Every oily-acne girl on the internet is obsessed with Prequel’s Gleanser. I call bullshit — or at least, a half-truth.
It’s a decent second cleanse if your first one already did the heavy lifting. But as a solo act for greasy, breakout-prone skin? It’s a lazy Sunday when you needed a sprint.
$14 for 8.5 oz — cheap enough to impulse-buy at Target. The claim: glycerin-based gel that “balances” oil without stripping. Sounded like a dream for my hormonal chin.
Gel-to-milk texture
Slides on like a lukewarm hug, then turns milky with water.
No lather
Zero foam. Feels like washing with hair conditioner — unsettling at first.
pH-balanced 5.5
Supposedly gentle enough for barrier repair. But gentle ≠ effective for oil.
Photo: Poko Skincare / Unsplash
It’s a glycerin bomb with oat kernel flour for slip. The hero is allium cepa (onion) extract — yes, onion — which has some anti-inflammatory buzz, but not enough to calm a cyst.
- Glycerin: humectant that hydrates but doesn’t cut grease
- Allium Cepa Extract: mild anti-inflammatory, not acne-fighting
- Oat Kernel Flour: gives that silky feel, can clog some pores
- Panthenol: soothing, but useless if you’re still oily 2 hours later
Photo: Rosa Rafael / Unsplash
First wash: feels like spreading cold yogurt on your face. Rinses clean but leaves a film — my oily skin felt *squeaky* but also weirdly coated. Not the same thing as clean.
By week two, my forehead had three new closed comedones. The Gleanser just wasn’t aggressive enough for my T-zone oil slick. It’s like using dish soap on a greasy pan and wondering why the water beads up.
Photo: freestocks / Unsplash
My pores stayed the same size. Breakouts didn’t get worse, but they didn’t get better either. My barrier felt okay — not repaired, just… existing.
Photo: Vedansh Agrawal / Unsplash
It’s not bad — it’s just not special. For oily skin, you need something that actually fights oil, not just holds your hand through a wash.