I wrote a sentence, ‘Cleansing makeup is more important than putting it on’. A native speaker read it and changed ‘cleansing makeup is~’ to ‘cleaning makeup off is~’. I asked why, and he said it’s just awkward. I used ‘cleanse’, because there are cosmetic products like cleansing cream, cleansing oil, cleansing tissues, etc. I looked up some dictionaries, but I don’t know why ‘cleansing makeup(or to cleanse makeup)’ is not possible. Would you tell me why ‘clean off’ is used in that sentence instead of cleanse?
Thank you in advance! 
.
You are not cleansing the makeup– you are cleansing your face of the makeup. So you could write:
Cleansing one’s face of makeup is more important than putting it on.
What the native speaker gave you is a more colloquial version: cleansing one’s face of makeup = cleaning makeup off.
.
Hi, MM
Can we say cleaning one’s face of makeup together with cleansing one’s face of makeup?
If we can, then I take it that cleanse is more formal than clean, isn’t it?
Thank you in advance.
.
Yes, I think you’re right. ‘Cleansing’ mostly appears on bottles of product.
.
Thank you! Your answers were really good and helpful. 
Hi sweety,
You can also say “Taking off your make-up is more important than putting it on”.
In fact, the cornerstone of beautiful healthy skin is a strict and correct cleansing regiment.
Nina
Thank you for good expression, Nina! As you said, I try to take off my make-up for healty skin as soon as I get home from work!
.
…but ‘regimen’, not ‘regiment’!
.
Yes, sir!
Funny, I was so confident when I wrote that. :lol: Thanks!
