I had my mom buy some washable and reusable makeup remover pads from Amazon. They’re slightly bigger than the cotton rounds you get in the store and they come with a laundry bag so you can toss it in to be washed with your clothes (probably don’t wash it with lights so the makeup doesn’t potentially stain the lights, and only wash in cold water). I’ve always been environmentally conscious, and I only use one pad to remove all of my makeup (then a cleanser to remove anything left behind), but I still felt guilty for that (even though cotton breaks down easier than some other substances). Now the main negative thing on reviews was that they get stained easily. They’re white, white fabric stains! Especially if you use something black like mascara and/or eyeliner every look. So I don’t really mind. And to be honest, black ones could stain too due to ingredients in your makeup or remover. Here’s what mine looked like after their first use:
Now I use both sides of a round when wiping off my face, so I thought I’d take a pic of both sides. Regular hand soap to wash out the round did absolutely nothing. However my makeup cleansing lotion actually helped get out most of the mascara to my surprise! I’m going to look into a cheaper cleanser for cleaning the wipes though. The other thing to mention if you do wash them by hand/individually and leave them to dry on a hook, they turn rough so they aren’t as soft as they were after being in the laundry. I think to help with that, wet the round before applying the makeup remover to remove the makeup with the wipe.
The cleanser I used that removed the makeup better than soap. I’m going to try some other cleansers and see how those work. By the way, this is actually my go to cleanser for removing excess makeup recently, since it’s helped moisturize the eczema/flaky skin on my eyelids (especially when combined with the Hyro Boost non-scented gel cream for extra dry skin). It does take quite a few pumps if you use it on the whole face. One plus is you can also use this dry on the cotton round to remove makeup, then you can rinse it off. Or (my preferred method) is using a remover (like coconut oil or a different cream based remover) then using it as a face wash to remove anything left behind from the removal step. With this line though, you have to make sure the product says fragrance free, or else it can have a pretty strong scent to it that could agitate your skin. The fragrance free ones are great for sensitive/dry skin though! And this is as someone who had gentle things like Cetaphil dry out my skin on my face.
