This drugstore cream cleanser works as well as a luxury brands but costs less than $8

• In my hunt to find a cleanser that won't make my extremely dry skin even more dry, I discovered Acure Seriously Soothing Cleansing Cream.
• It's less than $8 for a 4-ounce tube, and leaves my skin clean, soft, and hydrated — just like it promises. 
• It also looks and feels like a luxury cream cleanser, but at a drugstore price. 

Finding a facial cleanser that cleans your skin but doesn't dry you out is a tall order. Finding one that doesn't cost a lot makes it so much harder. 

I have very dry skin and have found that most cleansers dry my skin out to the point where I loathe washing my face. So far, the only products that seem to clean my skin without drying it out are oil cleansers, but those can be messy and I constantly long for a hydrating cleanser I can use in the shower.

But let's take a step back and go over what cream cleansers are.

There are several different types of cleansers. Gel and foam are the most common, but creams are ideal for dry skin because they're usually more hydrating. The catch is that very few drugstore brands make cream cleansers. Some brands make cleansers that are "creamy" or have a "milky" texture — Cetaphil comes to mind — but that's not a true cream cleanser. A true cream cleanser should hold its shape like whipped cream, and it doesn't "foam" in water like most facial cleansers.

I was initially turned onto the cream cleanser game after trying a sample of Grown Alchemist's $49 Hydra-Restore Cream Cleanser, and it was incredibly hydrating and effective. However, I didn't want to pay $49, so I went on the hunt for an affordable cream cleanser and found there weren't many in drugstores.

Eventually, I found Acure Seriously Soothing Cleansing Cream at Whole Foods and Target, and on Amazon for less than $8 a tube. It's comparable in price to other drugstore cleansers even though it works — and feels — like a luxury brand's. I'd say it's somewhere between luxury and drugstore skin-care in both quality and price.  

Acure's entire ethos is 100% vegan, cruelty-free products made without sulfates, phthalates, and harsh chemicals. The Seriously Soothing Cleansing Cream is formulated with botanicals and fruit extracts like aloe, acai, blackberry, calendula, and coconut. 

Using the product is pretty straightforward — pretty much the same way as any other facial cleanser.

I ascribe to the double-cleanse method, so I'll either wash my face twice with the Acure cleanser, or I wipe my face with micellar water on a cotton pad and then use the Acure cleanser in the shower. Usually when I wash my face with other cleansers, I'm left with a tight, albeit clean feeling, but after using the Acure cream cleanser, my skin is soft and supple — as if I put on moisturizer in the shower. 

The aforementioned luxury cream cleanser is $49, so for less than $8, Acure's Seriously Smoothing Cream Cleanser is the best bang for your buck. And as I mentioned before, I haven't seen many drugstore cream cleansers around, though a quick Google search tells me that Burt's Bees does make one, which I'm curious to try next.

Out of curiosity for this piece, I took a break from the Acure cleanser for two days and used a basic gel cleanser which unsurprisingly, left my skin dry and flaky. I quickly returned to the Acure cream cleanser.  

Buy the Acure Seriously Soothing Cleansing Cream from Amazon.

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