Ever had an emergency when you need to remove your makeup, but don’t have a makeup remover on hand? I’m usually quite well organised when it comes to my skincare, so I don’t usually have this problem. When I’m travelling, I usually have a small bottle of cleansing water / micellar water on hand, and I’m proud of myself for being so organized.
But I recently found myself in this exact predicament. Pride comes before a fall, as they say!
Lest you think there’s a juicy story behind it, there isn’t LOL! 😀 It was on my most recent flight home, when I had boarded the plane and was about to cleanse my face. I had on some brow pencil and a light layer of BB Cushion and concealer… but I realised that my on-board toiletries pouch had no cleanser! No makeup remover, no cleansing water, no cleanser.
What was a girl to do? Well, improvise of course! 😉
Well, not immediately. I sat and panicked for a spell, wondering if I was willing to sit and stew in my makeup for 13 hours. When I decided I couldn’t, I decided to MacGyver a solution. (Now, I know they are making a MacGyver reboot but I’m talking about the Richard Dean Anderson one – hands up if you too are a fan of the show! 😀 Yes, good, you realise your age is showing 😉 )
Facial Oil to remove makeup
I looked into my pouch of skincare wonders, wondering if I had any oil on hand. If you are pressed for a solution, any facial oil will do the job at removing your makeup, not necessarily cleansing oil. Slather it on your skin, wipe it off, and then cleanse. Some will be easier to clean off than others but it will remove your makeup quite effectively.
If you are visiting someone and having a sleep over without your skincare arsenal on hand, even some olive oil from the kitchen works. Just be sure to cleanse off thoroughly, and preferably, use a warm face cloth to wipe off the oil.
But I had no oils on me. I only had a spray can of facial mist, moisturiser and other lotions and serums. Hmm… what could I do?!
Moisturiser to remove makeup
And then I hit upon an idea. If people could use cold cream to remove their makeup, couldn’t I do the same with moisturiser? I did have a cream moisturiser on hand after all. I had nothing to lose, so I went for it!
I squeezed out a generousdollop of face cream, and spread it out over my face, massaging as I went, for a few minutes. Then, I used some tissue paper laid over my face to soak up the cream and then tissued off the excess. To my gratification, I saw the makeup come off! I must note at this juncture that you should be using a cream based moisturiser to remove makeup. I’m not sure a gel moisturiser or lotion/emulsion will work.
Then, I took some cotton pads, dampened them with the facial mist, and wiped them over my skin, doing this a few times, until the cotton pad no longer had any trace of colour.
Then, I sprayed my face liberally with the face mist, and tissued it off, and voila! Cleansed skin! 😀 It actually felt clean to the touch.
I then followed up with the rest of my skincare, sealing off with the very same moisturiser that I’d just used to cleanse my skin at the end. How ironic! 😀
I won’t recommend either hack for an everyday solution, simply because facial oils and moisturisers aren’t made to cleanse skin or remove makeup. I’d even go so far as to say that not even olive oil does, despite all the proponents of the oil cleansing method. I’d use a proper cleansing oil and makeup remover designed for its purpose. But in an emergency, when you have nothing else on hand, either hackdoes a pretty decent job.
Have you ever been faced with a similar emergency? What did you do?
I’m rarely faced with emergencies like this, as I usually have a cleanser in my pouch, at minimum. But it’s nice to know that when push comes to shove, there are options we can make use of. I quite impressed myself with my skincare MacGyver skills LOL! 😀 Now, tell me what you have done in such an emergency?
Paris B
