Sustainable Living Creative Hacks

How To Make Reusable Make-Up Wipes

I used to use cotton wool for removing make-up, but then I began looking for ways to reduce the amount of waste I was producing. I found some reusable make-up wipes for sale online and bought some.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to put them in a mesh bag when washing them. I lost 2 out of the 3 because they got stuck down tubes in the washing machine, and ended up so filthy that I couldn’t keep them. But instead of buying more, I thought it would be so simple to make my own. After all, they were just circles of thick fabric!

Making my own reusable make-up wipes

I had some spare fleece fabric that I had leftover from a sewing project years ago. Fleece is soft on the skin, but I think any soft fabric would do nicely. I made a template by cutting a circle out of a thin piece of card. Then, I pinned it to the fabric and cut around it to make circular pads. Job done! I simply apply some make-up remover to the pads, wipe my face with them, and then put them in the wash (in a mesh bag!). They come out clean and can be used again and again! 

The only disadvantage of using fleece is that it can shed microfibres in the wash, which can end up polluting the rivers and oceans. A great solution to this is to use the Guppyfriend Washing Bag which catches these fibres so that they can be disposed of safely.

3 homemade reusable make-up wipes, next to the template I used.
Some of my original batch of reusable make-up wipes

I recently decided to make some more, as I have been wearing make-up more often, and was sometimes running out of pads as they were all in the wash. I didn’t have any of the original fleece left, but I found a fleece scarf that I had made at school. It had been sitting in a cupboard for years, not being used! I decided that a better use of the fabric would be to make some wipes out of it. This time, I cut square pieces instead of round, because that would be more economical and waste less fabric. I figured that square make-up wipes would work just as well as round!

Cutting a square of blue fabric out of an old scarf.
Cutting square make-up wipes out of an old scarf
4 blue square-shaped reusable make-up wipes.
My new square reusable wipes!

Great for the environment, and your face

So, as well as saving on cotton wool waste, making these wipes is also a great way to use up leftover scraps of fabric, or recycle old clothing that you will no longer use and is perhaps not good enough to go to charity. The wipes are easy to use and feel soft on the face. If you are a wearer of make-up, give it a try!

Related post: Making Useful Cloths out of Old Socks

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How To Make Reusable Make-Up Wipes

2 Comments

  1. This is such a great idea.. I use reusable wipes, but I’ve wanted to make my own for some time ^_^

    Think I’ll dig out the scraps & get cutting!

    Thanks for sharing,

    Pixee xo | http://www.thatswhatpeasaid.com

    1. Sophie Harriet says:

      Thank you! That’s great that you use reusable wipes too. I bought some originally but it’s so much cheaper to make your own out of scraps!

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