Say goodbye to face wipes forever.

If you wear makeup you’ll know what a pain it is to have to take it off every night. Maybe, like me, this means you occasionally (read: frequently) don’t bother to remove it, or do a half-hearted job which results in you terrifying your lodger when you emerge from your bedroom the next morning looking like an extra from The Walking Dead.

Let’s face it – anything that makes the process of removing makeup that much quicker and easier is a good thing, right? That’s why so many of us resort to disposable wipes to slick that foundation away. Simple!

But there’s a lot the companies selling these products don’t tell us:

• Most wipes contain preservatives, fragrances and other nasty chemicals which can irritate skin, worsen eczema and acne, and cause allergic reactions.
• They are very difficult to recycle and are generally not biodegradable as they contain synthetic and/or plastic fibres.
• As a result, disposable wipes are one of the biggest causes of sewer and pipe blockages (as well as an inconvenience, this is a huge drain on resources and inevitably comes out of taxes or results in price hikes).
• Even if they do make it through the sewage system they end up in the sea where they pollute the water and maim or kill animals (turtles, for example, mistake them for jellyfish and die when they eat them).
• They wash up on beaches and pollute the coastline (a 2015 UK coastal sweep recovered an average of 35 wipes for every kilometre of beach).
• Wipes claiming to be ‘antibacterial’ vary hugely in effectiveness and in some cases they have actually contributed to the transfer of superbugs from one person to another.

Scary, right? We trusted you, wet wipes!

And by the way, in case you’re wondering, disposable cotton balls, squares or pads aren’t great either. Cotton is known as the world’s ‘dirtiest’ crop because it requires massive and widespread use of insecticides – one of the most common of which being Aldicarb, which is so toxic that even a single drop absorbed into the skin can be fatal to humans and animals alike.

So what is the solution?

Enter….REUSABLE COTTON ROUNDS!

Seriously, they are an absolute game-changer. They are essentially double-sided circles of soft fabric that are machine-washable and can be used over and over again to remove makeup and cleanse skin.

Does it take longer/is it harder to remove makeup?

Actually, the ones I use have a bigger surface area and are super soft so it’s quicker and feels really gentle, even on eyes.

Aren’t they unhygienic?

Nope, you just throw them in the wash with the rest of your laundry and they’ll come out good as new. I mean – you don’t throw your underwear away after you’ve worn it do you?

Will using them make me an amazing person?

Yes, feel free to be as smug as possible about how ethical and environmentally-conscious you are.

Wait – don’t they look like nipple pads?

Yes they do. You can use them for that if you like. If you have really, really big nipples.

Where can I get them?

I  purchased mine online (search Amazon, Ebay or independent sites) but if you are the creative type you could easily make your own from scrap material or bulk fabric. Ideally you want to go for organic cotton, either way.

So what do you think? Will you make the switch?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below, get in touch on Instagram and Twitter, or contact me directly  here. You can also find more about me here!

You might also like:
Why I’ll never buy face cream again.
My Minimalist Challenge: 7 Days, 50 Items
Five productive ways to spend 10 minutes

Further reading/sources:

https://www.greenpeople.co.uk/beauty-hub/blog/cleansing-wipes-why-we-should-avoid-them

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3003415/How-wet-wipes-destroying-planet-clogging-sewers-creating-floods-noxious-waste-triggering-outbreaks-allergies.html

https://www.mcsuk.org/forms/wetwipes_faqs

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/26/disposable-wipes-sewer-toilet-cities-flushable

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31969689

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/jun/09/wet-wipes-fatbergs-sewers-spreading-superbugs-hospitals

http://ejfoundation.org/sites/default/files/public/the_deadly_chemicals_in_cotton.pdf