In (or On) Your Face

I have used cotton balls for beauty-related things probably since I started doing beauty-related things. So probably since junior high school…at least for nail polish remover. My most frequent usage has always been for applying face toner. I also sometimes used them to remove eye makeup. For many, many, many years I would halve them because I realized that I almost never needed a whole one. So in my world, particularly as a poor student for so many years, I was saving money and being less wasteful. But still, that’s A LOT of cotton balls over the years. At some point, I moved on to organic cotton balls when I felt that I could afford them; I figured they were better for the environment and probably my skin as well. And then more recently I discovered reusable bamboo makeup remover pads—even better for the environment, my face, and my wallet. I now use them for my toner. They do the job really well and I love them. They are soft but also with a very, very slight amount of friction. The texture is kind of like a baby washcloth. I bought 32 of the ones that are just over 3 inches (they often come in sets of 16) and I keep a stack of them in a basket and then use another basket to put the used ones in (see photos). I then drop them in the washing machine with my laundry whenever I need to. I think many places that sell them provide a mesh bag for laundry to keep them all together, but I found that they did not come out very well-washed and kind of stuck together in a mashed up ball. Right now I only have white ones but I have seen black ones too. I imagine some might prefer these for eye makeup or nail polish, which might stain…so they just won’t look as dirty after you wash them…if that matters. I have also used them for nail polish remover and they work well enough. I set aside a few exclusively for this purpose. I am a fan.