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The Ordinary

Squalane Cleanser.

The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser
Cleansers

About this product

A cream-textured cleansing balm made with squalane that removes makeup, sunscreen, and oil while cleansing without stripping the skin.

Full ingredients

Guru Score

82%

Yay

13 experts · Strong agreement
13Gurus
10Yay
0Mixed
3Nay
#17 in CleansersSee the ranking →

What they liked

  • Removes makeup and sunscreen without stripping
  • Hydrating and leaves skin supple, not dry
  • Gentle enough for all skin types

What they flagged

  • May leave a film or residue on skin
  • Struggles with waterproof makeup
  • Uses up quickly despite small pump

What the gurus are saying

The cream-oil hybrid texture and squalane base earn strong praise for leaving skin hydrated and supple rather than tight or flaky, and for working well on all skin types without breaking anyone out. Most gurus rate it their favorite from The Ordinary's cleanser range, though a few find it leaves a residue or prefer newer options like the foaming or glycolipid cleansers instead. A small number report irritation around the eye area, so anyone with sensitive eyes may want to patch-test first and consider doubling cleanse if wearing heavy makeup.
Synthesized from 13 expert reviews · most recent take April 2026

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored
Yay
"I love this. This is just a squalane-based cream cleanser. You apply it to dry skin, smooth it in a little bit and then rinse it off and it rinses off nice and clean. It leaves your skin feeling soft, fresh and even a little bit plumper than it was before you applied it. And it does a great job removing most makeup and sunscreen. It does struggle with waterproof eye makeup, but most other makeup and sunscreen products it washes right off really nice. It's got squalane, it's got sucrose which is a humectant from sugar, and then it's got vitamin E for hydration and 8 bucks. So you can't beat that."
Top Pick: cleanser
All 12 takes from No BS Beauty
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"I love this. It's a nice product. You just apply it to dry skin and then emulsify it with water and rinse off. It's great for removing sunscreen, lightweight makeup. It struggles a little bit with waterproof makeup, so you might want a separate makeup remover for that. But otherwise, it's just a nice cleanser. It leaves your skin feeling supple, plumped up, and not dry or dehydrated or flaky like a lot of other cleansers can. Out of all their cleansers at The Ordinary, I didn't love any of them except this one."
June 2023 Skincare and Beauty Product Empties
"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, another one I absolutely love from them. It's a great makeup removing cleansing balm. I just love it, it's really wonderful."
The Only Products From The Ordinary I've Repurchased - And I've Tried Them All!
"Their Squalane Cleanser is amazing. I finished it and that is one I've repurchased."
No BS Beauty Award Show - 7th Annual Awards - Best In Skincare and Beauty
"Some of my favorite cleansers are The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, the Geek and Gorgeous Jelly Joker Cleanser and the Pre-quill Facial Cleanse."
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"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser is $10 in the 1.7 ounce tube or now I've got a giant tube that's $20 or $22 something like that. It's a great makeup remover, sunscreen remover, and it rinses clean with no residue. [...] It does everything and it's really affordable. Nice ingredient list. It leaves skin feeling soft and hydrated and smooth and pretty much removes most things, maybe with the exception of super stubborn eyeliner, but otherwise it does a really good job removing everything. It's a bargain in my opinion."
I've Tried Every Product From The Ordinary & These are the Skincare I'm Still Using Years Later
"It's fragrance free. It's got squalane, sucrose, vitamin E, really nice cleanser. I prefer it for the morning cleanser, but it's just really nice, lightweight, and feels nice. Your skin doesn't feel dry at all after you rinse it off, or stripped at all."
The Ordinary Evening Skincare Routine 🌙 Anti-Aging & Hydrating Night Time Skin Care on a Budget
"Out of all their cleansers, my favorite is still their original Squalane Cleanser. I love this. You can just apply it to dry skin, rinse it off with water and it does a great job removing makeup, sunscreen, oil, anything you can think of. [...] The Squalane Cleanser is great at removing makeup. You just apply it over dry skin and rinse. [...] I kind of just like oil cleansing and really cleansing and things that are gentle, and The Ordinary does have that."
The Ordinary & NIOD 23% Off Sale During April
"I love this. This is just a squalane-based cream cleanser. You apply it to dry skin, smooth it in a little bit and then rinse it off and it rinses off nice and clean. It leaves your skin feeling soft, fresh and even a little bit plumper than it was before you applied it. And it does a great job removing most makeup and sunscreen. It does struggle with waterproof eye makeup, but most other makeup and sunscreen products it washes right off really nice. It's got squalane, it's got sucrose which is a humectant from sugar, and then it's got vitamin E for hydration and 8 bucks. So you can't beat that."
Best One Step Do-It-All Evening Cleansers - Favorite Face Cleansers That Remove Makeup & Sunscreen
"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser is really lovely and really does a pretty good job, especially with my makeup and things like that. There's no scent to it, it has a nice texture. You just apply it to dry skin, smooth it over, and then rinse it off with water and you're good to go. It does a pretty good job and is pretty affordable if you get the big size."
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"The Ordinary has some nice affordable alternatives. They've got lots of good oils, rose hip oils are wonderful, and the cleansers, the Squalane Cleanser is my favorite. They came out with a couple new cleansers this year and I didn't love either one of them, but I just like their Squalane one. That's the one I like."
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"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, which I ordered I'm probably on my third bottle of it or so. Squalane is a really nice ingredient. It's a nice gentle cleanser that's not drying. It does a good job removing makeup and sunscreen, and when you rinse it off your skin still feels soft and supple. A lot of people with rosacea were mentioning that they really found it nice."
The Ordinary Sale Picks ✔ I've Tried Everything From The Ordinary and These Are Their Best Products
"Their Squalane Cleanser is 16 bucks. [...] It's a really nice cleanser, a gentle cleansing balm that works to remove makeup and sunscreen. You apply it to dry skin and it rinses pretty clean but doesn't leave skin feeling like it has any residue to it, and it does a pretty good job removing anything on your skin. It has squalane, sucrose stearate, and vitamin E in it. I will repurchase it during the sale."
Nay
"The Squalane Cleanser, again a really nice affordable gentle cleanser, but the newer versions, which is their foaming cleanser and their glycolipid cleanser, just work a little bit better. The glycolipid one great for super dry skin, the foaming cleanser great if you want that gentle but foaming cleansing action, great again for us oily folk. Those two are amazing, rendering the Squalane Cleanser again a little bit redundant."
Yay
"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, it's like a cream but it's almost a cleansing oil at the same time. There's nothing quite like it."
All 4 takes from Caroline Hirons
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"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, it's like a cream but it's almost a cleansing oil at the same time. There's nothing quite like it."
S2 Ep22: GLAD WE HAD THIS CHAT TAKES NEW YORK: Katie Jane Hughes
"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, it's like a cream but it's almost a cleansing oil at the same time. There's nothing quite like it."
Skincare Empties - August 2023
"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, love it. If you have really young oily bouncy skin you might find that you don't need these, however this you'll be fine with. Squalene you'll find a bit too oily, they make better cleansers for an oilier skin."
The World's Biggest Empties Ever - Skincare
"This is a fantastic cleanser. It will take off your makeup and SPF. It's gentle and affordable, around 13 or 14 pounds. It leaves my skin really soft and because it's more affordable I can use a lot of it. It's a fantastic easy to use affordable accessible cleanser for all skin types. If you feel really acneic you might have to work too hard to get it off so maybe patch test or avoid."
Yay
"My favorite cleanser from them is the Squalane Cleanser that costs $9 because it is multifunctional. It works really well without stripping your skin. It comes in a creamier emulsion texture, and it really is great at removing the basics of makeup, sunscreen, and sebum without feeling like your skin is stripped. For anyone who is looking for just one cleanser without needing to double cleanse to remove all of that, this would be the one to go with. It contains squalane, natural moisturizing factors, and lipophilic esters that help [...] to soften your skin and reduce the harm essentially to your skin barrier that cleansing does naturally. It doesn't leave a lot of residue on your skin and it's not comedogenic, so it's really suitable for all skin types. If you're looking for a one-stop shop cleanser that is effective yet gentle at the same time, I would definitely pick this one."
Top Pick: cleanser
Yay
"My most favorite cleanser within the Ordinary range is the squalane based cleanser. Squalane is a great ingredient that's not only anti-inflammatory but it's also non-comedogenic so it's not going to break you out. It's very calm to the skin and it's also going to decrease inflammation. So squalane based cleanser is going to be your first point of call."
Top Pick: cleanser
All 9 takes from Dr. Somji Skin
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"My most favorite cleanser within the Ordinary range is the squalane based cleanser. Squalane is a great ingredient that's not only anti-inflammatory but it's also non-comedogenic so it's not going to break you out. It's very calm to the skin and it's also going to decrease inflammation. So squalane based cleanser is going to be your first point of call."
Doctor Recommends The Ordinary for Acne Solutions
"The Squalane Cleanser is fantastic because it helps with the skin barrier, it's a great antioxidant for the skin, and it won't break you out and it's a great cleanser. You may want to double cleanse if you're using things like makeup, but in the AM that's what you're going to use."
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"From The Ordinary my favorite sing cleanser is fantastic so something that just moisturizes even whilst cleansing that's your step one."
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"My most favorite cleanser within the Ordinary range is the squalane based cleanser. If you've got rosacea you've got damage to your skin barrier and you really want to limit the amount of moisture loss that you have. Squalane is a great ingredient that's not only anti-inflammatory but it's also non-comedogenic so it's not going to break you out. It's very calm to the skin and it's also going to decrease inflammation, so a squalane based cleanser is going to be your first point of call."
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"Squalane is fantastic because it helps with the skin barrier. It's a great antioxidant for the skin and it won't break you out and it's a great cleanser."
Doctor's Guide to Radiant Skincare: Crafting Your Routine
"My top tip is to use something squalane based so there's a squalane based cleanser from The Ordinary which is fantastic because it's great for sensitive skin and it's also going to help build the skin barrier as well."
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"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser is fantastic, can be used for all skin types, it's not drying, it's not stripping. So especially if you suffer from things like eczema or psoriasis, using a combo of The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser and squalane oil is a great win-win combination."
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"The Ordinary actually have a great product, the Squalane Cleanser, which is great for compromised skin. So if you [...] have really dehydrated skin, maybe like psoriasis or eczema, the Squalane Cleanser is actually quite a good product."
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"The Squalane Cleanser from The Ordinary is one of my favorites because it doesn't damage the skin barrier and it gives a good clean and it can be used to remove makeup really quite effectively. It's a creamy cleanser I really like, and it's great for dry sensitive skin types."
Yay
"I actually love this cleanser, comes out a little bit kind of creamy jelly, it's actually really hydrating to the skin. [...] No smell, I would say maybe very very mild smell but it's fragrance free."
All 2 takes from Dr. Vanita Rattan
HYPERPIGMENTATION LAYERING
"The product I'd recommend from the ordinary would be The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser. The reason I love it is it's very hydrating. A lot of these cleansers on the market strip the skin, and when you lose water from that top layer of skin you no longer have a healing environment, which is the exact opposite of what we're trying to do. When the skin is well hydrated, all the actives that you put onto the skin work better. If you look at [...] the ingredients list at the back, it's in descending order. We've got squalene, which is very hydrating, it's an emollient, plus glycerin. Glycerin is a wonderful ingredient, it's a water magnet, a humectant, and we want that actually in our cleansers and in our moisturizers so that it plumps up the skin cells and also helps reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation."
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"I actually love this cleanser, comes out a little bit kind of creamy jelly, it's actually really hydrating to the skin. [...] No smell, I would say maybe very very mild smell but it's fragrance free."
Yay
"I would apply it to dry skin and try to break down all of my makeup but that's what makes it a really special cleanser it has more of like this lotion feel to it and before it can become an oil you actually have to work it pretty well to get it to this oily consistency you have to warm it up in your hands and then when you use it on your skin you find that it breaks down makeup and impurities pretty well. I think this is a really great cleanser for a morning skincare routine because of this really interesting property that it has. It has a high percentage of squalane in it. Squalane is one of those oils that all skin types can benefit from. It doesn't feel heavy and greasy on the skin, instead it just nourishes and it's actually an ingredient that your skin tends to recognize and uses easier, so it really just helps to nourish and replenish your skin. So instead of feeling like your skin is stripped after you cleanse it, using this your skin feels like it's much more nourished."
Yay
"The Squalane Cleanser is especially good for dry skin and it's super super gentle."
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"The Squalane Cleanser is especially good for dry skin and it's super super gentle."
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"I hate The Ordinary's cleanser and we've spoken about that. This Squalane Cleanser is just not for me. If you're going to get started with The Ordinary I wouldn't recommend that you use this product. You're going to need an entire tube of this and it is not worth it. I do not like this stuff."
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"If you have dry skin, this cleanser is phenomenal. Many cleansers feel like they strip the skin or [...] make dryness worse, especially [...] in creases like the marionette lines, but this cleanser doesn't do that. For dry skin, combo skin, or dry-combo-oily [...] skin, people go head over heels for this. You can use it as a double cleanse to remove makeup. The squalane is similar to squalene, which is an oil our skin produces naturally and has antioxidant benefits. But a lot of people don't realize this cleanser also has glycerin in it. Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it holds on to moisture. [...] This has glycerin which you'll find in good moisturizers, but it's in this formula to really enhance the moisturizing properties of this cleanser so it literally moisturizes and coats and supports the skin even once you wash the cleanser off. This cleanser also has sucrose stearate and sucrose laurate, both fantastic emollients that act as surfactants, which means they help the water and oil molecules get along together."
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"I really do not like The Ordinary's Squalane Cleanser. I know it's a fan favorite but it is just not for me and my oily prone skin."
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"This Squalane Cleanser is just not for me. It's too oily and greasy for my acne prone skin. You're going to need an entire tube of this and it is not worth it. I do not like this stuff not my favorite."
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"This Squalane Cleanser is excellent for dry skin or for a first cleanse if you're trying to double cleanse. I don't love it because my skin is too oily for it, but it's still a great product from The Ordinary."
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"The Squalane Cleanser from The Ordinary is probably great for someone who has dry skin, but when I originally try this it's like it doesn't make my face burn or itch, it's not detrimental, it's just not great. It's a basic cleanser, it removes the stuff off your face but not extremely well. If you have like waterproof mascara or liquid lipstick you might need to kind of work at it a little bit, and I just found that this was not all that for me. Now granted it is inexpensive, it is definitely a lot better than an irritating stripping cleanser out there, but this is just not for me."
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"The Squalane Cleanser—for my oily acne prone skin, I don't like it."
Nay
"I just feel like it leaves a residue on my skin and my skin never feels clean with the Squalane Cleanser. That's based on my own opinion of course, but it's my least favorite out of all of them."
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"I just feel like it leaves a residue on my skin and my skin never feels clean with the Squalane Cleanser. That's based on my own opinion of course, but it's my least favorite out of all of them."
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"The Squalane Cleanser always left a film and I didn't always feel like my skin felt clean after I'd rinsed it off. So I mean either one will do, but this one really is my favorite."
Nay
"I used to recommend The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser for someone who wanted a single cleanser for their first and double cleanse. I don't recommend it anymore, it has been slightly irritating for my sensitive skin. If you love it, keep using it, but for me personally the alternative is much more gentle."
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"One of my favorite cleansers is their Squalane Cleanser, but I have had to stop using that because it was irritating my eye area. I'm curious to pick that up again though, I was just wondering if it might be a problem that I was having during my allergy season."
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"Another option is The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, but I have to admit that I think they might have done something to that formula. I've used that now for two years and right now it is stinging around my eye area."
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"I think I always have it in my cupboard I'm always using this cleanser even if I'm trying out other cleansers this is a staple I love it for a single cleanse or a double cleanse it gets the makeup and the mascara off and gets rid of the sunscreen that I have picked on during the day but unfortunately this latest purchase ended up really stinging my eyes and I have heard from others who have also said that this product doesn't really work well around your eye area and all of a sudden it didn't for me too. I thought I could attribute that maybe to my terrible allergy season that I had but I'm thinking maybe they tweak the formula a little bit. [...] I'm going to be retiring this cleanser."
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"The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser, but I have to admit that I think they might have done something to that formula. I've used that now for two years and right now it is stinging around my eye area."
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"My previous favorite Holy Grail was The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser. I had been using that for maybe three, maybe even four years, loved it, no problems. And then all of a sudden it started irritating my eyes."
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"As far as cleansers at Sephora, I've tried quite a few but I haven't really found one to replace The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser that I just loved for years. It ended up, over the last year, I'm not sure if they changed the formula, starting to irritate my skin, so I've been on the hunt for another cleanser."
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"I used to recommend The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser for someone who wanted a single cleanser for their first and double cleanse. I don't recommend it anymore, it has been slightly irritating for my sensitive skin. If you love it, keep using it, but for me personally the alternative is much more gentle."
Yay
"These are very gentle on the skin and effectively cleanse your skin without drying it out which is what we want."
Yay
"This is still my top budget-friendly recommendation, but I haven't used it in a while because I've been trying out so many other cleansing balms."
Top Pick: budget cleansing balm
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"This is still my top budget-friendly recommendation, but I haven't used it in a while because I've been trying out so many other cleansing balms."
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"The cheapest options that I've tried and loved are the ordinary Squalane Cleanser."
Yay
"This is a great first and second cleanse and really it's just a nice basic non-drying non-stripping kind of cleanser. It ensures that you don't get that tight feeling to the skin. This is a good one and it's 5.50. I do find that I tend to use these up really quick compared to a lot of other cleansers, so a little bit doesn't go that far. But it's really accessible, you can find it everywhere, it's really really good. It's just a nice basic non-stripping cleanser."

What the evidence says.

Independent of what the gurus think, this is what the published research supports about the main active ingredients here.

Humectants and emollients

Ingredients like these draw water into the surface layers and slow how fast it leaves. The evidence is for comfort, softness and hydration rather than for changing the structure of the skin.

Source: DermNet

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an antioxidant, and it is often in a formula to keep the other ingredients stable rather than as the active itself. It pairs well with vitamin C, though on its own the evidence for visible change is limited.

Source: NIH, National Library of Medicine

Frequently asked.

What is The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser?

A cream-textured cleansing balm made with squalane that removes makeup, sunscreen, and oil while cleansing without stripping the skin.

Is The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser worth it?

Mostly yes. 10 of the 13 gurus who reviewed it give it their stamp of approval, for a Guru Score of 82%.

What is The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser's Guru Score?

The Ordinary Squalane Cleanser holds a Guru Score of 82%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 13 expert reviewers we have collected. At least one expert has named it a Top Pick in its category.

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