleansers get this wrong. This one gets it right and says so on the box.

The mild surfactant blend is what you're paying for. It dissolves waterproof sunscreen and stubborn makeup — the stuff a gentle cream cleanser leaves behind — without the harsh sulfates that measurably increase water loss through your skin. In one peer-reviewed comparison, SLS-based cleansers raised transepidermal water loss by up to 27% over four weeks against amino acid alternatives.

From our review of 8 facial cleansers, by Sarah Wright, Editorial Associate

What we like

• +Drunk Elephant formulates Beste No
• +The mild surfactant blend is what you're paying for
• +The brand's "Suspicious 6" policy means no essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical sunscreens, fragrances, dyes, or…
• +This works as either step of a double cleanse, which is useful if you don't want to buy two products

What to know

• –It's the most expensive thing here per ounce by a wide margin, and the bottle is small
• –Because it's genuinely fragrance-free, some people find the experience flat
• –It's a gel-jelly, so it won't feel rich or comforting on very dry winter skin the way a cream cleanser does