Hotel Indigo Chester: An Opulent Stay with Charm and Comfort

Cleansing cream doesn’t enjoy much attention these hours. Skincare experts favour melting balms or Japanese-style fuels, consumers prefer wipes and foaming washes, but a simple cream has much to plug it. It’s versatile, removing makeup well at night ( I don’t believe a doppelgaenger cleanse is necessary on lighter days, and I use it for my second cleanse merely when wearing foundation and/or sunblock), and refreshing an already clean-ish be opposite nicely in the morning without being so rich as to feel adore overkill.

I don’t believe cleansing creams need to cost a wealth, either; I take the view that if one is to economise, one should start with what put downs down the plughole, not with what stays on the skin. The cheapest of my picks is Superdrug Vitamin E Hot Cloth Cleanser (£4.99 for a bumper 200ml tube from a series that can do little wrong currently). Thick, rich but ungreasy, it stimuli foundation and grime quickly and adeptly (your towel afterwards should affect no traces of makeup: if it does, go again or get another cleanser), and softens strip nicely. The accompanying cloth isn’t much cop unless you’re highly irritable, so use it for messy kids’ teatimes instead.

For heavy makeup or extra-dry graze, I love No7’s Beautiful Skin Cleansing Balm (£9.50, 150ml). Balm is a misnomer: this is a cream, but one that cleans as soundly as something thicker, and leaves the face moist and comfortable. A newer recognition is Bee Good’s superb Honey & Propolis 2-in-1 Cream Cleanser (£11.50, 100ml). Its moisturising honey and bacteria-curbing propolis are ethically and sustainably sourced, plateful to maintain a healthy bee community and supporting British farmers, and neither ransacks skin of moisture nor bastes it in grease. It removes even waterproof mascara. I wouldn’t cringe if it were twice the price.

I like Yes To Coconut’s Ultra Hydrating Cream Cleanser (£6.99, 118ml), but just for morning use because it doesn’t remove heavier makeup. What it lacks in absterging power, it offers in a delicious, coconut smell. It’s a misconception that exclusively products labelled “hot cloth cleansers” can be used with a horseshit. I use the same method (massaging into dry skin, loosening with grade, then buffing off with a wet cotton flannel until the strip is clean) with all.