Do I Need This? Oil Cleansing (and Double Cleansing)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission from purchases made through those links.
I've finally returned to my Do I Need This? series, which had been on a year-long hiatus. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinion about whether or not I think a trendy product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least.

Oil cleansing is nothing new, and oil in skin care has been a big thing for a while now. We used to always check to make sure our products were labeled "oil-free" (at least those of us with oily or acne-prone skin), but now we're being told to embrace the magical, precious oil, regardless of skin type. Especially if it's "natural." So were we mistaken all that time? Is oil the new everything? Can I actually clean my oily face with oil? Wha?

As usual, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Lots of oils have positive properties for various skin types. Some will work for some people and not for others. Adding oil isn't necessarily going to clog your pores or make your skin produce more oil - in fact, it might have the opposite effect. The trick, as always, is to experiment and find out what works for you.

I'm going to talk about my experience with cleansing using oils here. Facial oils that are supposed to treat skin issues are another thing (I'm partial to rosehip oil, myself), so I'll leave those out. This is about washing your damn face.

Do I need this?

Short answer: Oil is effective for removing makeup, but don't expect miracles (and you don't need to spend a ton of money on fancy oil cleansers).

The easiest DIY reusable cotton makeup pads ever

Disclosure: affiliate links.
I'm not a huge DIY person in that I don't DIY (DIM?) just for the hell of it. For the most part, I'm only going to make my own shit if it is cheaper (or, potentially, better) than something I can buy and if it's not going to be a huge, complicated chore. I respect people who make stuff all the time for the fun of it or to be less wasteful, but I need things to be cheap and easy at this stage in my life. Fortunately, this project hits all the buttons (is that a real expression? more whiskey): it's very cheap; it takes less than half an hour to complete; there is next to no skill required; and it's eco-friendly.

I also made this beautiful jar that I use to store these beautiful creations.

In a weird but not particularly exciting coincidence, about half an hour after realizing that I was out of cotton balls, I came across this Into the Gloss post about reusable makeup pads. Obviously a good idea, but that shit costs $22 for a pack of 8 ($2.75 a piece). A number of sellers on Etsy offer them for a more reasonable price, or you can make your own with a couple of bucks and a few minutes of your time.

This is not a detailed tutorial. The steps are essentially: (1) find cloth; and (2) cut cloth. You'll need to use a nice, soft, absorbent fabric, probably cotton. If you have an old flannel shirt or sheet that you're not going to use again, that'll work. If not, I recommend getting some flannel that is meant for babies, because it'll be extra soft. I suggest checking out the remnants section of the fabric store, because you only need a small piece, and you can get it very cheap that way. I paid less than $2 for the piece of flannel that I used, which was probably about 2.5' x 1.5' originally. I actual bought it around a year and a half ago to make a gift for a friend's baby. It's printed all over with the word baby in white, but, as you can probably see in the photo above, once I washed it the design pretty much disappeared, so I abandoned that project. It's perfect for this purpose, as it turns out.

Quick review: e.l.f. Studio Makeup Remover Pen

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
So this is a review of a somewhat odd product that is actually quite useful if you are a clumsy person who is often in a hurry, like I am. If you have a bad habit of ending up with flecks of mascara on your face, because you stabbed yourself in the eye, because you were in a terrible rush to finish your makeup, because you were running late, because you're disorganized, because you are a human mess, this is a product you could consider.

It's a marker. It's shaped like a sharpie, with a firm, white, felt tip point (see it here). If you make a small mess, it's much more precise than a Q-tip, so you don't have to redo all of your under-eye concealer or your eyeshadow or whatever. Observe:

Before: Mascara mess.

After: Disaster averted.

I should have included a dime or something for scale, though maybe the tiny freckle above the swatch serves that purpose to some extent. The swatch was made with a typical eyeshadow brush (a little over a centimeter wide) and the black specks are from the bristles of a mascara brush. You can achieve precise removal using the e.l.f. pen, and then you only need to do a little bit of patching and blending to fix things up. I don't know of another method/tool that allows for as precise cleanup. (Suggestions?)

The pen is weird. I've had it for several months, and it's still working. But it feels light and empty. If you shake it, you don't hear any liquid inside. The tip feels quite dry to the touch. Mysterious, and yet totally functional.

After you use it to clean up a few specks of mascara or whatever, I recommend wiping off the tip on your hand or a kleenex, otherwise it will end up smearing the product around instead of removing it.

Watch for 50% off sales from e.l.f. and you can get this thing for $1.50, or you can get it for $3 from Target. It has come to my rescue after many a morning's disaster during which, 5 minutes before I was about to head out the door, my house was filled with the sounds of MOTHERFUCKER FUCKING SHIT FUCK GODDAMN IT! You know what I'm talking about.

Fix Your Face: Baby Wipes

Compare the ingredients of a typical pack of sensitive skin makeup removing wet wipes and a pack of sensitive skin baby wipes. For example:

Pampers Sensitive Wipes:
Water, Glycerin, Aloe Barbandensis Leaf Juice, Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Sodium Citrate, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Benzyl Alcohol, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Benzoate, Bis PEG/PPG 16/16 Dimethicone, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Bisabolol

Olay Sensitive Wet Cleansing Cloths:
Water (Eau), Glycerin, Hexylene Glycol, Dimethicone, Dimethiconol, Butylene Glycol, DMDM Hydantoin, Polysorbate 20, Acrylates/Vinyl Isodecanoate Crosspolymer, Tocopheryl Acetate, Disodium EDTA, Aloe Vera (Aloe Barbadensis) Leaf Juice, Sodium Hydroxide, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

Nothing in the former that's going to hurt your face. Look up the ingredients in this Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary if you're curious (I did). The only thing to be concerned about, if you have dry skin, is the benzyl alcohol, but it is only a problem if it is among the main ingredients. In this case, it is far down on the list, which means it's not there in a major amount. You can probably find some without even that type of alcohol if you you spent 8 minutes looking for them, but I only spent 3.

For 5 bucks, you can either get 20-30 face wipes or 64+ baby wipes. I have used the Pampers Sensitive Wipes, and they leave my skin soft and clean. They do an excellent job of removing makeup. The texture is soft and thick. Think about it: if they're sensitive enough for a baby's ass, they're going to be safe for your face. Worth trying.

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link.

Fix Your Face: Makeup Remover

Here’s something I mentioned in my skincare routine post, but it bears repeating.

I don’t actually own any makeup remover. I think it’s kind of a pointless product, unless maybe you’re dealing with some heavy duty face paint. Here’s what I use to remove all my eye makeup, including waterproof mascara:

Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion. You can get a big-ass bottle of this for less than $10, and it will last forever. Just smear a tiny bit of this around your eyes and wipe it away with a tissue or cotton ball or whatever. It works really well. As well or better than any remover I’ve ever tried. And then you’ve moisturized the skin around your eyes at the same time, if you think that helps with wrinkles or something (I don’t). Really, any lotion/moisturizer/hand cream etc. will work if you are in a bind, but this stuff is gentle and not perfumey, so it’s good to use near the eyes.

Not only is this a million times cheaper (I’m pretty sure that’s the correct math) than a little bottle of makeup remover, it’s also, you know, moisturizer for whatever needs moisturizing on your body. You know I like multipurpose shit.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.