Few Goths never wear makeup, and in my experience most of us wear something on the regular, be that a metric fucktonne of black eyeliner, dark lipstick, full whiteface, or all of the above and more.
I tend to go for a dark eye or lip and a bit of powder on my naturally pasty mug, and I am also virtually religious about taking it off properly when I’m in for the night and have taken my bra off too. I have tried various different methods of effective Goth makeup removal over the years, some of which worked better than others.
I really dislike washing my face in foaming stuff in the evening because I find it makes my entire hairline damp and gets all down my top (or, I am just that messy) and so I tend to have a proper scrub during my morning shower, and use topical products to take my face back off at night.
With this in mind, I’m going to share some of my successes and failures when it comes to removing heavy Goth makeup, and invite your own comments for what you have found works too-also, check out this thread on Gothic.net where other Goths are discussing the same issue.
Make up remover wipes
I have tried all manner of makeup remover wipes, but frankly, I find that they are invariably just not up to the task of removing eyeliner and mascara without rubbing your face raw. They are usually so small that you need to use half a packet to take off one eye, and also, too dry to really do a lot without scrubbing.
Why is she wiping an already clean face tho?
Baby wipes
Baby wipes, on the other hand, I find more effective, as they are larger, moister, and simply more effective without a lot of scrubbing, but they can still be quite drying.
Micellar water
I’ve been reading/hearing about this micellar water stuff for some time now but gratuitously ignored it as just another cleanser variant, and the latest gimmicky crap designed to part people from their money. Micellar water is apparently made of tiny oil particles suspended in water that acts as a kind of grot magnet to remove makeup, and was A Thing in France long before it came here.
I finally caved last month and bought a bottle of Garnier Micellar water for £3, and was really impressed. It swipes off even heavy makeup in a couple of go overs, and even though I managed to liberally get it in my eye, it neither stung like a bitch nor impaired my vision. I like this, and I wish I’d tried it sooner. Musings of a Muse has reviewed the same micellar water that I used, here.
Make up remover potions
I’m not sure if there’s much difference between any of the buttloads of makeup remover potions on the market, and I’ve tried a few. They all seem to be quite oily and leave a layer on your face even after toner, but they do get the crap off, and usually don’t hurt if you get them in your eye (are you identifying a theme here?) albeit they do make your vision blurry.
Home-made removers
There are masses of different ways to make your own makeup remover out of things you have in the cupboard, and I usually find them to be reasonably effective but not worth the effort of actually having to make them. Some of the most popular ones involve things like coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil and something else, and you can find some of the most popular tried and tested recipes on blogs like this and this.
What do you use to remove your pan stick and black eyeliner? Tell me in the comments.