All you need to know about makeup remover; and the best cleansing secret from Asia-cleansing oil

 It is so important to clean your face properly. It is as important and some would argue even more important than moisturizing your face. Skin repairs itself at night. If you do not clean your face well before bedtime, it will make this process very difficult.  It can cause breakout, wrinkles, and infection. Standard facial cleanser doesn’t work well on makeup because they are designed to be gentle. If you want a cleanser to remove makeup, it will need to contain more detergents which can remove all the natural facial lipids and dry out your skin. And don’t even get me started on waterproof makeup, it is just impossible. What do you do then? You are correct, use a makeup remover first. It is okay you cheated by reading the post title.

By the end of this post, hopefully you will learn everything there is to know about makeup remover and understand what to look for in a remover. This article contains a lot of useful information about makeup remover. I will expand on what has been said, and refer to it when applicable.

Eye makeup remover vs. regular makeup remover: Your eyes are the most sensitive part of your face. If you wear eye makeup, you need a remover that is strong enough to remove the makeup yet gentle enough to not damage your eyes and the skin layers around your eyes, especially if you have sensitive eyes or wear contact lens. On top of that, adding the long stay eye liner, and waterproof mascara to the mix, you got yourself a challenging task to find a good remover. Some bad eye makeup removers can sting or burn your eyes, and they would require countless scrubbing to get all the makeup off. That is just terrible!! A good eye makeup remover will remove just about anything on your face. For example, those long last wear lipsticks.  But a regular makeup remover can be too harsh for your eyes, except for cleansing oil, which I will talk about it below. For the rest of the post, I will keep refer to eye makeup remover.

Types of Makeup: Now let’s define the different types of makeup so you understand why some remover works well on certain makeup, and some doesn't. The two types of makeup are non oil and oil based. Non oil ones include blush, powder and eye shadows. Oily ones include lipstick, mascara and liquid foundation. It contains oily materials such as waxes, oils, pigments, and emollients.Yikes! The price we pay to stay beautiful.

Types of eye makeup removers: Remember in your chemistry class, you learned the principle of “like dissolve like”? It applies here exactly.

Soap based: It can be used to remove non oil types of makeup. In the article above, the examples listed for this type of removers are Maybelline Expert Eyes and L’Oreal Refreshing Eye Makeup. For mascara, it would be hard to remove with soap based removers; especially for waterproof mascara, you can just forget about it. You will end up use all of your cotton pads and rub a layer off your skin. This is because you need an oil based makeup remover.

Oil-based: Since a lot of makeup is oil based, this type of makeup remover will breakdown the toughest makeup. A lot of people say that oil based is not good because it can leave residues. For oily skinned people, it can clog your pores and result in breakouts. That is because a lot people just use the remover then wipe the residues off without properly cleaning their face. This is the most misconception people have about cleansing. You should double cleanse- use a gentle cream cleanser or foam to clean your face after using a makeup remover whether soap or oil based. A good makeup remover plus a good gentle cleanser would leave your skin feeling clean and soft. Some recommendations of cleansers:Aveeno Postively Radiant Cleanser - great for sensitive and uneven toned skin,  Aqua label face wash by shiseido - great for dry and uneven toned skin, cetaphil - #1 recommended cleanser by dermatologist and great for sensitive and acne proned skin.

You will find tons of articles on the web about how olive oil, baby oil and jojoba oil are great for removing makeup. Yes they do work and are cheap alternatives. I agree with what has been said in the article, some products like Maybelline Expert Touch is basically straight mineral oil which you might as well just use baby oil since it is made of mineral oil. Some suggest sweet almond oil, just be aware if you are allergic to nuts. You need to find out which natural oils are good for your skin types. And the drawback of using these natural oils is that although they clean well, but the cleaning procedures are very troublesome. You really got do some work to take off all of the oil off. For me, it is just too much trouble. Cleansing oil will take care of this. Keep on reading, it is coming. I am saving the best for last. 

Soap and Oil based; silicon based dual phase removers: This type of formula strives to achieve the best of both worlds - soap and oil based removers. It removes makeup much better than soap based because it contains oil, yet it is less greasy and leave less residues than oil based ones. For years, I have been using the Lancome Bi-Facil Double Action eye makeup remover for my whole face before switching to cleansing oil. Lancome Bi-Facil works great. It is very light, and remove those tough makeup like waterproof eye liner and mascaras. The drawbacks are that it is pricy and it doesn't work that well for my freakish waterproof Japanese mascaras. When I say waterproof, I meant serious waterproof business. The mascara really really stays, and no makeup remover can take it out. And trust me, I have tried A LOT.  But with Lancome Bi-Fancil, I can get it out eventually by using several cotton pads. So to me that says a lot about this remover. As you can see, I am basically using this mascara as my benchmark for all removers. In the article, it also mentioned two other products-Neutrogena Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover and Boots Botanical. I never tried these two products before, they are supposed to be comparable to Lancome Bi-Facial, but much much cheaper.

Cleansing Oil- THE BEST MAKEUP REMOVER:This is seriously the best makeup remover for your eyes, face, and lips. I was first introduced to this product by my one of my friends who is a model in Taiwan. Thanks Bev! It will remove just about anything- makeup non oil and oily based, dirt, dust, any impurity and my freakish waterproof mascara with ease. It was invented by the Japanese, Shu Uemura to be exact. And it has been popularized in Asia for years before it became available in North American. Cleansing oil’s main ingredient is oil, but it contains emulsifiers which make all the oil rinse easily with water. So it will leave zero residue, and won't clog your pores to cause breakout. You would think it is not suitable for oily skinned people, but it is not true at all. It works great for this skin type because it leaves the skin soft and moisturized. As a result, your skin won't produce excessive oil. When contact with water, it immediately turns into a milky-white liquid and then just rinsed away.When I first used it, I felt weird for smearing oil on my face, but it really remove any trace of my makeup. And with water, everything is gone afterwards. On top of that, cleansing oil will remove blackhead, which made my skin look more smooth, soft, supple and radiant. In some cleansing oil, it also contains other stuff like vitamin E and green tea. No wonder even Tyra Banks likes it.

Things to watch out for cleansing oil: You want look for a cleansing oil that is not too thick or too liquid, and that it leaves no residues yet doesn’t dry out your skin. It has been said that too much emulsifier can dry out your skin, and can sometimes cause irritation on sensitive skin. I have sensitive skin, and have not experience any irritation with cleansing oil. I have been using Shu Uemura. So probably depends on the brand. I trust Japanese brands since they invented it. Also in response to that, no matter how great a product is, there will always be exception where it doesn't work out. Like I mentioned above, even natural ingredients suchs as sweet almong oil can cause allegic reaction to some. So if you have sensitive or acne proned skin, and had irritation occurred, either switch to other brands, or natural oil if you don't mind the trouble, or even cleansing cream.  Cleansing cream contains oil but very low emulsifier. The draw back is that it is also troublesome. As for the dry part, I think it is also fine if you use a moisturizing and gentle cleanser and a moisturizer which you should do anyways. Also you only need to use cleansing oil at night before bedtime. With the Shu Uemura cleansing oil, it actually made my skin soft.

Shu Uemura has so many different kinds of cleansing oil formulated for dry, combo, normal and oily skins. It is great. You can buy it online from www.sephora.com.  Also I have read tons of good reviews on DHC too. It is one of the top selling cleansing oil brands in Japan. I just bought the whole Olive Essential sets from DHC- cleansing oil, gentle cleansing bar, moisturizer and oilve oil to lock in moisture- this Monday. Why did I do this since I like Shu? Price. The DHC cleansing oil is cheaper than Shu. You can get DHC from http://www.dhccare.ca/dhc/ if you live in Canada, or http://www.dhccare.com/dhc/ if you live in the US. Also I want to try different products to compare, then I can write a post about it afterwards. So stay tuned for my pepsi challenge for the different brands of cleansing oil.

I hope you have learned something. And drop me a line about your experience with cleansing oil.