Remember how your mother (or grandmother) taught you to wash your face every night by telling you horror stories about what would happen if you slept in your makeup – like how your eyes would be swollen shut the next morning due to some terrifying affliction nobody’s ever heard of, or that you’d develop giant blackheads that would get infected just in time for the big homecoming dance? Yeah, I never got that.

Here’s how I learned to take care of my face – my mom told me how she had acne as a teenager; how awful it was; how she was dragged (kicking and screaming apparently) off to see diabolical dermatologists where she received painful treatments she loathed. She told me she hoped I would avoid this fate and the plague of acne, but Mom never role modeled good skin hygiene. I never observed her washing her face every night. I’ve never caught my mom wearing a sheet mask; never known her to splurge for a facial.

I had to figure out the whole skincare thing for myself. It’s like my mother had enough of it as a kid and wanted no part of all that washing and scrubbing, cleaning and clarifying jazz. I’ve always nagged my mother to “at least take off your makeup before bed.” Sometime she would; usually she wouldn’t. We agreed to disagree. My husband is a similar battle. Having also struggled with acne in his teens and endured his own unpleasant interaction with the dermatologic profession, he has no interest in going through a bunch of facial cleansing rituals every night. Each time I rev up to preach to him the importance of washing his face at night, he simply rolls his eyes and walks into another room. Even my baby girl ducks and dodges when I go in to wash her little cheeks and nose. It seems I’m the only one in the house who actually enjoys a good face wash.

Another struggle – just about everyone in our household has sensitive skin. My mother has extremely sensitive eyes. My husband and daughter have very reactive skin. So finding a facial cleansing product that won’t irritate has not been easy. I found these highly rated cloths while searching for a potential solution at Paula’s Choice / Beautypedia.com. I almost always agree with reviews of the Beautypedia team, and I highly recommend this website as a resource for anyone looking to save money and make wiser beauty purchases. Seriously, check it out! You’ll be amazed what you can learn about the cosmetics industry and the products you already use or have considered purchasing.

Anyway, after checking a couple of drugstores, we located these cloths at a local Wal-Mart and immediately purchased. I was surprised when I opened the packaged because these cloths (unlike the majority of ready-to-use wet cleansing wipes) must be dampened with water to activate. Not a huge deal but it does add an extra step to the process. And it means these are not the wipes you’d keep on your bedside table for a quick swipe before bed, at least not if you expect any results. It is also worth noting that you do have to rinse off the suds that these cloths produce. Again, not a major deal, but it means you’ll need to use these cloths in the bathroom or at least near a sink and/or with a damp wash cloth handy. And that again adds another step to the process which kind of defeats my purpose (e.g. to make face washing as easy as possible for people who openly hate the whole process).

I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the cloths. They’re very large, too large in fact to use on my daughter’s tiny baby face. So I cut them into quarters which is easy to do since they come (conveniently) folded that way. Honestly, even my mother and husband can get away with using half a cloth. My mother reported easily removing all her makeup with halved cloths (she uses no eye liner or mascara) and reported no eye burning or sensitivity. Hubs likewise had no complaints or reactions and reported the (halved) size was satisfactory. My daughter never cried or exhibited any problems when we washed her face with the cloths. I always follow up by wiping her face with coconut oil (as I discussed here) which helps keep her skin calm.

I found that I only needed half a cloth to remove almost all of my makeup (more on that shortly). And used in this way (i.e. cutting the cloths into halves or quarters), you really get a ton of product for less than $7, which is a great bargain! My one complaint is that it takes a fair bit of scrubbing to remove waterproof eye makeup with these cloths. If you’ve read my eyeliner post (BTW if you haven’t read it yet, you really SHOULD! Check it out here), you already know I’m a huge fan of waterproof eyeliner. In fact, I really only use waterproof eyeliner because I find the regular kind just smudges and runs all over the place. Not only does that annoy me to no end, it wastes my time. And I’d much rather spend my time with my daughter or on more enjoyable activities than fixing messy makeup! I digress, having to scrub too hard around the eyes is NOT good for several reasons. Reason #1 it risks damaging the sensitive eye tissue which has less oil glands and is more vulnerable to stretching and wrinkling than other skin on the face. Check out this article to learn more. Reason #2 is that scrubbing and tugging the delicate eye area can cause loss of eyelashes and eyebrow hairs. This hair loss happens naturally as we age. So the thinner your lashes and brows, the older you appear – not good! Basically this means, if I use these cloths, I have to add a step – eye makeup remover first, then cleansing cloths. Since I purchased this product for others and not myself (I already have a cleansing routine I’m very happy with), this is only a minor strike against the product. I’m deducting 1 star. It may be a fatal flaw for you, especially if you’re seeking a 1-step product to remove your own really stubborn makeup.

Summary: These cloths work well for sensitive, reactive skin and are gentle enough to use on baby skin. They are reasonably priced given the amount of product. However, in order to “stretch” the product, you’ll need to invest a few minutes cutting the cloths into halves or quarters (no biggie). These cloths are not wet upon arrival and each cloth must be damped before usage. You will also need to rinse your face after using the cloth, so this is not a one-step face cleansing product. Finally, while the cloths remove most makeup quickly and effectively; waterproof eye makeup is a challenge and requires more effort than you may want to invest when other products remove it more efficiently.

Price: $6.96 (33 large cloths)

Daily Beauty Wisdom Rating: **** 4/5 pearls of wisdom

Wisdom for the Day:
She considers a field before she buys or accepts it [expanding her business prudently]; With her profits she plants fruitful vines in her vineyard. ~Proverbs 31:16 (AMPLIFIED)
Read more here.

Resource of the Day:
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, you really need to check out Paula’s Choice / Beautypedia. It’s a fantastic resource full of 1000’s of unbiased product reviews, general info articles and the phenomenal cosmetics ingredient dictionary.