Homemade Skincare Series: Eye Makeup Remover-EVOO vs Grapeseed Oil

Ever so often, I would hear my clients asking, “What should I use to wash this makeup off?”

I used to work as an ex-assistant of a makeup artist, and let me tell you that being an assistant doesn’t give me the freedom of speech. Or freedom of anything, really. What is freedom? Where is freedom? FREEDOM?!

I have since quitted the job, not because of my freedom’s sake—I don’t mind, really—but due to some unavoidable personal matters that I may or may not reveal in the future. Hehe.

And so, you could guess that I didn’t enhance one’s features much nowadays, thus my skills have gotten quite rusty. I am my own guinea pig, but eye makeup is not something I like to put on myself. XD

Back to the question, when someone asked me that, I would just blurt out, “Buy a makeup remover.”

But then my boss would glare at me and promptly cut me off, “Just use baby wipes.”

“Yeah,” I shrugged, dusting the client’s face. “Use baby wipes.”

Baby wipes, while defiantly effective in removing makeup (unfortunately, it fails against proofproof things) is considered bad for your skin. Apparently the PH level of your skin would deteriorate if you use it constantly, further causing in premature aging and extreme dehydration.

Nevertheless, if you only use it like, once a year, once in a lifetime, only on your memorial day, wedding day, then I guess it would be fine.

But more than often, simple baby wipes could not remove waterproof bride makeup—it could not remove waterproof mascara, how could it remove the one-inch-Kryolan-stick-foundation on their faces?

(Yes I am aware that those brides look awful with thick foundation. My boss taught me to use three foundations in order to make it look natural. Natural doesn’t equal less makeup. At least, natural in photography.)

That didn’t sit too well with me, thinking of the painstaking task my clients are going through during the cleansing phase. My job is to only prettify one’s face in order for it to look bearable in front of the camera, not to stay with the bride until the reception ends.

Uh…yeah. That’s exactly my job. Assistant, remember?

Apparently makeup artists (in my agency) did the talking while assistants (like me) did the work.

It was fun, though. At least I was only obliged to do the makeup and not other…things. Not good at other things. I still haven’t mastered the perfect bun. I coughed at the slight smell of hairspray. :D

Anyway, back to the main question…

What can you use to remove eye makeup, preferably one that is readily accessible in your household, preferably one that you could obtain easily, preferably one that you would use often, preferably one that you probably would have a use of if you didn’t use that often, preferably one that is not going to be left in the dust, forever forgotten until you decided to sell it off on ebay, providing you remember to sell it off on ebay before the expiration date?

So here ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…

THE OILS!

:D

I don’t have any eye makeup remover at home, but the one I often used at work was Lancome Bi-Facil. And while it is good, should you really be shelling out more money than you’re supposed to?

Well, let’s see then. :D

Take note: I will only review these oils as EYE MAKEUP REMOVER in this post. I will make a post later about removing base makeup and the benefits of eating/drinking/swallowing it. :D Maybe.

CONTENDER NUMBER 1: EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL (EVOO)

There are a lot of selections to choose from; Greek-made, Italian-made, Spain-made…someone on the television claimed that the Italian one is the most nutritious, while my brother mentioned how the internet claimed otherwise, so my brother followed its advice and used the Greek one. He didn’t use the oil to wipe his makeup of course. He didn’t even wear sunscreen, much less to wear foundation. He uses it in his cooking. We use EVOO on a daily basis. In fact, we eat/drink/swallow EVOO. Yes. That’s the reason as to why EVOO is a staple in my house. We swallow it. Harhar.

Ehem.

EVOO has a thick texture, rich in flavor, strong smell, and extremely emollient.

I know this because I’ve swallowed it and smeared it on my face. I’m sure you’ve known by now how I play with food. :D

(A nearly empty bottle of EVOO)

First experiment: Removing stubborn makeup on hand!



On hand:
K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting 24 Hour Eyeliner (liquid liner)
Silkygirl Funky Eyelights in Pure Purple (pencil liner) mixed with KATE Line Spicy in PU-2 (purple with green shimmers shade)

K-Palette’s liquid liner is definitely appropriately named (although the ‘1 day’ and ’24 hour’ makes it such a redundant name); it is painstakingly hard to remove. Tattoo it is; I couldn’t give a better description judging by the way it merges with the skin. Scary!

Even EVOO couldn’t easily dissolve the liner, but it did its job well with the eyeshadow and pencil liner. It took quite a lot of rubbing for the liquid liner to finally melt away, causing my hand to become quite red.

It wasn’t that apparent in this photo though.



Conclusion: It has proved itself to be quite good in removing makeup.

Second Experiment: Removing stubborn makeup on the eyes!

This is my eye, sloppily made up. It’s a simple and quite basic eye makeup.




Items used:
Benefit Lemon Aid
-to prime
Clinique Quick Eyes Cream Shadow in Glimmering Gold
-all-over wash
Lavshuca Eye Color Select Palette in BU-1 (light blue shade)
-on the lid
Majolica Majorca Majolook Palette in GR750 (dark blue shade)
-on the outer corner and the lower outer lashline
MAC eyeshadow in Silver Ring
-between the light blue and dark blue
MAC eyeshadow in Nylon
-on the inner corner and lower inner lashline
Majolica Majorca Majolook Palette in GR750 (dusty pink shade)
-on the browbone
Clinique Cream Shaper for Eyes in 101 Black Diamond
-upper and lower outer waterline
Silkygirl Funky Eyelights in Frosty Silver
-inner waterline
KATE gel liner in BR-1
-upper lashline
Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus
-on the lashes

As usual for amateur photographer like yours truly, I couldn’t capture the true color. :D It’s all washed out!

But the point of this post is to show the effectiveness of the oils removing the makeup, so here it is!

Take your facial cotton pad, pour a small amount of oil on your pad and place it on your eyelid, slowly rubbing it out.

And then…TADA! Clean eyes :D



Unfortunately, it didn’t completely remove the shimmers and fallout.

Now, the question is…how does it feel?

I have read somewhere that EVOO is not suitable for the eyes due to the consistency, but then again I also read somewhere that vegetable oils in general won’t irritate your eyes, so here I am to attest to that claim.

The oil easily melted the eyeshadows away, removing the mascara effortlessly (MM mascara is tough to remove as well) but I experienced cloudiness. That makes me uncomfortable, regardless how effective it is as an eye makeup remover.

All in all, it is a good eye makeup remover but the cloudiness is a turnoff.

CONTENDER NUMBER 2: GRAPESEED OIL




I used to swallow grapeseed oil on a daily basis, but lately I’ve been finding myself neglecting the sad bottle away and went about with my life. :D Do not worry my dear bottle; I will drink your juice right now. *swallow* Yay. :D

Grapeseed oil has a runny and thin texture with an unmistakable nutty taste, and definitely lighter than EVOO. Several people like to use it as their eye cream, so perhaps it is more eye-friendly?

First Experiment: Removing Stubborn Makeup on Hand!



On hand:
K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting 24 Hour Eyeliner (liquid liner)
Silkygirl Funky Eyelights in Pure Purple (pencil liner) mixed with KATE Line Spicy in PU-2 (purple with green shimmers)




The eyeshadow and pencil liner was removed without a problem, but the liquid liner was extremely, extremely budgeproof and it took every ounce of my patience to make it go away. I rubbed and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed until my hand was all red; redder than the outcome I experienced when using EVOO.

I was scared, but I applied K-Palette’s liquid liner on my lid anyways, just for experimental purpose. :D




My lashes look terrible. I thought I’ve separated it well before snapping aaah XD

Items used:
Benefit Lemon Aid
-to prime
Clinique Quick Eyes Cream Shadow in Glimmering Gold
-all over wash
Lunasol Sheer Contrast Palette in Lavender Coral (yellowish green shade)
-on the lid
Majolica Majorca Majolook Palette in GR750 (moss green shade)
-on the inner corner
Lunasol Sheer Contrast Palette in Lavender Coral (light purple shade)
-on the outer corner
Silkygirl Funky Eyelights in Pure Purple
-on the outer corner and lower outer lashline
Majolica Majorca Majolook Palette in GR750 (dusty pink shade)
-on the browbone
Silkygirl Funky Eyelights in Frosty Silver
-on the lower inner lashline and lower inner waterline
Clinique Cream Shaper for Eyes in 101 Black Diamond
-on the upper and lower outer waterline
K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Real Lasting 24 Hour Eyeliner
-on the upper lashline
Majolica Majorca Lash Expander Frame Plus
-on the lashes




(Random: My lashes definitely love Shu Uemura’s eyelash curler. I curled it up like…last month? And the curl still held strong till this very day. Someone was messing around with my makeup collection and for demonstration sake, I showed her my method of curling the lashes. Easy and foolproof. Awesome, don’t you think? Beats any craptastic cheap eyelash curler out there for sure.)

It didn’t feel as cloudy as the olive oil, but the thin consistency of the oil makes it harder to melt the stubborn eye makeup away. It took more effort to remove the liners at the lower lashline, and by the end of it, I still couldn’t remove all the silver liner away. Strangely the K-Palette liner didn’t leave any residue; it melted away just like the mascara. Perhaps the oils on my lid contribute to that effect. I do have amazingly oily lids.

All in all, good remover, but took a lot more effort, which isn’t good considering how our eye area supposed to be treated with utmost attention and gentle care.

CONCLUSION:

EVOO
PRO: Melt the eye makeup away easily, but somehow couldn’t remove all the shimmers.
CONS: Cloudiness.
3 out of 5.

GRAPESEED OIL
PRO: Didn’t have any irritation, supposedly good for the eye area.
CONS: The thin consistency makes it hard to dissolve stubborn makeup.
3 out of 5.

As you can see, I’m really on the fence…so this is a tie.

I’ll try other oils next, just for experimental purpose. :D

But if you ask me to choose between the two, I’ll go with Grapeseed oil. At least it didn’t irritate my eyes.

…

Lately I didn’t have any random corner. :D

I suppose being busy makes my brain wary of thinking random things. I need to get ahold of myself.

And thus this post ends here. :D