Starting this week, I am pleased to bring you a series of reviews of facial and body care products by category rather than by brand. You'll be able to compare different cleansers, toners, scrubs, etc. to better figure out which ones are right for you. I'll begin this week with cleansers and move through a variety of skincare products, so get your shopping lists ready! All of these products are available online, so I've taken the liberty of mentioning in each review where I ordered them from.

Dr. Dennis Gross, MD Skincare All in One Facial Cleanser with Toner ($20 for 8 ounces)
With summer finally winding down, I recently switched to this non-foaming creamy cleanser and my skin is thanking me. When it's hot and sticky outside, a refreshing foaming cleanser feels great, but as my skin starts to revert to its normal-to-dry self, it definitely prefers a light lotion like this one. MD Skincare is fairly new and, for a dermatologist's line, reasonably priced. All in One Facial Cleanser has gentle cleansing ingredients and some interesting extras like emu oil, witch hazel (the toner), chamomile extract and chamomile oil. I love it because it's gentle but remarkably fast at removing makeup (even the heavy duty stuff), and it leaves no residue, just clean, soft skin. One pump is all you need, so this bottle should last at least 6 months; I've used mine every night for 2-3 weeks and it still looks full.

You can learn more about MD Skincare at mdskincare.com.

Olay Daily Facials Cleansing Cloths ($6.99 for box of 30; refills are $5.99)
For cleansing on the go, these new dry cloths from Oil of Olay are a clever idea and are ideal for travel. Unlike the recent crop of pre-moistened babywipe-style cleansing cloths, these are dry and need to be activated with water to release the cleanser. It's a bit like using a washcloth with your regular cleanser, but I like these because they are more sanitary - you use a fresh one every time you cleanse. Daily Facials come in two versions: normal to dry, which is very soft and lightly exfoliating, and normal to oily, which has a soft side for removing eye makeup and a textured side for more thorough exfoliating. Both have gentle cleansers that are lightly foaming, remove makeup well, and rinse off easily. For my sensitive skin, I prefer the normal to dry version simply because the material is softer. For at home use, these are a nice alternative to plain cleansers or scratchy facial scrubs, and you just can't beat them for easy, spillproof traveling.

I got mine from my local supermarket, but if your store doesn't have them yet, you can buy them online at drugstore.com.

Reflect.com Facial Cleansing Cloths ($18.50 for 30 cloths)
Soon after trying the Olay cloths, I ordered these from reflect.com. Although they have almost identical ingredients to the Olay cloths, the weave and texture of the material is a bit different - thicker overall and a cross between the softness of the Olay normal to dry version and the more textured feel of the normal to oily version. These also need water to activate the cleanser, which is lightly foaming and rinses off easily just like the Olay brand. As much as I like the feel of these, I have a hard time justifying spending $18.50 for the reflect.com cloths when they are so similar to Olay's at just $6.99. I love my reflect.com products, but this one is simply too expensive for what you get.

Visit Reflect.com to create cloths just for you.

basis so refreshing facial cleansing cloths ($4.99 for box of 30)
For speedy makeup removal anywhere, pre-moistened cleansing cloths are extremely handy. I've tried Biore, Ponds, Avon and now basis, and I like these from basis the best. They are gentle, remove makeup effortlessly, leave absolutely no residue, require no rinsing, and leave the skin feeling soft and supple, not greasy, dry, dehydrated, or sticky. If you don't like complicated cleansing routines and need something easy to take your makeup off, these are for you. At such an amazing price, too, you have no more excuses for going to bed with makeup on!