What is The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm?

A balm cleanser with oat kernel and colloidal oatmeal designed to remove makeup and sunscreen while soothing and moisturizing the skin.

Is The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm worth it?

Mostly yes. 9 of the 14 gurus who reviewed it give it their stamp of approval, for a Guru Score of 75%.

What is The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm's Guru Score?

The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm holds a Guru Score of 75%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 14 expert reviewers we have collected. At least one expert has named it a Top Pick in its category.

Who is The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm best for?

The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm is generally suited to dry skin and sensitive skin.

The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm: a Guru Score of 75%

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored

Mad About Skin

731k subs

✓Mixed

"A couple of weeks in it started separating again and feeling grainy again. I'll give them a bit of grace on the separation because of the [...] heat wave, oil based cleansers aren't designed to stabilize against that kind of heat, [...] but the grittiness is a fundamental stability problem they didn't really address the first time around. I'm not personally that livid about it, but I just won't repurchase it because I don't like the graininess."

Top Pick: cleanser

All 5 takes from Mad About Skin

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"It was like the best Holy Grail cleansing balm. Then for reasons not known to the INKEY List, I thought, we could do better, let's reformulate it. And as a result, it split before you even got halfway through the product, it didn't cleanse as well as it used to, I found it a little bit irritating on the skin, and it used to come out separated in such a gloopy, gloopy mess. Really wasn't the Holy Grail product it used to be."

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"They started to reformulate some of their holy grails like this, the Oat Cleansing Balm, and people like it doesn't work anymore. What's the point [...] of it? It separates, it doesn't work. This isn't a brand that are doing reformulations for the right reasons, it just seemed like cost cutting and a lot of people moved on."

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"The price is roughly the same as the original at around £6.50 for 50ml, so higher quality and better ingredients but the same price point. You can also use it as a mask by leaving a thicker layer on for 10 minutes to get the oat goodness and calming benefit. This is a cleanser done right and leveled up. When it comes to calming, soothing, and hydrating, this is the best cleanser of 2026. It's a really inexpensive cleanser that rivals any of the bougie ones on the market."

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"This had a reformulation that took it back to its original formula, and it's phenomenal, really nice. It's a product you can use as a mask and as a cleansing balm all in one. It's a nice mask and cleanser hybrid, which I really love."

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Doctor Anne

56k subs

✓Mixed

"And when you look at The Inkey Way to double cleanse, it is actually listed as second cleanser after using The Inkey List Oat Cleansing Balm as first cleanse to really remove every trace of makeup and then go in with a second cleanse afterwards. And I think for that it works really fine. So either for that or as a morning cleanse is how I prefer to use it."

All 3 takes from Doctor Anne

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"Oils can thicken and separate in cold temperatures, affecting their texture and efficacy. The Inkey List Oat Cleanser won't even come out of the tube properly anymore when cooled down as the texture thickens so much."

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"The Inkey List Oat Cleansing Balm is a great one for removing makeup in the winter. It is the second time I finished it, and while some people claim it is too harsh on their skin due to the tiny granules it contains, I never had any issues with them."

Alexandra Anele

1.44M subs

✓Yay

"Also by Inkey List their cleansing balm that's like my typical cleansing balm that I use every single day to just like remove my sunscreen and then I'll cleanse with a gentle cleanser. I'll probably pick that up because I don't think I have a backup and I'm usually stocked."

All 2 takes from Alexandra Anele

Everything in my travel bag, minis GALORE

"I have Oat Cleansing Balm from The INKEY List. This is a mini, this is what I use typically when I'm traveling. It's nice and affordable and it's just really great for just removing your sunscreen at the end of the day, so that is a must."

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The Style and Beauty Doctor

222k subs

✓Nay

"My opinion still remains with this Oat Cleansing Balm: I do not like the smell and I do not like the texture. But as you can see it is melting that makeup off."

Dr. Somji Skin

360k subs

✓Yay

"If you've just got generally good skin on the High Street, the probably cheapest and the most safest thing to use is the oat blend in balm from The INKEY List. Fantastic because oat, it's one of the properties of oat is to help with a Skin Barrier, but this gives a good clean and a lot of patients love this that come to my clinic so it's really nice to use if you do wear a little bit of makeup and you don't have much time."

Sincerely Miss Ash

195k subs

✓Yay

"The Inkey List Oat Cleansing Balm contains oats so this is very calming and soothing to the skin. It's great for all skin types including those that have sensitive skin and it also is quite moisturizing as well. I never use this as that traditional cleanser; I just use this to remove makeup and sunscreen and then of course as a face mask. This is really gentle, calming, and soothing, and you're getting 150 mls of product."

All 3 takes from Sincerely Miss Ash

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"This is a bomb, it's thick but it's also very moisturizing on the skin. It's super gentle, there's no fragrance, but also it really helps to repair the skin barrier with the oat ingredient. Oats is a humectant, so this is going to moisturize and nourish the skin, but it can also help to calm and soothe irritated skin as well. You can use this as your everyday cleanser both morning and evening. This works really well as a makeup and sunscreen remover and also great as that second cleanse as well."

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"The Inkey List Oat Cleansing Balm is perfect for all skin types including oily skin. It's a great cleanser to calm irritated sensitive skin, and also great if you have dry skin. It's a perfect everyday cleanser that performs really well. It doesn't strip the skin and it doesn't make your skin feel tight; it keeps your skin feeling comfortable. If you have redness, this cleanser is also really great for that."

No BS Beauty

89k subs

✓Nay

"The first 10 times I tried it I hated it, and then I end up using it [...] on dry skin and I liked it a little bit more, because the ingredients say to apply it on a damp face and neck, but this stuff is so thick and Vaseline-like, and when you apply it on something that's wet it just feels like you're trying to mix oil and water and it doesn't do anything. And then I applied it to dry skin, it seemed a little bit better, but it's still always left like a residue feeling."

All 2 takes from No BS Beauty

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"I didn't love it. I didn't hate it at first and then I changed to not loving it but not hating it. It's pretty effective at removing makeup, but I did find this leaves a film for me if I don't use it with a washcloth to rinse it off. And I found you have to ignore the directions on this and don't do what it says because it says to apply to a dampened face. I highly disagree with that. You have to apply this to dry skin."

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April Basi

72k subs

✓Yay

"For the first step of cleansing off makeup, I recommend the INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm. I love it because one of the main ingredients is oat kernel, which is really great for moisturizing and hydrating the skin, [...] and there's also colloidal oatmeal, which helps reduce any irritation that could happen from makeup. [...] I really like this product, it's under ten dollars, and it's just an all around amazing product that works for any skin type."

Dr Dray

2.69M subs

✓Yay

"One of my favorites is actually their Oat Cleansing Balm. Use it to dissolve makeup, water resistant sunscreen. It has emulsifiers in it so that when you come in with a little bit of water and then a mild cleanser, it all just rinses away. It's very effective, gentle around the eyes. It kind of has an odd odor to it. It's fragrance-free but it has oat in it, so it's kind of like if you've ever bathed in colloidal oatmeal, you know that smell, that aroma."

Top Pick: oat cleansing balm

All 6 takes from Dr Dray

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"This is like one of my favorite cleansing balms, although [...] the packaging is kind of annoying. It's kind of a polarizing cleansing balm, not everybody likes it, but it's a favorite for me, and it's only five dollars."

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"You all know I adore the Inky List Oat Cleansing Balm, so seriously, my favorite product from that brand. It works like a dream. I finish it off. I also paired it and tried out their Fulvic Acid Brightening Cleanser."

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"The other thing people don't like about this product is that when you first get it, especially, it has oak kernel oil in it which is great for the skin but [...] it kind of separates out a little bit so [...] you get some separation and some oiliness. But for me, this is one of my favorite cleansing balms. It just does a really good job, it's affordable, and it doesn't have any irritating ingredients in it."

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"I love The Inky List cleansing balms - I use them to take off my mascara and water-resistant sunscreen."

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"I adore this, I like it, this is seriously one of my favorite cleansing balms. The one gripe I have with it that many of you have verbalized in the comments is that it separates a little bit in this tube so you get oiliness that comes out at first, and it's really not easy to mix up in advance. Whereas if it were in a jar I feel that wouldn't be an issue, but this packaging causes it to separate out."

James Welsh

1.58M subs

✓Nay

"Not for me, I can't use this. It's just so tough to use. [...] You have to have so much strength in order to get this out of the tube. It's just so annoying to use. And it is a good product if you don't mind the kind of user experience of it. It's got three percent oat kernel oil which is rich in ceramides and one percent colloidal oatmeal to reduce redness and soothe your skin. That's kind of its main selling point. It really is like a solidified oil."

All 2 takes from James Welsh

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"But the worst because sometimes the product separated. You'd open the lid, a load of oil would come out, and it was just next to impossible to squeeze out of the tube. After testing the new version, product separation is still an issue. The graininess has gone and [...] it feels like [...] a really nice rich cleansing balm. Very classic, does the job it needs to do. But there's still something wrong. Skin's not feeling dry or tight in any way [...] and it does rinse away very nicely."

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HotandFlashy

1.23M subs

✓Yay

"It removed all of my face makeup. The only thing it didn't get off completely was my waterproof eyeliner and waterproof mascara, but with my double cleanse those came off with my second cleanse, so by the time I was done with my double cleanse I had almost as much makeup off my face as when I use Clinique. It was really soothing and really nice to use, so if the Clinique is just always out of range as far as price, this is a really good one to try."

The Budget Dermatologist

724k subs

✓Yay

"The INKEY List Oat Cleansing Balm is one of my favorite cleansing balms. A cleansing balm is really your secret weapon to carefully remove makeup and waterproof sunscreen from your skin with a very gentle massage technique that helps it just lift right up off the skin without needing to use any harsh abrasive makeup wipes or eye makeup remover that can pull and tug the skin or irritate the eyes and the skin."