Today’s project is a simple one that I’ve been meaning to whip up for ages—a good makeup remover. It’s wonderfully easy with just three ingredients, one of which is very flexible and another is optional. It’s also wonderfully effective—I tested it with some seriously stubborn mascara and eyeliner from Benefit, so I can attest that this stuff works. I also designed it to be highly concentrated, making it great for travel. It’s awesome, it’s easy, it’s effective, and you should whip up a batch!
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
Ingredient number one: fractionated coconut oil. I chose that ’cause it’s cheap and light, so feel free to choose something else that’s cheap and light if you don’t have FCO. Sweet almond, grapeseed, or sunflower seed oil are all good choices.
Ingredient number 2 is what makes this a really lovely, effective cleanser: Olivem 300 (INCI: Olive oil PEG-7 esters). Olivem 300 is a lovely ester made from oleic acid. It’s water soluble, so it means this makeup remover plays well with water. When mixed with water on a damp cotton pad we end up with an effective makeup remover that dissolves your eye makeup and then comes off beautifully without leaving behind any oily residue. You definitely can remove eye makeup with just a couple drops of carrier oil on a damp cotton pad, but it’s not nearly as nice of an experience as it doesn’t work quite as well, and definitely doesn’t wipe off as well.
If you’re looking for an Olivem 300 alternative, Polysorbate 80 is your best alternative, or another water soluble ester (Cromollient SCE or Caprylyl/capryl glucoside should also work, though I haven’t had a chance to work with them myself!). Olivem 1000 is a completely different product—it’s solid! So that’s a no-go here. Please don’t use Turkey red oil, either—that’s castor oil reacted with sulfuric acid! You don’t want that anywhere near your eyes as it can be seriously irritating at high concentrations, and while this isn’t a particularly high concentration, your eyes are pretty sensitive.
Last but not least, a touch of vitamin E to retard rancidity. This isn’t essential as fractionated coconut oil and Olivem 300 are both very shelf stable, and this batch is pretty tiny, so the chances you’d have it sitting around for over a year are pretty low.
And that’s it! Just measure and stir, and you’re done. Resist the temptation to add any fragrance as this is going around the eyes 🙂 Enjoy!
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
Gentle Eye Makeup Remover
3g | 0.1oz Olivem 300 (USA / Canada)
12g | 0.42oz fractionated coconut oil (or other inexpensive, light oil like sweet almond, grapeseed, or sunflower seed)
1 drop Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) (optional)Weigh everything into a small beaker and stir to combine. Transfer to a 15mL/half ounce glass bottle with a dropper top. That’s it!
To use, wet a cotton pad with a small amount of water, and scatter ~5 drops of the makeup remover over top. Hold the damp pad to your eye for about 20 seconds to help soak off the makeup before gently wiping it away. For heavy or particularly resilient makeup, you may need to repeat this process with a second pad.
If you want to scale this recipe it’s pretty simple. It’s roughly 20% olivem300, 80% fractionated coconut oil (the touch of vitamin E throws that off a bit—technically you’re shooting for 79.5% FCO, 0.5% vitamin E oil). You can also think of this as 1 gram Olivem 300: 4 grams FCO. Remember that these usage rates go down at the time of use because the product is mixed with water.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this makeup remover does not contain any water, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Be sure to keep it dry to ensure it lasts as long as possible—don’t let any water get into the bottle and it should easily last a year.
Niiiice! Love this recipe! Thanks Marie!!
You’re welcome! Enjoy 🙂
I cannot fing olivem 300, could you please advice where in the UK? Thank you, hun
Heck yes! This is awesome!! Thanks, Marie!!!
Woo! Happy makeup removing 😀
LOL, the first time I tried to take off my Benefit mascara, which I love, I was yelling get off of me! I finally used baby oil. This recipe will be so much better for my eyes. Thank you so much.
Hahahaha, I know that feeling SO well! I’d almost stopped wearing it because I couldn’t get it off until now haha.
Good to know! I’ve been making an eye makeup remover for quite sometime now… FCO, witch hazel, and argan oil, with chamomile and lavender essential oils. Not only does it remove makeup well, but adds moisturizing and antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal properties, too! I have not used Olivem yet. Will have to check it out! Thanks, Marie!
I’m hoping you just forgot to mention your preservative as I’d hate for you to get an eye infection! You’d also likely notice a performance boost if you added an emulsifier as that’ll really boost the cleansing power of your makeup remover 🙂 I love the EO blend!
I love love LOVE the simplicity of this! I am so grateful to have you as the brains behind my diy ventures Marie
Thanks, Ginette! 😀 Happy making!
Let’s see what the Material Safety Data Sheet for polysorbate 80 has to say:
• Slightly flammable to flammable in presence of heat
• Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation.
• May cause adverse reproductive effects based on animal test data. No human data found.
• May cause cancer based on animal test data. No human data found.
• May affect genetic material (mutagenic)
So in other words… use the Olivem, seems much safer than polysorbate of any number. I’ve never even heard of Olivem, is there an alternative to this ingredient that you know of?
I mention four options in the post; are none of those ok?
Let’s see what the MSDS for lavender essential oil has to say:
And here’s a study where it was found to be cytotixic.
MSDS sheets are a great place to start research, but remember that they talk about dealing with a substance in its pure form, not at safe usage rates in final products. The scary stuff in there contains no information about concentration and readily admits there is no human evidence. With those parameters I could write up a pretty scary MSDS about water—it does, after all, kill a lot of people, and if I don’t have to mention how much it takes to do so, it’ll sound pretty scary. I’ve provided several alternatives so you certainly don’t have to use Polysorbate 80, but just remember that MSDS sheets are really just a starting point for research 🙂 Cosmetics Info is a great resource that discusses the science, regulatory information, and usage guidelines and considerations!
RIGHT ON, MARIE! Amen.., can i get a witness? Yah!
Okay, that’s all i had to say.
Thank you, Marie!.. just for being so ferkin’ rad!
much love, suki
Thanks, Suki! 😀
OMG, thank you so much for this recipe!!! I have all the ingredients at home, I will make it this week.
Woo! Enjoy 🙂
Thanks Marie! Would this be effective as a face cleanser as well? I like a product that does both at the same time. Perhaps I could massage it onto a wet face and then rinse off?
-Colleen
Yeah! This is basically just unscented cleansing oil, so you could also leave the fragrance out of a cleansing oil recipe 🙂
Absolutely loved this recipe!!! I was wondering if I could use a similar mixture of olivem 300 and a carrier oil as an in-shower moisturising oil? Thank you!!!
Like this? 😉
I have just made this, & it is brilliant. Does not leave a film over your eyes, like other makeup removers.
Yay! I’m so glad 😀
This is my one and only eye makeup remover. It workson my waterproof mascaras too which is awesome. I do feel a bit of stinging in my eye after I use it but not sure why… prior to this I used oil only… normally grapeseed or almond or whatever oil happened to be sitting in my night stand at the time) but there’s no eye stinging/burning afterwards. I wonder if olivem 300 would cause the stinging… I might try using it alone next time to see what happens. Either way I this recipe won me over simply because it works and because it won’t leave my eyelids heavy and my vision blurry for ages after I use it (like waterproof mascara removers do.)
I would bet it is the Olivem300 as it’s the only not-pure-oil thing in here, and I could see that its ability to emulsify with the water in your eyes could mean it’s more likely to work its way around your eyes and sting. I don’t encounter any stinging, but I’m pretty darn good about keeping my eyes clamped shut while I use it, so perhaps that is why?
Hi Marie, I made a pretty darn good waterproof makeup remover I found at the Herbarie website. I tweaked according to my needs but I used lavender hydrosol, water, olivem 300, glycerin and Germall Plus. It is extremely efficient at removing every single speck of mascara as well as foundation and even dirt from my skin ( been using as a pre-face wash and the cotton pad ends up brown from all the oils and dust/dirt from the day. It truly is a great product. Just thought I’d share in case you or anyone would like to try something new.
Thanks! I believe I’ve seen the same formula, though I haven’t made it. It did lead me to try some micellar water experiments using Olivem300, but I wasn’t a huge fan of those 😛
Could you pre-soak some organic cotton rounds with this for travel?
I wouldn’t recommend it as that’s just far more product than you’d need—you only need a couple drops, so soaking would be massively overkill! A few drops would likely work well, though 🙂
This stuff is wonderful and has a permanent place on my counter. I also use it on my kid’s “dirty neck” skin and it wipes right off with no scrubbing. Olivem 300 is a magic eraser.
I’m so thrilled to hear it! Thanks so much for DIYing with me 🙂
Hi Marie, will this work in a spray-bottle?
Thanks for your videos – I enjoy the conversations – mightily!
No, this is too viscous to spray—you’ll just get an aggressive jet of product!
Thanks for DIYing with me and happy making!
This works SO well at removing my super waterproof mascara. Instead of wetting a cotton pad then adding a few drops of it onto the pad to wipe, I use it a bit differently and I find that it works a lot better for my stubborn waterproof makeup. I take a small amount directly onto my fingertips and massage it right onto my eyelids and eyelashes, keeping eyes closed. Then I dampen a cotton pad with a bit of warm water and wipe everything off clean. Works wonders!!!
Good morning Yuri!
That sounds awesome! I’ll have to try it the next time i wear mascara! Thanks for the suggestion!
Good morning, Marie. I have a question about Turkey red oil. In this recipe you recommend not using it as a substitution for Olivem 300 due to possible irritation; in your encyclopedia you also suggest using other alternatives to TRO because of possible irritation. But since you have included it in a number of formulations, I’m wondering if there is specific percentage, above which TRO becomes problematic. Can you please say something about this? Thanks very much.
Hey Mercedes! I haven’t been able to find any firm usage rate recommendations for TRO. I’ve found 1–50%, 1–4%, and up to 90%. The higher rates are usually for bath oils, which will be heavily diluted in a tub full of water, and the lower amounts are for leave-on products.
Turkey Red oil is the oldest synthetic detergent we’ve got. It’s pretty heavy/greasy, and I’m not crazy about the way it smells. You’ll see I haven’t used it in anything in about three years as I’ve found alternatives that work better. Most of the formulas I have used it in are rinse-off, diluted-in-bath-water type formulas. I think it can still do well in bath products, but I haven’t been using it much lately because there are newer, more elegant alternatives that are more versatile 🙂
I hope that helps!
It does help very much! Thanks.
I’m so glad—happy making!
I started thinking about whipping new eye makeup remove recipe because my eyes have been more sensitive lately. This one with polyglyceryl-4 oleate/ durosoft sf and creamy clay cleanser (with olivem 1000 or Btms50) are first ones on my list today. They have worked earlier like a dream, if I follow your instructions and subsitution tips!
I love my antiflammatory cleansers and emulsimulse creamy clay cleanser but they are not my favorites for eyes. I mean, I knew that but it took me few months to admid it, haha. :p
About favorites – your lavender cleansing bar and cleansing conditioners we talked about are the best cream cleansers I’ve tried lately. They are stable, affordable and well functioning. There are many other formulas I’ve tried, that are too €€€ or too complicated or just instable. Hope this helps!
Hi there–I wonder if you made this with polyglyceryl-4 oleate? I have made this several times and it works great, but it is stingy to the eyes when it accidentally worms its way into my eyes. Wondering if the polyglyceryl-4 oleate is not at all stingy?