The Best Vegan Facial Cleansers (And How to Pick Your Format)
Cleansing is a key step in your skincare routine. Essential in removing makeup, sunscreen, and daily pollutants, the cleansing step preps and sets up the skin for everything that follows. Get it right and your serums absorb properly, allowing peak efficacy.
You probably know that but finding the format of cleanser that's right for you is where we can perhaps help. Gel, cream, oil, powder and balm all cleanse, but they do it differently and they suit different skin. Once you know which camp you're in, choosing becomes easy.
So here are five vegan cleansers we genuinely love, one of each format, and exactly who each one is for.
Olixa Kakadu Plum Gummy Facial Cleanser
Best for: makeup removal, all skin types, and anyone who's a bit bored with their routine
Full disclosure. The Olixa Kakadu Plum Gummy Facial Cleanser is one of our top five beauty products of all time and our favourite cleanser full stop. It's also genuinely fun to use, which is not a sentence we write often.
The texture is the whole story. It's gooey rather than creamy, and you apply it to dry skin with dry fingertips, pressing and lifting to create a gentle suction. That tackiness is what lifts off makeup, sunscreen and the day's grime. Add a splash of warm water and it turns milky, then rinses clean.
The ingredient list earns its place too. Wild-harvested Kakadu Plum, sourced from the Kimberley and harvested by local Indigenous communities, is a serious source of vitamin C and phenolic acid, so you get brightening and a very gentle exfoliation at once. Cold-pressed Macadamia Oil guards against moisture loss, and Eucalyptus Oil keeps blemishes in check.
Bonus use: leave it on dry skin for 10 to 20 minutes and it doubles as a mask.
Worth knowing: it's packaged in endlessly recyclable Aluminium, and the formula contains botanical oils including Eucalyptus, Chamomile and Rosemary. If your skin reacts to essential oils of any kind, patch test first.
DEW MIGHTY Lucid Purity Starter Kit
Best for: sensitive, blemish-prone, and combination skin, and anyone looking for plastic-free and refillable options
The DEW MIGHTY Lucid Purity Starter Kit is a cleansing powder you activate with a few drops of water in your palm. The no-water formula means no preservatives, the packaging is plastic-free, and refill tubes reduce your footprint. One kit is roughly a two-month supply and comes with a permanent container and custom measuring tool.
It lathers lightly using biodegradable Coconut surfactants, and Pineapple enzymes handle the gentle exfoliation. Butterfly Pea and Spirulina bring antioxidants, and earth minerals plus vitamin B3 (Niacinamide) work on blemishes and shine. It's a cleanser, a mask and a spot treatment in one pot, so it earns its shelf space three times over.
The starter kit is the smart entry point because you get the permanent metal container, the measuring dispenser, and a spare refill tube. After that you're only ever buying refills. The dispenser doses a single pea-sized amount with each flip, so you're not guessing.
Worth knowing: water-free, fragrance-free, preservative-free, plastic-free, silicone-free, alcohol-free and gluten-free. If your skin gets tight and squeaky after cleansing, this format is a genuinely different experience.
VERED Herbal Balancing Oil Cleanser
Best for: skin that's oily and dehydrated at the same time
Oil cleansing still makes people nervous, and it shouldn't. Oil dissolves oil, which means the VERED Herbal Balancing Oil Cleanser removes sunscreen and makeup far more effectively than a foaming cleanser trying to muscle through it.
This one is a blend of organic plant oils with herb and flower extracts that are high in antioxidants, vitamins and essential fatty acids. It's silky going on, then activates with water into a low-matte foam and rinses without that stripped feeling. It suits combination, oily, blemish-prone, sensitive, dry, dehydrated and mature skin, which is a broad claim, but the balancing action is the reason: it removes impurities while reducing excess sebum production rather than triggering more of it.
VERED is handmade in small batches by master herbalist and aesthetician Vered Back, and the scent alone tells you it's the real thing.
Worth knowing: it comes in a 10ml sample size as well as the full 100ml. If you've never tried oil cleansing, start there. Very few brands make it that easy to test properly.
Graydon Aloe Milk Cream Cleanser with Niacinamide
Best for: sensitive, dry or reactive skin, hypoallergenic, derm-tested
If your skin flares at the slightest provocation, the Graydon Aloe Milk Cream Cleanser with Niacinamide is where we'd start you. It's a hydrating cream cleanser, pH balanced between 4.5 and 5.5, dermatologist and clinically tested, hypoallergenic and non-irritating. It also took out a Beauty Shortlist Award in 2024, so we're not the only ones who believe in this beauty.
Niacinamide (vitamin B3) works to minimise appearance of enlarged pores. Black Tea diminishes the look of fine lines and wrinkles with antioxidant polyphenols. Aloe Vera juice and Maple sap water soothe and moisturise. Apricot Kernel Oil reduces the appearance of dark circles with vitamin K and Omega-6, and refreshing Pink Grapefruit and Blood Orange brightens the complexion.
You can use it on wet or dry skin, and leaving it on for up to five minutes turns it into a deeply hydrating mask. That flexibility makes it a good travel cleanser too.
Ray Skincare Herbal Plum Clarifying Gel Cleanser
Best for: congestion, excess oil, uneven tone and visible redness
The Ray Skincare Herbal Plum Clarifying Gel Cleanser is a gentle, balancing formula that purifies without stripping, so you get the clean feeling without the tight one.
It's built on Aloe Vera, Bentonite Clay and plant-based cleansing agents, and enriched with a phytonutrient blend that effectively removes build-up and impurities while preserving the skin's natural moisture balance. Kakadu Plum delivers botanical vitamin C for clarity and collagen support. Davidson Plum brings natural fruit acids for gentle exfoliation. Willowherb balances sebum and calms skin. Liquorice Root targets pigmentation and inflammation for a more even skin tone. There's natural BHA in there too, which is why it handles buildup so well.
Worth knowing: no synthetic fragrance, and it removes daily grime, makeup and sunscreen without needing a second pass.
So which one is yours?
- Sensitive, dry or easily upset: Graydon Aloe Milk
- Oily, congested or uneven in tone: Ray Herbal Plum
- Full face of makeup and SPF: VERED Herbal Balancing Oil or the Olixa Gummy
- Blemish-prone and plastic-averse: DEW MIGHTY Lucid
- You want cleansing to feel like a ritual: Olixa Gummy, every time
A word on double cleansing
You don't need to do it every day. You do want it on days with sunscreen, long-wear makeup or a decent amount of sweat. The formula is simple: an oil or gummy cleanser first to break everything down, then a gel or cream to clean the skin underneath. Two minutes, and your serums will actually reach skin instead of sitting on top of the day.
And a myth worth retiring
Squeaky clean is not clean. That tight, taut feeling means you've stripped your skin barrier, and your skin will respond by producing more oil to compensate. A good cleanser leaves your face feeling comfortable, soft and slightly cushioned. If yours doesn't, that's information.
Shop the cleanser edit
Every cleanser in our edit is vegan and cruelty-free, because that's the only kind we stock. The rest is just working out which format your skin has been asking for.