Cleansers are designed to remove unwanted materials from the skin such as dirt, oils, and sebum. Every cosmetic treatment of the skin should begin with cleansing. In order to properly classify cleansers, it may be helpful to put them on a grid, roughly related to their physical nature, chemistry and functionally and ranging from products that are anhydrous oils, at one end of the spectrum, to soap and water at the other (Table 1). When classifying cleansers, the various types of dirt on the skin must be considered. The dirt comes from a variety of sources, but can be classified broadly as oil-soluble, water-soluble, and insoluble. Source of oil soluble soils can be sebum, residue from moisturizers, or waterproof make-ups. Water-soluble materials may also be residue from make-up and moisturizers, soluble skin oils, soils, and soluble grime. Insoluble materials are represented by dead cellular matter, make-up pigments or, in hard-water area, precipitated metallic soap.