Taking Your Face Off - Cleansers that are Sure to Remove Your Make Up!

I won't lie, it has been a tough week -- so forgive me, my good natured snark is just not on point right now. This Monday, we lost a dear member of our extended family, my parent's older miniature schnauzer Cookie. She had been a part of our family for many, many years, and although she lived a long, full and happy life the loss of a beloved pet is never easy. Additionally, it is t-minus four days and some odd hours until school starts for me and the serious freak out has set in -- due in large part to some last minute ridiculousness. I have recently been reminded of this thought -- a failure on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine -- or something to that effect. But I think that thought sums up my work stress pretty accurately.

Being a bit stressed means there is nothing more important to my sanity than being able to come home, remove all my make up, pull on my favorite Target lounge clothes (seriously they have the best crap) and curl up on my couch with my Pieper and a good book. I know I must take extra special care of my skin when I'm stressed, otherwise the stress breakout will rear it's ugly head. Making sure I do a thorough and complete job of removing my make up is key to keeping a skincare emergency at bay -- as well as giving me a bit of a pick me up. Because, let's face it, although you look fabulous with make up on, removing it makes you feel like you have somehow freed your face from some sort of pigment prison.

I know I have said this before but I will say it again -- I am a firm believer in the multiple step cleanse. This means I have at least one dedicated cleanser to remove my make up -- right now I am favoring an oil cleanser -- and at least one cleanser to clean my skin once the make up is removed. Think of it this way, if you use make up remover to remove your eye make up and mascara you don't skip washing your eyelids, etc., when you wash the rest of your face do you? My double cleanse is simply a take on this concept. I use one cleanser as a make up remover and a second cleanser to clean my bare face -- removing all impurities left in and on my skin. For today though, I'm going to share my favorite make up remover for the first step in a double cleanse regime.

I am a big fan or Bliss' Fabulous Make Up Melt Gel to Oil Cleanser. Even though I tend towards oily skin, I often feel like my skin is stripped by your typical oily skin or acne products. That is why I like to remove my make up with this gel to oil cleanser. The Bliss Fabulous Make Up Melt goes on like a cleansing gel over dry skin, but, as you work it over your skin it becomes slick and collects all your make up. I can literally see this stuff capturing my foundation and removing it from my skin. It washes off easily, requiring no extra product to remove it from your face and doesn't leave my skin feeling dry or patchy.

The Bliss Fabulous Make Up Melt Gel to Oil Cleanser contains multiple oils -- olive oil, tamanu oil, mirabelle plum seed oil and abyssinicia seed oil to cleanse your skin. It also contains peppermint oil, sage leaf oil, orange oil and lavender oil to refresh and calm your skin. The squeeze bottle doesn't leak, it has a light smell and there is no oily/messy residue! The only downside to this product is that I do tend to use about a quarter sized amount to clean my whole face and at $28 it is a bit pricey -- however it works like a champ. On the up side I did recently score this product at the Sawmill Nordstrom Rack for around $15, so deals can be found!

Using a gel to oil cleanser is not the only way I like to remove my make up at the end of the day, however, you will have to wait for Sunday's post to find out about my other make up removing recommendations! Until then....

Stay Lovely, Columbus!
XOXO - Ann