How important is removing makeup?
- Melanie
- Apr 16, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 30, 2019
We have all been there. You've just got home, it's late, you just want to jump straight into bed. The last thing you want to do is spend an extra few minutes cleaning your face. I'm sure leaving it to the morning will be fine, but is it?
Many women overlook the importance of makeup removal in their beauty regimen.
But what can really happen just from sleeping with your makeup on?
1. Breakouts.
If you don't cleanse your face, dirt and dead skin cells are not removed. They stay on the skin, clogging pores and leading to chronic inflammation in the form of pimples.
2. Dull complexion.
Dewy, glowing, soft, and smooth skin is usually a desired trait. Dull, sallow, or parched skin is not. If you use a makeup product, like a highlighter, to impart some peachy pink glow, that's great. But sleeping in it can cause the opposite effect. "Our skin is the largest organ of our body and it performs vital functions for our body, like secreting sweat, excreting lipids, healing wounds and heat regulation," New York-licensed esthetician and makeup artist Liz Donat tells The List.
3. Ageing skin and wrinkles
"Dirt and makeup trapped against your skin cause environmentally-induced oxidative damage. This leads to a breakdown of the skin barrier and prematurely ages your face. Sleeping in your makeup can increase your exposure to free radicals," explained Dr. James C. Marotta to Good Housekeeping, "leading to collagen breakdown and skin that ages faster".
4. If you have acne, you might make it worse.
While cleansing is an important step in anyone's beauty regimen, it's especially key for those who have temperamental skin. For those with oily skin, like acne patients, sleeping in makeup could worsen their skin conditions.
5. You could put yourself at risk for an infection.
While the act of sleeping in your makeup may not cause an infection, if you already have an active skin abrasion, such as an inflamed acne pimple, it's possible that an infection can occur because your skin barrier is compromised. Don't forget our skin is our first line of defense against infections.
6. You may develop a rash.
Makeup often contains irritants like dyes and perfumes that, when left on the skin for long periods of time, can cause inflammation. Those with rosacea or sensitive skin can be especially susceptible.
The dark side of makeup remover
So we have established that taking off your makeup everyday is important, but will any remover or technique do? We will be looking at what is actually inside these removers and the its impact on the environment.
1. What goes inside makeup remover?
There are toxic ingredients inside many beauty products, including your makeup remover. Daily use of these removers can be a serious concern for your health in the long run. Make up removers typically rely on several active ingredients to get the job done. They use
surfactants, which dissolve your makeup,
solubiliers, and emilsifiers that lift the makeup, oil and any dead skin.
While these actually help remove the makeup, they may expose you to unnecessary health risks and damage your skin. You see, while most ingredients are considered safe in small doses, all the makeup you use every single day of your life adds up. In fact, women put on over 500 chemicals on their bodies each day. The beauty industry is also heavily unregulated which raises more concerns.
Since makeup wipes don’t require you to rinse with water, wipes may leave behind highly concentrated residues that are full of chemicals described above. High concentrations of surfactants, emulsifiers, and solubilizers can be drying and irritating, particularly in those who have sensitive or dry skin. But non-wipe removers are no angels either. Thorough rinsing is required to get everything off your skin, even then, some can be left behind. The problem is, thoroughly and frequently washing your face with water is not great for your skin either.
The other problem with those store-bought products is that the nature of the packaging means that preservatives have to be added to increase shelf-life. These preservatives can be extremely irritating to even the toughest of skin. Some of these preservatives contain chemicals that release formaldehyde. In high concentrations, formaldehyde is considered a carcinogen. While you are not likely to be exposed to high amounts of this chemical, low-level, long-term exposure effects are unknown. So your best bet is to avoid it.
2. Impact on the environment
Impact of using single use cotton pads
Most of us use some sort of fabric to apply make up remover to our face. This often comes in the form of one use cotton pads and then thrown into the bin straight after.
However, the farming of cotton makes a huge impact on the environment, especially when it’s not organically sourced. It’s estimated that 25% of the world's insecticides and 10% of the world's pesticides are used to grow conventional cotton. This explains why cotton is often labeled a ‘dirty crop.’ These chemicals can cause health complications for cotton farmers. The World Health Organisation estimated that 20,000 of deaths a year are caused by pesticide poisoning in developing countries. In addition to these farmer deaths, conventional cotton can also have serious health implications for humans and animals who have no direct contact with crops. Chemicals can pollute rivers, damage local wildlife and severely impact our ecosystems. Pesticides residue drains off crops and runs into rivers. This goes on to pollute lakes, rivers, and wetlands. Local developments and animals who depend on these water sources can suffer the effects of pesticide poisoning.The chemicals seep into the water system poisoning the waterways for fish and other water-dwelling creatures. But it’s not only these living beings who suffer. Pesticides used on conventional cotton also impacts organisms in the soil, and migratory species such as insects, birds, and mammals.
In addition to being harmful to both people and wildlife, conventional cotton is extremely wasteful. Especially with the excessive use of water required to produce conventional cotton. It takes 7,000 to 29,000 litres of water for each kilogram of cotton produced. This water of course, has to come from somewhere and production can suck dry surrounding areas, which can cause a loss in natural habitats for plants, birds, animals and fish. A shocking example of this water wastage is the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. What used to be the world’s 4th largest lake has now dramatically decreased over the years. Leading to the extinction of 20 specifies of fish.
Organic cotton is a safer, and more sustainable material than conventional cotton. Organically farmed cotton uses different methods than conventional cotton. It’s farmed with fewer pesticides, which helps maintain the fertility of the soil, and doesn’t poison or deplete water supplies. In fact, it uses less water and builds biologically diverse agriculture and improves soil quality.
Using resuable cotton pads made from organic cotton is one way you can reduce this impact. [link]
Impact of throwing away single use wet wipes
It’s estimated that the wet-wipe market will be worth over $20bn by 2021 – so that’s billions of predominately plastic (thanks to the inclusion of non-biodegradable polyester) wipes being thrown into landfill, and worse, flushed down our toilets. "Wet wipe use is increasing by around 15% every year"
Unlike loo roll, the majority of face wipes don’t disintegrate in the sewage system; they are a huge contributing factor in blockages that cost water companies around £88 million a year (in the UK alone) to rectify. If they do make it through the system, they can end up in our seas and consumed by sea life – having a negative impact on the environment that’s similar to the microbeads that have been recently banned. It’s said they can linger for up to 500 years in the ecosystem, so they’re unfortunately just as bad as throwing out a plastic bottle.
In September 2017 a rock hard ‘fatberg’ longer than Tower Bridge, weighing 130 tons and made up mainly of face wipes, was found underneath the streets of London and had to be removed in order for the sewage system to work effectively. Dr Laura Foster, head of pollution at the Marine Conservation Society, also recently (and rather shockingly) said: “In the past decade we’ve seen a 700% rise in wipes washed up on beaches.” These convenient solutions may seem like a great idea at the time, but the long-term impact they can have is really rather worrying. So what can you do to help reduce the damage?
The latest beach survey results from the Marine Conservation Society revealed nearly 4,000 wet wipes were collected by volunteers during the Great British Beach Clean - a 30% rise on the previous year and a 400% rise in a decade. With an average of 80 wipes found for every mile of beach, this a serious ecological problem that is only getting worse. The reason wet wipes are littering our coast line is due to people flushing them down the toilet rather than throwing used wipes in the bin.
Even when put into the bin, wet wipes still pose an environmental problem. Wet wipes such as baby wipes, cleansing wipes and self-tan wipes cannot be recycled or composted and as such sit in landfill sites for a very long time without biodegrading. Experts warn that a single wet wipe could take 100 years to biodegrade as they contain polyesters which are virtually indestructible.
Impact of packaging
We've written about this extensively here:
Tips for Using & Buying Makeup Remover
Faced with the predicament of both needing makeup remover but not being able to trust most of the make up removers out there, what can you do? Here are some tips for buying make up remover
Replace disposable cotton pads resuable organic cotton pads [kado photo]
Try to avoid wet wipes as much as possible or switch to bio gradable wet wipes.
Buy make up remover from ethical brands such as XXX with ingredients you can understand. As a general rule, don’t put anything on your skin, that you wouldn’t put in your mouth. Look for packaging which is 100% recyclable and even better made from recycled material.
Most of your beauty regime can be replaced with natural alternatives, including your makeup remover. To remove some of these chemicals, most people use more chemicals. So wouldn’t it make sense to start using something that is natural and won’t contribute to the cycle that ultimately destroys our beautiful skin? There are products already inside your kitchen that can do just that. Coconut oil, for example, can break down water-resistant substances that are present in mascara and eye shadow and release them from your skin and lashes. Aside from being able to remove makeup, some of these natural oils will leave your skin leaving and looking fresh.I’ve written a blog here listing various DIY make up removers you can try to make at home.
Do you remover your makeup properly before going to bed?
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