Double Cleansing: Do You Actually Need It?

Double cleansing arrived a few years back framed as a non-negotiable -- a step you were quietly failing at if you skipped it. But the routine was never meant as a daily rule. It was built to solve one specific problem: getting a full day of sunscreen and makeup off before it sits on your skin overnight.

What it's actually solving

Sunscreen, makeup, sebum and pollution build up into an oil-rich film across the day. A water-based cleanser is good at lifting sweat, dust and light daytime grime, but it struggles to fully dissolve that oil-rich film on its own -- which is the actual argument for a dedicated first step. Singapore dermatologist Dr. Teo Wan Lin puts the mechanism plainly: makeup, sebum, pollution and sunscreen "form an oil-rich film that regular foaming cleansers struggle to break down fully," which is really the whole case for the extra step, in one sentence.

It's also been tested directly. A 2020 study in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology compared washing sunscreen off with water alone, a standard cleanser, or a cleansing oil. Water alone left more than half the sunscreen behind on skin. A standard cleanser did better. A cleansing oil did best of the three -- not a dramatic difference from a regular cleanser, but a real, measured one.

Do you actually need it tonight?

Here's the honest answer: it depends on what's on your face, not what day it is. If you wore sunscreen, makeup, or spent the day somewhere hot and polluted, a dissolving first step is doing real work. If your skin is bare -- no SPF, no makeup, a low-key day at home -- a single thorough cleanse is the finish line, not a shortcut you're taking. Oily or acne-prone skin doesn't change this rule much either; double cleansing on a product-heavy day still helps, but doing it out of habit on a bare-skin day just strips the barrier for no reason.

How to actually do it, when you're doing it

Step one is about dissolving product, not scrubbing it off. Lagom is a useful brand to think this through with, because its Cellup range is built around the two steps rather than one hero cleanser. The Cellup Micro Cleansing Water ($35) handles the first pass -- a micellar water you press into a cotton pad and wipe outward, holding it on eye and lip makeup for about ten seconds to loosen it. Its own instructions end with the line that gives the whole routine away: no rinse is needed, but you can rinse with lukewarm water "or proceed to a second cleanse if desired."

Step two is a gentle, low-pH cleanser that finishes the job without re-stripping what step one just protected. Lagom's Cellup pH Cure Foam Cleanser ($25) is formulated at pH 5 specifically to leave skin in its naturally healthy pH 4-6 range, rather than the tight, squeaky alkaline zone a harsh foaming wash leaves behind. That's the part people get wrong most often -- they pick a careful first step and then undo it with whatever foaming cleanser is nearest.

One honest caveat: a micellar water is a makeup remover first. On a heavy sunscreen day, an oil or balm cleanser is still the more thorough opener -- that's what the 2020 study above actually measured. Micellar first, low-pH foam second is a genuinely good everyday pair; it just isn't the strongest possible SPF-removal combination, and it's worth knowing which one you're doing.