Clean up your act, or just your face, with a new natural cleanser

Sometimes there’s only one thing you want to do at the end of the day: wash your face. And how could anyone blame you?

There’s a lot of crap floating around out there (especially in the city!), and no matter how natural your makeup is, it feels great to give your skin a good scrub. (It’s also just a good idea). “I’ve read so many reports on the age-accelerating pollution that we experience every day,” says skin-care guru Tata Harper. “It’s not only the particles from makeup and dirt sitting on our skin, it’s the environmental chemicals that our skin’s exposed to.”

So how to wash all of that away this season? While also avoiding unhealthy chemical ingredients. And while getting your skin some moisturizing nutrients that will keep you glowing and blemish-free?

These seven amazingly effective new cleansers from top natural brands will make your morning and nighttime rituals so fresh and so clean this season. —Molly Gallagher, Lisa Elaine Held, and Melisse Gelula

(Photo: chedonna.it)

Éminence Monoi Age Corrective Exfoliating Cleanser, $38

The skin-care brand with colorful face masks and products all based on fruits and veggies recently debuted a line featuring the nourishing wow-factor of Monoi, a flower oil used in French Polynesia, which deeply hydrates and firms the skin. What makes this non-stripping cleanser special (in addition to its awesome anti-aging properties) are tiny ground olive pits that provide light exfoliation that help boost skin-cell turnover without making you feel like you’re scratching off your skin.

(Photo: Éminence)

Tata Harper Nourishing Oil Cleanser, $64, and Purifying Cleanser, $58

The luxe, natural beauty brand is out with two new cleansers that work as a beautiful pair. The Nourishing Oil Cleanser is filled with skin-regenerative oils, like rose hip, camellia, and Sacha Inchi (which are filled with super high amounts of omega 3 fatty acids), and olive surfactants that clean the skin and break down the oil. “It’s ideal for people who want a makeup remover and cleanser all in one,” says founder Tata Harper.

The Purifying Cleanser is all about detoxifying your skin, which you want to do next “so you don’t get age-related issues prematurely,” she says.

(Photos: Tata Harper)

Balbec French Green Clay and Yogurt Cleanser, $90, and Moroccan Clay and Yogurt Cleanser, $55

When your cleanser comes refrigerated with an expiration date, you know it’s got to be fresh. This new line of cleansers by Balbec use organic yogurt, clay, and aromatherapeutic essential oils, all of which contain seven ingredients or less. They also need to be refrigerated (start washing your face in the kitchen?). The clay pulls grim out of the skin, while the yogurt’s lactic acid refines and smoothes it (and the violet glass packaging doesn’t hurt the products’ appeal either.)

(Photos: Balbec)

Nourish Advanced 2-Speed Facial Cleansing System,$49.99

The USDA-certified organic brand known for its amazing body-care scents launched its first skin-care line last spring, and in conjunction with its lovely, light cucumber and watercress Moisturizing Cream Face Cleanser ($13.99), it just introduced this mini, eco version of a Clarisonic (available at Whole Foods). The rotating brush (which comes with a sample size cleanser and face moisturizer) provides a gentle deep clean that leaves your skin feeling soft and like you’ve just done something very good for it. And it’s portable and affordable.

(Photo: Nourish Organic)

Intelligent Nutrients Plant Stem Cell Science Refining Micro Polish, $50

Plant stem cells are the centerpiece of this forward-thinking, natural-and-organic brand’s newest skin-care collection, including this gentle exfoliating cleanser. Its creamy texture is super soothing and hydrating—with summer lilac stem cells that combat oxidative stress and algae that calms and prevents redness—while micro, eco-friendly jojoba beads give you just a touch of skin-brightening scrub factor.

(Photo: Intelligent Nutrients)

Badger Face Cleansing Oils, $15.99–$19.99

Badger, the New Hampshire-based brand known for its sunscreens, just debuted a USDA Certified Organic skin-care line. It features gentle cleansing oils (made from a combination of sunflower seed, olive, castor, and apricot oils) geared towards four different skin types—damascus rose for dull, flaky skin, unscented for irritated skin, seabuckthorn for skin that’s shiny in the morning with dry patches during the day (why, oh, why?), and argan for skin that’s neither oily nor dry but could use some love and hydration. And hey, at less than $20 a bottle, you could even try two.

(Photos: badgerbalm.com)

Burt’s Bees Brightening Daily Facial Cleanser, $9.99

This cleanser launched a few months back, but because of its focus on brightening, I need it more now that’s summer’s over. Burt’s tapped daisy extract, a somewhat overlooked flower in the beauty botanical archives, discovering it helps creates an even skin tone (bye bye blotches), especially when it collaborates with exfoliating fruit acids. Together, they work harder than soap alone to boost cell turnover, which keeps your skin looking luminous, and also just clear and healthy. It’s a little creamy (like popular drugstore cleansers, only without the wack ingredients), so it’s great at whisking away globs of mascara and grime from a workout, but it feels light and gentle.

(Photo: Burt’s Bees)

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