20 Cheap Face Washes We Tell Our Friends to Buy at Walmart, Amazon, and Ulta

Okay, let's talk face wash. The truth of the matter is that while it's essential (it keeps our skin clean and the makeup off our pillowcase), it can be annoying. Unlike moisturizers, masks, and serums, which all have a kind of luxurious and ritualistic feel to them, cleanser sits on our face for about 15 seconds maximum, feels like the ask of the century after a night out with too many tequilas, and leaves us with water dripping down our forearms. It's just not the most enjoyable step come nighttime skin prep. Alas, as we said, face wash plays a vital part in priming our skin for our other (more exciting) products and treatments and ensures our pores remain clean and our blemishes banned. 

That said, since face wash is, indeed, the most fleeting step in our skincare routine and circles the drain instead of soaking in to our face, it's just not worth spending an arm, leg, and hefty portion of our budget on. In fact, there are countless drugstore face wash formulas that are just as effective at nixing dead cells and any aftermath of makeup—many of which specifically cater to different skin types.

We did you the favor of perusing the face wash selection of a few of our favorite affordable beauty retailers (think Ulta, Walmart, and Amazon) to pick the best-of-the-best formulas we either use ourselves or would personally recommend to a friend. Keep scrolling for 20 drugstore picks that made our cut. 

Amazon

Oily

Sensitive

Normal

Dry

Combination

Ulta

Oily

Sensitive

Normal

Dry

Combination

Walmart

Oily

Sensitive

Normal

Dry

Combination

Target

Oily

Sensitive

Normal

Dry

Combination

Next up: This Is the Best-Selling Mascara on Amazon, and It's Only $5

This article was published at an earlier date and has since been updated.

Beauty Director

Erin has been writing a mix of beauty and wellness content for Who What Wear for over four years. Prior to that, she spent two and half years writing for Byrdie. She now calls Santa Monica home but grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and studied writing, rhetoric, and communication at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, and spent a summer in L.A. interning with the Byrdie and Who What Wear family. After graduating from UW, she spent one year in San Francisco, where she worked as a writer for Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen before moving down to L.A. to begin her career as a beauty editor. She considers her day-to-day beauty aesthetic very low-maintenance and relies on staples like clear brow serum (from Kimiko!), Lawless's Lip Plumping Mask in Cherry Vanilla, and an eyelash curler. For special occasions or days when she's taking more meetings or has an event, she'll wear anything and everything from Charlotte Tilbury (the foundations are game-changing), some shimmer on her lids (Stila and Róen do it best), and a few coats of the best mascara-type product on earth, Surratt's Noir Lash Tint.