L.A. Girls Are Obsessed With This Product — & I Finally Understand Why

I know what you're thinking: face wash is face wash is face wash — and you're not wrong. In the grand scheme of your skin care routine, removing your makeup and cleansing your skin is one of the easier jobs. Just remove all the junk, don't dry the shit out of your skin, and we're good, right? It all washes down the drain anyway. I thought this, too, until recently.

Kát Rudu's honey face wash is like nothing I've ever tried. It smells like a $13 smoothie from a West Hollywood health food store; removes lightweight, everyday makeup (you will need a micellar water step for waterproof or heavy makeup removal, though); and makes my skin so freakin' soft and healthy that I've already powered through my third bottle. Even my boyfriend is hooked on the sweet stuff.

What's even better, the entire line is the gentle, cruelty-free, botanically-derived, vegan, and (most importantly) effective range you'd expect from an "It" L.A. aesthetician. A quick lesson in Rudu's background and it all makes perfect sense: She spend years as the in-house facialist at esteemed celebrity dermatologist Dr. Harold Lancer's office. (His practice boasts clients of the one-name varietal: Beyoncé, Oprah, Ellen — you get the picture.) Today she can be found at her own Venice-based skin studio, and her new line is quickly becoming a big ticket in town.

The face wash is free of things you'd expect her Westside clientele to object to: parabens, mineral oil, synthetics, propylene glycol, fillers, phthalates, sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate, artificial fragrance, animal bi-products, and triethanolamine. (Say that five times fast.) Instead, it packs honey to kill bacteria and minimize pores, papaya enzymes to exfoliate, rosemary to clarify, aloe vera to ease inflammation, gotu kola which is an Indian plant known to heal wounds, and wild geranium to help cell turnover, the brand says.

All of this is impressive, yes, but the real victory is the addictive, heavenly smell and how darn good my normally-dry skin feels morning and night. Seriously, since using this formula, my skin feels more hydrated, brighter, and most all, incredibly soft. In this case, it's best to believe the hype.

Kát Rudu Coco Honey Papaya Enzymes Cleanser, $42, available at KatRudu.com.