How to Choose an Eye Make-Up Remover

Mascara is the most stubborn make-up to remove, yet is closest to the most sensitive part of the face. This makes choosing an eye make-up remover a tricky one - how to get something that thoroughly removes stubborn make up without aggravating your eyes? It's also essential that it's easy to do, so you've no excuses before bed. The most important thing to consider is whether you want to choose an oil or water based remover. 

Oil-based 

Oil based cleansers are the most effective at truly removing mascara. You're far less likely to wake up with a moon of mascara underneath your eyes if you removed it the night before with oil based remover. The negative is that they are messier: getting the oil-based remover completely off can be difficult, they have a tendency to slide around the skin if you try and rinse them off with water/wipe off with cotton wool. 

Water-based

These are definitely less messy than the oil removers: it's easy to apply with cotton wool, hold to the eye, and then wipe off. I find these effective for eye-shadows but not capable of fully removing mascara. 

What do I choose?

Oil-based is the only way for me, as I hate waking up with mascara round my eyes or applying mascara to lashes with a crust of yesterday's mascara. I go for basic products that are gentle, rather than expensive products with added extras. 

It took me a while to be converted to oil-based cleansers, as I found them messy and difficult to remove, but I now have my routine sorted. I put boots simply sensitive eye make-up remover (typically retails for just £1.50) onto my finger tips, stroke onto the eyelids to loosen the make-up and then rinse off with water. At this stage, my face will typically have a greyish film of mascara-y cleanser over my cheeks that is difficult to rinse off with water alone. The final step is cleansing my entire face with my usual foaming cleanser, which removes all the remnants of the oil.

I keep a bottle of a water based eye make up remover (l'oreal gentle eye make up remover for £2.99 works for me) for those times when I've made a make-up mistake or need to refresh make up during the day. 

Post-keratin Shampoo Update: :Low Priced Keratin Shampoo Found!

Previously, I've blogged about my hunt for a suitable shampoo to use after my keratin treatment. The keratin treatment cost me a lot of money, so I was very chuffed when I found a reasonably priced shampoo that marketed itself as being suitable for use after a salon keratin treatment. 

The shampoo in question is TRESemme's keratin smooth and it was on sale at my local boots for £4.99 for a 500ml bottle. It claims to be a professional quality shampoo (as do a lot of shampoos!) with low sulphates and infused with keratin. 

The Ingredients

Looking through the ingredients list, the second and third highest ingredients were ammonium laureth sulfate and ammonium lauryl sulfate. These are obviously sulphates, which leaves a little bit confused as to how it is a low sulphate shampoo. I've contacted TRESemme to clarify this. However, as the special shampoo my salon gave me also contained sulphates, this is not necessarily a worry. 

The salon my shampoo gave me contained no sodium chloride, the other post-keratin no-no. This shampoo also contains no sodium chloride. Interestingly, the superdrug website write-up on this product only mentions it's sodium chloride free nature, and says nothing about low sulphates. Unhelpfully, the TRESemme website gave no information about the ingredients!

The Verdict

I will try this, as it doesn't contain sodium chloride but does contain sulphates, just like the shampoo I've been using that my salon gave me. However, I am mystified as to how it can be labelled as 'low sulphate 'and await TRESemme's response......

Mission to find an effective lip balm (Part 2) : Hunt for a lip balm that actually moisturisers

I went to Boots today to seek out a lip balm that contains humectants; ingredients that moisturise the lips by drawing moisture into the outer layers of the skin. Previously, I'd discovered that the classic lip balms I've been using do not include ingredients that add moisture, they only contain ingredients that act as a barrier to stop existing moisture evaporating.

A shop assistant saw me studying the lip balms for an age, and suggested that I try the creams in the medicine aisle, alongside the cold sore remedies. I found two products here that looked altogether more serious (and less pretty) than the other lip balms. They both claimed they were suitable for cracked lips as well as cold sores.

1. Blistex Relief Cream

Active Ingredients: Aromatic Ammonia Solution 6.04%, Ammonia Solution 0.10%, Liquified Phenol 0.494%

Other Ingredients: White Paraffin, Modified Lanolin, Sorbitan Palmitate, Polysorbate 40, Peppermint, Sodium Saccharin, Ethanol, Camphor, Cineoli, Purified Water

Ammonia and phenol are antiseptic and mild anaesthetic so may help cracked lips feel better, but they won't help moisturise them. White paraffin and lanolin are both occlusives, helping create a barrier to prevent moisture loss. The remaining ingredients are emulsifiers, fragrances and alcohols, but not humectants.

Conclusion: this cream may soothe sore lips more than typical lip balms, but it doesn't seem to contain any moisturising ingredients over and above the barrier-creating occlusives found in typical lip balms. The search must go on!

2.Boots Lip and Cold Sore Relief Cream

Active Ingredients: Cetrimide 0.5%, Chlorocresol 0.1%, Dimethicone 9%, Urea 1%

Other Ingredients: Deonised Water, Liquid Paraffin, Cetostearyl Alcohol

This cream is more promising. It contains urea, which as well as being a humectant, also helps break down the bond in the outer layer of skin, quickening the shedding of flaking skin. Don't panic! Urea is contained in urine, but this will not be the source of the urea in cosmetics! According to wikipedia it is also a flavour enhancer in cigarettes! It's not clear what concentration of urea is required to be effective though, and this cream only contains 1%. Dimethicone and paraffin are both occlusives so should help to lock in the extra moisture provided by the urea. Chlorocresol is an antiseptic but can trigger an allergic reaction in some people.

Conclusion: This is the first lip balm I've found that contains a humectant as well as occlusives. I'll be buying this one and surreptitiously applying it from the tube that screams the word 'cold sores'!