Cleansing oil vs cleansing balm: Anua vs Clean It Zero

How they differ

The chemistry under both is the same, so the shared part is quick. Each one is the first step of a double cleanse — the job is to clear the oil-based layer of the day, sunscreen and makeup and sebum, that a water-based wash slides straight over. Oil dissolves that layer where water can’t, and an emulsifier folded into each formula is what stops the oil leaving a slick behind: you massage it into dry skin to pick up the grime, add water, and the mix clouds over and rinses off down the drain.

What separates them is not just the texture. The Anua does its dissolving with a blend of plant oils — sunflower, macadamia, olive, jojoba and grapeseed — thinned to a liquid you pump. The Clean It Zero uses no plant oil at all: a pair of light synthetic esters, ethylhexyl palmitate and cetyl ethylhexanoate, held solid by a synthetic wax and rinsed away by PEG emulsifiers. Both dissolve the same layer, so the choice is not really about which oil is better. It is about which form you want to handle. A pump is quick, but the amount is hard to judge and a runny oil can trail down your forearm as you work. A balm you meter by eye — you dig a little out with the spatula in the lid, so nothing spills and nothing wanders near your eyes — and it warms up slowly, which stretches the massage into something more deliberate.

Neither one is fragrance-free. Both carry added fragrance, which is worth knowing if your skin is reactive — fragrance is a common cause of allergic contact dermatitis, second only to nickel and believed to affect around 1% of adults. If fragrance reliably sets your skin off, that counts against both of these equally. The botanicals on the front of each pack — Anua’s heartleaf, Banila Co’s acerola — do very little here. Both sit near the bottom of their ingredient lists and wash off within a minute.

Who each one suits

If your skin runs oily or breaks out, I’d start with the Anua. A thin liquid leaves the least sitting on the skin afterwards, which is usually what oilier types want from a first cleanse, and at 200ml it’s the cheaper way through a step you repeat every night of the week. The catch is the one every liquid has, portioning it — but a night or two in you’ll know your number of pumps, and the dripping stops being a problem.

If your skin runs dry, or your makeup is on the heavier side, the balm is the safer bet. Dry skin tends to get little out of a watery oil, and the Clean It Zero’s slow melt gives it more to work with under the fingers; the pot also wins on tidiness, with nothing to knock over and nothing to leak in a bag. It costs a bit more per gram and asks for an extra moment to soften, but if it was dryness or mess that put you off oil cleansing before, this is the format that settles both.

Can you use both?

You don’t need to. This is the one step in a routine where you pick a single product and stick with it — the oil and the balm do the identical job, so owning both is buying the same step twice. The sensible reason to keep two is a practical one: the balm pot for a travel bag or the gym, the bigger bottle of oil on the bathroom shelf for everyday. Whichever you reach for, follow it with a gentle water-based cleanser — that second wash is what clears the sweat and grime the oil step leaves behind. For the full order and why two cleanses beats one, see our guide to Korean double cleansing.

What matters more than the format is that the step happens at all. Sunscreen is the bulk of what you are removing at night, and it is engineered to stay put on skin through heat and sweat, which is exactly why water alone leaves it there. Either of these clears it. Neither is better at it than the other.

The answer

Both are good, and they earn the same rating because they do the same thing well. Pick on form. The Anua liquid oil is the easy, better-value daily pick, and its light finish suits oily or breakout-prone skin. The Clean It Zero balm suits drier skin, heavier makeup and anyone who’d rather a no-drip pot they can control and travel with. If you’re on the fence, buy the one whose handling you’ll put up with at the end of a long day — that’s the one you’ll keep using.