Taking off makeup with oil: the method, and who it is not for

You washed your face properly last night. You still woke up with a smudge of kajal on the pillowcase and a grey shadow under your lower lashes. That is not a sign that you washed badly. It is a sign that you asked water to do a job that water cannot do.

Kajal, kohl, foundation, tinted sunscreen, long-wear lipstick and waterproof mascara are all built the same way: pigment held in oils, waxes and silicones, in a film designed to survive sweat, humidity and a full working day. A face wash is a surfactant in water. It lifts sweat, dust and loose sebum well. It slides over a waxy film.

Oil does not slide over it. Like dissolves like. A plant oil loosens the oils and waxes holding that film together, and once it is loosened, water and your normal face wash can carry the rest away. That is the entire idea behind cleansing with oil, and it works whether the oil came from a bottle labelled “cleansing oil” at four times the price or from a bottle of cold pressed almond oil in your kitchen.

It is also not for everyone, and we will get to that honestly further down.

The method, step by step

1. Dry hands, dry face. This is the step people get wrong first. Water on the skin blocks the oil from reaching the makeup. Do this before you splash anything.
2. About half a teaspoon into a dry palm. Roughly a one-rupee coin. Rub your palms together once to warm it.
3. Massage for forty-five to sixty seconds. Small slow circles, whole face, including the sides of the nose, the jawline and the hairline where foundation collects. You will see the makeup lift and colour the oil.
4. Now wet your fingertips with a little water and keep massaging. The oil turns cloudy and milky. This is called emulsifying, and it is the step almost everybody skips. It is what lets the oil rinse instead of smear.
5. Rinse with lukewarm water until your skin no longer feels slippery.
6. Second cleanse with your normal face wash, thirty seconds, and rinse again.
7. Pat dry with a clean towel and put your usual moisturiser on slightly damp skin.

The whole thing takes under two minutes once you have done it four or five times.

Why the second cleanse is not optional

After step five you have loosened the makeup and mixed it into a film of oil, and you have rinsed most of that away. Most is not all. What is left is a thin layer of oil carrying dissolved pigment, sunscreen and the day’s pollution, sitting on your face.

In an Indian summer, with heat, humidity and sweat on top of it, that is not a good thing to sleep in. The second cleanse is what actually removes it. If you take one instruction from this page, take that one: oil is the first step, not the only step.

This is the same thing the beauty industry sells as “double cleansing”. There is nothing complicated in it. Oil first, face wash second.

The eye area needs a different hand

Do not use your fingers around the eyes, and do not scrub.

1. Soak a cotton pad with three or four drops of oil.
2. Press it over the closed eye and hold for twenty to thirty seconds. Give it time to soften the mascara. Time does the work here, not pressure.
3. Wipe once, downward and outward, following the direction of the lashes.
4. Take a fresh corner of the pad and repeat if needed. Do not saw back and forth.
5. For the lash line and the waterline, fold a cotton bud, add one drop and roll it along gently.

Take contact lenses out before you start, not after. Never let oil run into the eye; if it does, blink, rinse with clean water and do not rub. If you wear lash extensions, skip oil around the eyes altogether, because oil breaks down the adhesive that holds them on.

Almond or black sesame?

Cold pressed almond oil is the easier default. It is light, it spreads thin, it has almost no smell, and it rinses off without a fight. If your skin is normal, combination or dry, start here.

Cold pressed black sesame oil is heavier and has a definite nutty smell that not everyone wants on their face. It suits genuinely dry skin in winter, and it holds up better against heavy, long-wear base makeup. It takes a firmer second cleanse.

Two notes on what not to use. Toasted sesame oil from the kitchen is a different product with a strong roasted smell; it is not what is meant here. And mustard oil, however good it is in a kadhai, is pungent and irritating on facial skin. Leave it in the kitchen.

Who should skip this, and what to watch for

This method does not suit everyone, and the pages selling cleansing oil rarely say so.

If you get small, uniform, itchy bumps

Many people who think they have acne on the forehead, chest, upper back or hairline actually have a yeast overgrowth, usually called fungal acne. The yeast involved lives on everyone’s skin, and it feeds on fatty acids in a particular size range that covers most plant oils, almond and sesame included. If your bumps are all the same size, itchy, and get worse with oils and richer creams, oil cleansing is likely to make things worse rather than better. That is a conversation for a dermatologist, not a home remedy.

If your skin is congested or acne-prone

Patch test properly. Use the oil on one side of the jaw for four or five nights and watch that side. Comedogenicity ratings that circulate online come from old animal-ear testing and do not reliably predict what an oil does on a human face, so treat them as a rough hint and your own skin as the actual evidence. If you break out, stop. A gentle gel cleanser or a micellar water will take your makeup off perfectly well.

If you have an active skin condition

Eczema, rosacea, seborrhoeic dermatitis, or anything a doctor is currently treating: ask them first. Do not start a new routine on skin that is already inflamed.

What it will not do

• It will not clear acne. Removing makeup properly is good hygiene, not acne treatment.
• It will not unclog pores or dissolve blackheads. A blackhead is a plug of keratin and sebum that has oxidised at the surface; softening it is not the same as removing it, and squeezing it at home usually costs you more than it gains.
• It will not shrink pores. Nothing you apply changes pore size.
• It does not replace your face wash. It goes before it.
• It does not remove sunscreen on its own. Same rule: oil, then cleanser.

A few small things that make it work better

• Keep a small bottle in the bathroom rather than carrying the kitchen bottle back and forth. Wet hands and a cooking bottle do not mix.
• Tie your hair back. Oil in the hairline is the main reason people feel greasy afterwards.
• If your skin feels tight after the second cleanse, your face wash is too harsh, not the oil too weak.
• Cold pressed oil goes rancid faster than refined oil. If it smells sharp or like old paint, throw it out. Our note on storing cold pressed oil covers why.

For more on how almond oil behaves on skin generally, read Almond oil benefits for skin and hair, honestly assessed. For sesame, its names and its varieties, see Til oil, gingelly oil, sesame oil: one oil, many names.