NO MORE Make Up Wipes!

Ah, what’s in a make up wipe.

No, seriously. Does anybody know? I sure didn’t. There’s a picture of an adorable baby or a beautiful woman on there (depending on whether you’re using baby wipes or normal make up wipes) that means they’re harmless and full of wonderful, magical things right?

Mmmmm nope. Turns out they aren’t exactly natural beauty heaven. I was happily using make up wipes every day before bed because I’m too busy (aka lazy) for a full on cleansing routine and I thought that was perfectly fine, but here is what I actually learned once I did some digging:

– They don’t actually clean your skin. That’s a fairly fundamental fail right there. Instead of cleaning your skin they just smear makeup, oil, dirt and bacteria across your face. Lovely. Whilst they do break down debris within pores, make up wipes don’t actually remove it which, if you have bad skin, could be a major reason for this. It’s the rinsing that removes dirt, so if like me you’ve just been using a make up wipe then going straight to sleep, it’s definitely pointless.

– They’re full of chemicals. The reason baby wipes are good at removing poop from little baby butts is because they contain ingredients such as SD alcohol 40 and denatured alcohol, and they stay fresh for so long because they contain preservatives such as 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3-Diol which release formaldehyde. Alcohol is put into the formula so that the wetness of your wipe evaporates more quickly, but this actually dehydrates the skin. Formaldehyde is also a common allergen, and neither of these things are nice. There are also reports flying around about formaldehyde being classed as a carcinogen under high exposure, I’m not going to go into those in an attempt to terrify anyone into changing but hey, if it’s not necessary maybe let’s just not use it just in case?

– They aren’t zero waste. I checked guys, I tried to research recycling make up wipes, it’s not a thing, they all end up in landfill. You can find reusable wipes but you need to use them alongside something else, and then the hunt begins again for something ethical, you have to restock and it has to be transportable, all that other faff that comes with multiple products comes up. Isn’t there just one easy product?

Luckily for us all, there is an alternative out there. One cheap, reusable product to take away our make up woes: The Make Up Eraser. I first heard about the make up eraser from Buzzfeed (the most reputable source out there I know) and it seemed a little too good to be true, but after doing some research for myself I couldn’t find a bad word for this product anywhere, so I decided to invest in one. Honestly, I haven’t looked back since.

So what is this thing? It’s a reusable wash cloth essentially. Instead of using chemicals its secret is a proprietary polyblends special weave. To put that in normal people language, the strands of the material it’s made from are extremely fine, even finer than silk strands in fact, and somehow this makes them super absorbent. Do I understand exactly how this works? No. Does it seem like some sort of crazy make up magic? Yes. But I do know it only uses water. The cloth has two sides, short nap and long nap. You wet the short nap side and rub gently on your face to remove make up, then flip over to the long nap side and use to exfoliate and deep cleanse your pores. The crazy thing  is that is really does work. It took my make up off in under a minute and post exfoliation my skin felt softer and lovelier than it has in a really long time. I had never thought that make up wipes were drying my face out until I saw the difference when using this before bed. Before you ask, yes it does take off difficult make up; waterproof mascara, HD makeup, lipstick, the whole shebang. Poof! Gone.

When it comes to zero waste, this thing is also a definite no brainer. To reuse you simply throw it in a washing machine with your normal clothes and it lasts over 1000 washes, so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. At a price of £17 and easily available at Boots or online it’s both easy to get your hands on and very quick to start saving you money. With reusable wipes you’re still going to have to regularly fork out for whatever you use them with, the make up eraser is an all in one. And no more restocking make up wipes is a dream! It always feels like that down-to-my-last-one wipe situation sneaks up on you; you always think there’s at least two left in the packet when you find yourself pulling out the last one. So. Frustrating. But no more! Your eraser cloth is always there and can never run out. It’s also very transportable, rolling up very small and easily fitting in the smallest of bags. I would even argue that it’s easier to transport. I always find that the resealable flap on make up wipes isn’t actually that resealable and half of them end up being dried out by the time I reach my destination anyway. All of these problems avoided with one simple cloth, who could hope for more.

All in all, this product is pretty great. It’s simple, money saving and, most importantly, sustainable. Grab hold of one today and give it a try.

Until next time, stay magic y’all.