What’s A Cleansing Bar & Why Do You Need One?

It goes without saying that some of the best beauty trends hail from Asia. Sheet masks, bounce creams and cushion compacts for starters. The latest to rise to fame on British shores? Cleansing bars.

Resembling the humble bar of soap, they are taking the skincare world by storm for their ability to remove all traces of makeup and leave you with a beautiful complexion.

Estée Lauder's Nutritious Micro-Algae Cleansing Bar, £20, is one of the most recent to hit the shelves. The soap-free bar is crafted in Japan with cold-pressed, nutrient-dense algae called Chlorella that's rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids. It lathers into a velvety foam that gently cleanses to purify your skin, clear your pores and dissolve all signs of makeup.

While we undeniably had reservations before trying it out - mainly that it'll strip our face of all moisture like traditional bars of soap - it totally blew us away. It's ideal after a day commuting as it makes your skin feel squeaky clean, but also claims to remove pollution from the skin which is an added bonus if, like us, you reside in London.

The smell isn't great (most probably the algae), but it's a small price to pay for the skin benefits.