Polished performance

When it comes to washing your face - a splash of water just isn’t enough to remove deep-seated grime. David Waters finds out just how much his skin benefits from a thorough cleansing.

When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Cleanse & Polish. Instead, cleansing consisted of a vigorous rubbing around my ears and face with a coarse flannel and the obligatory bar of soap. Yet looking back, I think perhaps mum was onto something - this simple, two-phased regime was my first initiation into what we would now call exfoliation.

Years later, I was reminded of this early experience when I rinsed out the pure muslin cloth from Liz Earle’s Cleanse & Polish For Men for the first time. As I started to gently wipe the hot damp cloth over my skin after massaging on the rich cocoa butter, eucalyptus, rosemary and hop-filled cleansing cream, I almost felt like that little boy again. Yet this time, what was once a chore had become a refreshing daily indulgence and the face looking back at me was smoother, brighter and extremely clean.

The satisfying feeling of sweeping the cloth over my face and neck felt amazing, but the real surprise came when I rinsed the cloth out. I could actually see the grey grime pulled from my clogged-up, city-dwelling pores. Cleanse & Polish has been an important weapon for women against clogged, grubby skin for the last fifteen years. And now, finally, we men have our version too.

This two-step approach to cleaning might seem new-fangled, but on reflection perhaps it is not so unusual after all - and the results definitely speak for themselves. I’m yet to have a spot or blackhead since I first started using it. But more than that, it seems to have wiped away the years, so now I finally understand what mum was really up to. Thanks mum!

David Waters

David is the Associate Style Editor of Men’s Health magazine and author of ‘Grooming Essentials For Men’. He regularly appears on BBC Breakfast and writes for Sunday Times Style, The Guardian and all the major men's magazines including GQ and Arena.