Face wash for dry skin

philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser has the best record for dry skin and is the best pick sold on Amazon: 23 of 23 shoppers said it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky. Kiehl's Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser (14 of 14) and CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser (11 of 11) also have no failures, though on smaller groups, while First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser has the weakest record here at 27 of 36. Each record counts just shoppers who said they have dry skin.

  • 245 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Aug 2011 to Sep 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it leave dry skin tight or flaky? What shoppers said
  1. philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser 23 said either way
  2. Kiehl's Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser 14 said either way
  3. CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser 11 said either way
  4. Fresh Soy Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser 27 said either way
  5. Clinique All About Clean Foaming Face Cleanser 23 said either way
  6. Clinique Acne Solutions Cleansing Foam 14 said either way
  7. First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser 36 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for tightness or dryness. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.

philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser Best record philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser 23 of 23 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky See price & reviews on Amazon

The ranking, product by product

Praise and complaints are the points reviewers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.

1 philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser

philosophy

Purity Made Simple Cleanser

Best for taking off makeup

23/23 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky

23 of 23 shoppers with dry skin said it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky, with no failures. Across all 33 of its reviews, 24% praise how it removes makeup, 18% say it leaves skin feeling fresh and 15% say it lasts a long time.

What buyers praise

  • Removes makeup 24%
  • Leaves skin fresh 18%
  • Lasts a long time 15%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 2 of 2
  • Sephora 21 of 21
  • Brand site 2 of 3 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry15 of 15
  • Combination6 of 6
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light13 of 13
  • Light-medium to medium6 of 6
2 Kiehl's Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser

Kiehl's

Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser

14/14 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky

A smaller group stated a result for this one, and 14 of 14 shoppers with dry skin said it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky, again with no failures. Across all 17 of its reviews, 12% call it good value.

What buyers praise

  • Good value 12%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 12 of 12
  • Sephora 2 of 2
  • Brand site 9 of 11 shown, not counted
3 CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser

CeraVe

Foaming Facial Cleanser

11/11 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky

Across all 26 of its reviews, 15% call it good value and 8% say it lasts a long time, while 8% mention breaking out. Among shoppers with dry skin, 11 of 11 said this foaming cleanser cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky, a perfect record on a small group.

What buyers praise

  • Good value 15%
  • Lasts a long time 8%

What buyers complain about

  • Breaks skin out 8%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 11 of 11
  • Brand site 3 of 4 shown, not counted
4

Fresh

Soy Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser

25/27 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky

19% of its 37 reviews praise how well it removes makeup, though 11% say it costs too much and 5% say it left makeup behind. Among shoppers with dry skin, 25 of 27 said it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky, while 2 said it left their skin tight, dry, flaky or irritated.

What buyers praise

  • Removes makeup 19%
  • Lasts a long time 5%
  • Leaves skin fresh 5%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 11%
  • Leaves makeup behind 5%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 4 of 4
  • Sephora 21 of 23
  • Brand site 8 of 8 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry9 of 9
  • Combination5 of 6
  • Normal3 of 3
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light9 of 9
  • Light-medium to medium2 of 3

Share of 37 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

5 Clinique All About Clean Foaming Face Cleanser

Clinique

All About Clean Foaming Face Cleanser

20/23 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky

A mostly positive record: 20 of 23 shoppers with dry skin said it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky, while 3 said it left their skin tight, dry, flaky or irritated. Across all 53 of its reviews, 9% praise makeup removal and 6% call it good value.

What buyers praise

  • Removes makeup 9%
  • Good value 6%
  • Leaves skin fresh 4%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 2 of 2
  • Sephora 18 of 21
  • Brand site 0 of 2 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry12 of 15
  • Combination4 of 4
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light12 of 15
  • Light-medium to medium4 of 4
Acne-prone reviewers
  • Said it worked4 of 5
6 Clinique Acne Solutions Cleansing Foam

Clinique

Acne Solutions Cleansing Foam

12/14 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky

Shoppers with dry skin rated this foaming wash on how their skin felt afterward, and 12 of 14 said it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky.

What buyers praise

No repeated praise yet.

What buyers complain about

  • Breaks skin out 6%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 3 of 3
  • Sephora 9 of 11
  • Brand site 6 of 7 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry6 of 6
  • Combination2 of 3
7 First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser

First Aid Beauty

Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser

27/36 say it cleaned without leaving their skin tight, dry or flaky

It has the weakest record here at 27 of 36, as 9 shoppers with dry skin said it left their skin tight, dry, flaky or irritated. Across all 43 of its reviews, 19% praise makeup removal, 7% mention breaking out and 7% mention a strong scent.

What buyers praise

  • Removes makeup 19%
  • Lasts a long time 5%

What buyers complain about

  • Breaks skin out 7%
  • Strong scent 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 8 of 11
  • Sephora 19 of 25
  • Brand site 9 of 10 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry7 of 10
  • Combination6 of 8
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light7 of 10
  • Light-medium to medium2 of 3
  • Deep3 of 3

Where these numbers come from

The 7 products ranked here carry 115,065 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for tightness or dryness and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between Aug 2011 and Sep 2026.

A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (0 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.

Ulta also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. They run much more positive than store reviews of the same products (across 19 products with both, 76% of brand-site reviewers said the product solved the problem, against 55% of Ulta shoppers), so we show them on product cards but never count them.

Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.

Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.

Amazon buttons appear only on products that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else gets no buy link.

An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts, never the reviews themselves.

Read the full method

Product pages we read

  1. philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser Ulta (33 reviews counted)
  2. Kiehl's Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser Ulta and Sephora (17 reviews counted)
  3. CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser Ulta (26 reviews counted)
  4. Fresh Soy Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser Ulta and Sephora (37 reviews counted)
  5. Clinique All About Clean Foaming Face Cleanser Ulta and Sephora (53 reviews counted)
  6. Clinique Acne Solutions Cleansing Foam Ulta and Sephora (36 reviews counted)
  7. First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser Ulta and Sephora (43 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Which face wash works for dry skin?

philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser has the best record (23 of 23), followed by Kiehl's Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser (14 of 14) and CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser (11 of 11). None of the three had a failure, so their order follows how many shoppers stated a result.

Does First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser leave dry skin tight?

For some shoppers, yes. More shoppers with dry skin weighed in on it than on any other wash here, and 9 of those 36 said it left their skin tight, dry, flaky or irritated, which gives it the weakest record on the page.

Do these face washes remove makeup?

Makeup removal comes up in praise of philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser (24% of its reviews), Fresh Soy Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser (19%), First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser (19%) and Clinique All About Clean Foaming Face Cleanser (9%). Fresh also draws complaints for leaving makeup behind, at 5%. These shares count every review of each wash.

Which of these face washes can I buy on Amazon?

philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser, Kiehl's Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser, CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser, Clinique All About Clean Foaming Face Cleanser, Clinique Acne Solutions Cleansing Foam and First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser have official Amazon listings, sold by the brand or by Amazon itself. philosophy Purity Made Simple Cleanser is the best pick sold on Amazon at 23 of 23, and it is also the leader. For Fresh Soy Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser, we could not confirm an Amazon listing.

Related problems

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HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through the "See price & reviews on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.