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What are some natural options to remove your makeup?
I recommend washing your face with honey, but many people are saying that it isn’t strong enough to remove makeup on its own – yet they don’t want to use commercial makeup removers or harsh cleansers. So what should you do?
Watch the video and find out!
Blog author Tracy Raftl used to have severe acne — now she teaches thousands of women how to take back control of their skin through natural, holistic, and mind-body methods.
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14 Responses
Hi Tracy!
Do you know anything about using essential oils on the face? I bought a few the other day from whole foods (lavender, eucalyptus, and tea tree) and have been experimenting with them based on some research I’ve done online. I have been diluting them in warm water and pressing them to my face with a clean washcloth and it makes my face feel awesome afterwards! However, despite how awesome it feels, I haven’t seen much of a change in my acne, in fact, I think I’m going through one of those crisis periods you were talking about…
I was just wondering what your take is on this and whether it is good for such sensitive skin.
Thank you and you’re awesome!
Hi there! I wish I could say I knew more about essential oils… it’s something I have not yet gotten around to playing with or researching … although I hear they are great! How long have you been using them? I am not a strong believer in external skin care being able to heal acne… it has the ability to help or hinder, but most times acne comes from within and we shouldn’t expect anything we put on our faces to necessarily win the battle. Anyway! Let me know how it goes though! Sorry I don’t know more about them
For anyone who has oily skin and needs something natural yet effective at removing the debris that tends to accumulate in oily skins… I use fresh squeezed pineapple juice mixed with honey. When cleansing, the mixture works great for removing excess oil without stripping your skin. I buy frozen pineapple and thaw it out in the fridge for daily use. Pineapple and papaya both have enzymes that are excellent for exfoliation. An added bonus of mixing the pineapple juice and the honey–I had to go away for the weekend once, and I found that the honey seemed to preserve the pineapple juice quite well (I had pre-mixed them in a small bottle).
Oh cool… great tip! Thank you Hope!
Hi Tracy!
A while back I responded to this post of yours about skin care, asking what your thoughts were on essential oils. Though you told me that you were more interested in focusing on what goes in your body, as opposed to on it, I have been doing some experimenting with cleansing my face with oils. I thought I’d share what I found to be helpful.
At first, I tried diluting essential oils in warm water (they are very strong and thus cannot be applied directly to the face without a carrier), soaking the mixture in a washcloth, then applying to the affected parts of my face. This was okay, but it seemed to dry out my face quite a lot, without the benefit of improved results. After a few tries at this, I gave it up and went back to my honey regimen. I then found the site theoilcleansingmethod.com and tried out their recommended regimen. I found their method to be somewhat harsh on my face, as it required a large amount of very hot water, so I quit that very soon after my first attempt.
Once I got the chance to try the regimen again, after letting my face recover, I decided to do what my instincts told me to. I repeated the recipe: one part castor oil, three parts jojoba oil, a few drops of ylang ylang, geranium, and tea tree essential oils. I massaged my face very gently, but deeply at the same time, but this time, instead of using a very hot, wet washcloth, I used a warm one, to remove the excess oils. I left quite a bit of the oils on, and woke up with a beautiful complexion!
While I completely agree with your mission to control what is going into your body (and I practice it too!), I find that my skin needs a little extra oomph. I just wanted to share this information with you, or with anyone else who is interested in a very effective and gentle way to cleanse their skin.
Thank you for all of your wonderful help, inspiration, and energy!
Thanks for letting me know your experiences! I wasn’t really saying that external skin care is pointless.. for some people it will help the skin, but I just think that if you have a serious acne problem, no amount of external skin care will really fix that. Also, I’m just lazy about it too hahaha. If you’re someone who enjoys it, then by all means! Lots of people really like the oil cleansing method, so I’m glad to hear that it’s working for you! 🙂
just my two cents – extra virgin olive oil is by far the best makeup remover I’ve ever come across. you don’t need much for your whole face unless you do wear a lot of makeup (ie foundation, eyeshadow/mascara, etc) and you can take it with you wherever you go without having to transport this conspicuous jar or bottle of conventional cleanser. back when I wore lots of black eyeliner I used to just wash my whole face with a regular cleanser, and invariably I was left with leftover marks from where my makeup was just because my cleanser was so useless for makeup removal. when I started experimenting with evoo, I could remove literally /all/ of my eyeliner, and with a lot more ease. I keep my evoo in an old sample bottle I have leftover from another product; it’s tiny and the oil lasts a couple of weeks and I just refill with the big bottle it came in when I run out in the shower. and while organic is always better, since I’m on a budget I just use generic store brand evoo and it still works way better than anything else I’ve ever used. it doesn’t cause breakouts and I love the simplicity – you can skip a post-wash moisturizer and you don’t need an array of healthy (and sometimes not exactly cheap) oils to achieve similar results. and it’s worth mentioning that evoo does little in the way of clearing my skin; at most it heals up some sores and keeps my future breakouts from being as bad as they could be. of course everybody’s different but there’s my experience for anybody who might benefit from reading about it. >_< thanks for your site, Tracy! I'm a long-time follower of Fran and it's nice to see that while a lot of the info you two provide is similar you still have quite a bit of your own unique and useful information ;D
Thanks for the suggestions, Danielle! 🙂
Hey Danielle!
How exactly do u use evoo to take ur makeup off? Do u rinse ur face with water first or do u just go right in with a bit of evoo on ur finger ur tips and massage it in? I have been using jojoba oil which works great with eye makeup but i am not sure about foundation. How does evoo work with foundation?
Also, coconut oil removes makeup fabulously as well. That’s what I use. It smells delicious and doesn’t sting the eyes if you happen to get some in there..which I do all the time. It’s great as facial moisturizer as well so any excess I can just rub in.
Hey Tracy! I like to take off all my make up as soon as I get home, so I’ve been doing that with jojoba oil, the problem is that i don’t wash my face right after I do that because i already wash it in the morning with just water and at night with an organic cleanser, so I don’t wanna over wash it. Is is ok to just remove the make up with some oil and a cotton pad, or do I necessarily have to wash it off after? Thank you!
Hi Stephanie,
Why don’t you just wash your face at the same time you take your makeup off, after you get home? I don’t know if taking it off with just oil is a good idea, because if you’re using lots of oil to do so, you don’t want a thick layer of it to sit on your skin, because it kind of suffocates your skin. If you’re not using much then it’s probably fine, but (personally) I don’t see a point in waiting till late to wash your face if you are taking your makeup off earlier.
Yeah, I know it would be better to do that, but I usually go running at night, like 2 hours before I go to bed and that’s when I wash my face to clean the sweat and all that, and I usually get home around 3 pm and that’s when I remove my make up. I don’t use too much jojoba oil though, just the necessary amount.
I would say just splash your face with cool water while it’s still sweaty and leave it at that. But that’s just me!