Another Do It Yourself project! I found the idea and recipe on pinterest and after 3 weeks of using it, I feel confident enough to say I love it and thought I’d share it with you!
As much as I love the easiness and convenience of the packaged makeup remover wipes, the little suckers aren’t cheap. I only treat myself to a pack occasionally…usually on long night road trips for the ease of getting off makeup in the car. Even then, I buy the cheap equate brand (which is great, don’t get me wrong) but I still pay at least $5 for a pretty small amount of wipes in my opinion and feel super guilty when I have to use 5 of them to remove all of my makeup. I personally wear a lot of mascara and I am that girl at the pool with big raccoon eyes after my first dip. I’ve been known to carry a bottle of eye makeup remover TO the pool along with paper towels to wipe away my markings as they appear – ridiculous and so annoying!
We’ve all been told “NEVER wear your makeup to bed- it’s one of the worst things you can do for your skin – let your skin breathe when you sleep...yada-ya”. For the longest time my nightly routine was using a facial cleanser (again, equate brand) in which I applied, let sit for a few minutes, stood and wiped away with a warm washcloth and then proceeded to remove my eye makeup with my GREAT but EXPENSIVE Mary Kay eye makeup remover. The process worked but took more time than this tired mama wanted to take some nights and I’ll admit…..gasp…. there have been many times I go to bed makeup and all. When I saw this simple recipe online for DIY makeup remover wipes, I figured I would give it a try.
What you’ll need: 1 Container with lid. 1/2 Roll Bounty Select-a-size Paper Towels, 2 Cups of Water, 1-2 Squirts of Babywash, 1 Spoonful Pure Coconut Oil. All ingredients found at Walmart (if not in your cabinets!).
The only thing I had to buy was the Coconut Oil, which I paid $5 for at Walmart. That got me 31ounces of Coconut Oil that will last me a long long time, not to mention it has a TON of uses (seriously a ton, research it) and won’t expire for 2 years! Reviews I read online strongly suggested to use specifically the Bounty Select a Size paper towels. Bounty for quality and the Select a Size for the perfect sized wipe – I agree!
Directions:
1) Cut paper towel roll in half with a non-serrated knife and brush off any fuzzy pieces around edges. I will admit, this part kinda sucked. Apparently I don’t own a “non-serrated” knife and cutting the paper towels wasn’t the easiest task with our crappy regular/serrated knife… I simply called Bret into the kitchen and one minute later, wa-la, I had my roll cut in half and was ready to go on. I did have quite a few fuzzy pieces to wipe and pull away but over all, not a big deal.
2) Make Solution. Put 2 cups of warm water into your container, add a tbsp. or two of your coconut oil (becomes liquid state at 76 degrees) then add a squirt or two of your favorite babywash and stir gently.
3) Place your paper towel roll into the container that holds your solution and press down. DON’T PANIC that your paper towel roll is several inches taller than your container, it will fit :) Keep pushing downward, place the lid on tight then turn container upside-down to sit for no less that 5 minutes.
4) After 5 minutes, flip the container over, pop the lid and you’ll easily be able to remove the cardboard roll from the center.
5) Pull your first wipe from the center of the roll and get to wipin’!
I couldn’t wait to try the wipes the night I made them. I was a little leery but figured hey, if they didn’t work, I wasted what…half a roll of paper towels? Let me say, I was super impressed. We all know it doesn’t take much to wipe away powder and foundation but the TRUE test for me was that eye makeup. As you can see in the picture below, it came off, ALL of it with no problemo! There are brand name eye makeup removers that don’t fully remove my mascara (again, why I LOVE Mary Kay, the stuff works) and yet, this little solution does a GREAT job for a super smallll fraction of the price! Sorry to all you Mary Kay reps out there, but I no longer need you OR those pricey pre-made makeup remover wipes! This one batch/container lasted me 3 and a half weeks and I used about 4-5 each day. Those of you who wear less make up (especially eye makeup) could probably get away with using 1-3 wipes each use and stretching your one container even longer. One concern I had was the consistency of the paper towels…. I was afraid after a day or so I’d be left with a container of soggy towels that I would hate to touch, much less use on my face. After 3+ weeks, the wipes were just the way they were on day one!
*This exact same solution can be used as baby wipes as well. I read many people who use them on a daily basis for their babies’ bums and are happy with them. I personally love actual baby wipes and am sticking to them for now :)
*Several DIY-ers mentioned adding essential oils for scented wipes.
*Some people reported mold growth in the bottom of their container after several weeks…. but again you have many people who say they’ve used the wipes for a long period of time and have never had any such issue. I kept a close eye myself and my wipes were totally fine. You can use distilled water (or even pre-boiled water) rather than tap to eliminate chances of mold build up.
*Again, if you’re not too familiar with Coconut Oil, go do some research! I was amazed at what all I read and all the great things it can offer when it comes to cooking, skin care, hair care..etc.!
Stay Tuned! More DIY projects coming your way!
