You know the feeling: you’ve just come back to your apartment after a tiring day at work, or a long night out with your friends, and the very last thing you want to do is take off your makeup. Sometimes, you just can’t summon the Herculean effort needed to wash your face. It’s okay; you’re busy! If you’re anything like me in these moments when you’re feeling a little (or a lot) lazy, you’ll typically opt for a makeup wipe to sweep away product and prevent concealer and mascara from ending up on your pillows.
The thing about makeup wipes, though, is that even though they’re easy and convenient, they’re also single-use which creates a huge environmental waste footprint. So when I heard about Fig. 1’s latest launch, Micellar Oil Cleansing Wipes, I was instantly intrigued. The brand partnered with Conserving Beauty to launch cleansing wipes that dissolve after use.
“Everybody loves single-use [products] because they have so many benefits,” says Natassia Nicolao, founder of Conserving Beauty. “We really wanted to come up with a better solution and create amazing single-use products that effectively have no waste, so you can use them and not feel guilty afterwards.”
Conserving Beauty then partnered with a lab in the UK, and at the time, the lab was working on a med tech project. “They had this fabric, and they wanted to use it for wound care,” Nicolao explains. “The idea behind it was that when people have medical problems, things like burns where they need to get dressings, they would use this fabric that dissolves in the shower.”
And we kept thinking, ‘Wow, imagine if we took that, transformed it, and found a way to inject ingredients into it,’” added Nicolao. After two years of negotiating an exclusive patent, building machinery and equipment, along with other developmental work, “we worked out a way to infuse the fabric with really great ingredients,” says Nicolao.
Micellar Oil Cleansing Wipes
The Formula
The wipes are infused with grapeseed oil and squalane—the former is a non-comedogenic oil (meaning it doesn’t clog pores) that moisturizes, soothes, firms, and protects against damaging free radicals, and the latter locks in hydration, helps support the skin barrier, and regulates excess oil production. Traditional cleansers are formulated with surfactants—that’s what creates the lather—which can be a little harsh on your skin. Because the wipes are oil-infused, they’re able to dissolve makeup and excess oil while also replenishing the skin with hydrators.
So, how does the whole dissolvable thing work? “We make it from what’s called a water-soluble polymer,” explains Nicolao. “We put it on large, jumbo rolls, then we run them through a custom-built machine that injects the ingredients, cuts the fabric, folds the fabric, then inserts them into a compostable sachet.” Once it’s placed underwater, the wipe dissolves and breaks down into water and carbon dioxide. The inside of the sachets are made out of a material called Nature Flex. “It’s a wood pulp that creates a barrier to help protect the fabric from dissolving before you open up the packet and use it,” shares Nicolao.
According to Bluebird Climate, a software platform company that measures a beauty brand’s carbon emissions and waste production, the cleansing wipe has a below-average waste impact compared to other face oils, thanks to the fact that they are dissolvable and come in compostable packaging that people are likely to recycle.
My Review
Each box comes with 14 small and individually wrapped sachets. After opening and unpacking the wipe, I noticed that it was made out of a gauze-like material (a.k.a. the fabric Nicolao mentioned earlier). I also noticed that it was very saturated, so there was no need to worry about not having enough oil to take off your makeup. There’s also no fragrance on the wipes, which is nice if you’re not a fan of scented cleansers.
I used the wipes to take off an everyday makeup look at the end of the night, which consisted of concealer, eyeliner, eyeshadow, brow product, mascara, blush, and some subtle contour (I’m super low-maintenance).
As I mentioned, there’s a ton of oil infused into the wipes, which makes it excellent at removing makeup. My eye makeup is usually the most annoying to remove and typically involves lots of rubbing and scrubbing, but the micellar oil wipes took off my shadow, liner, and mascara pretty easily without irritation. The wipes were also incredibly effective at breaking it down and removing the makeup on my skin without stripping it dry. When it comes to face oils, I usually reach for slightly scented, lightweight oils that smell and feel good as I work them into my skin— the sensorial aspect is an important factor to me, so I did miss that a little bit while using the product. The fragrance-free oil leans thick and there were moments where it did feel heavy on my skin. I used a damp washcloth to rinse off the cleansing oil and was left with plump, clean skin.
Watching the wipe dissolve was extremely entertaining. Once I was done using it, I placed the wipe under cold running water in my sink. According to Nicolao, it takes about 60 seconds for the wipe to completely dissolve, but I found that it actually took less than a minute to disintegrate.
I love the fact that sustainability was taken so deeply into consideration during the development process, and in an industry where greenwashing has run amok, I really appreciate that Fig. 1 was transparent and chose to measure their sustainability with Bluebird Climate. Overall, even though I did find the oil to be a bit heavy for my personal tastes, the micellar oil cleansing wipe was able to gently remove all my makeup, without irritating my eyes or drying out my skin. I’ll definitely be taking a few TSA-approved sachets with me on my next vacation.
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