Anua Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil

What does a cleansing oil do for your skin?

A cleansing oil exists to remove the things a foaming wash leaves behind. Modern sunscreens and long-wear makeup are built to resist water and sweat, which is the whole point of them — but it also means a splash of water and a gel cleanser won’t shift them fully. Oil will: it loosens and dissolves the oil-based grime, lifting it off the skin instead of smearing it around.

The trick that makes this one pleasant rather than greasy is the emulsifier. Massage the oil over dry skin, and it picks up your sunscreen and makeup; add a little water and the whole lot turns from oil to a thin, milky liquid that rinses off cleanly, taking the grime with it. Done right, you’re left with skin that feels clean but not stripped — no tight, squeaky feeling, which is usually a sign a cleanser has gone too far.

It’s the first of two steps, and it needs the second to finish the job. The oil clears the oil-based layer; a gentle water-based cleanser afterwards handles sweat and anything water-soluble. Skip the second step and you can be left with a faint residue.

A first cleanse should disappear without a trace — no film, no tightness — and this one does.

What’s in it?

The base is a blend of light plant oils — sunflower, macadamia, olive, jojoba and grapeseed — plus an emulsifier that lets them rinse away once water hits. That blend is doing the actual work. Heartleaf sits well down the ingredient list, alongside a handful of other botanical extracts like turmeric and moringa.

Heartleaf does have a research base: a 2022 review in Pharmaceuticals catalogues the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity it shows in lab studies. The caveat is the format: a cleanser sits on your skin for a minute and then goes down the drain, so any soothing from a wash-off is slight. Treat the heartleaf as a pleasant extra; the cleansing is the point.

The one thing to flag is the fragrance. The range is sold on being gentle and sensitive-friendly, but the formula does contain added fragrance — fragrance is one of the more common triggers for reactive skin, so it’s worth knowing before you buy.

How does it feel, and how do you use it?

It’s a thin, slippery oil that spreads easily and doesn’t feel heavy. Use it on dry skin, before water touches your face: a few pumps, massaged over the face for a minute to break down sunscreen and makeup. Then wet your hands and keep massaging — the oil goes milky as it emulsifies — and rinse with lukewarm water. Follow with a water-based cleanser to finish the double cleanse, and that’s it.

A note for Australia: if you’re reapplying a water-resistant SPF through a hot day, this is exactly the kind of cleanser worth having at night — it’s the step that gets it all off.

Who’s it for — and who should skip it?

It suits most people as a nightly first cleanse, and it’s an especially good match for oily or breakout-prone skin that wants makeup and sebum gone without a stripped, tight finish. It pairs with whatever comes next — pat on a hydrating essence or a treatment serum once your skin is clean and still slightly damp.

Skip it if your skin flares at fragrance — that’s reason enough to choose a fragrance-free oil cleanser instead, and plenty do the same job. And if you don’t wear sunscreen or makeup, a single gentle water-based cleanser is all you need; an oil step is solving a problem you don’t have. As always, patch-test first if your skin is reactive.

Is it worth it?

For a nightly first cleanse, it’s hard to argue with: it does the one job an oil cleanser is for — getting sunscreen and makeup off cleanly — at a fair price for a generous bottle, and it rinses without the slick residue that puts people off oil cleansing. The heartleaf is mostly there for the label, and the added fragrance keeps it off the list for anyone sensitive to fragrance. Past that, it’s a reliable, low-drama first step in the nightly routine every Australian needs: getting the sunscreen off.