With skin as sensitive as her soul, a finicky lady goes in search of the best gentle beauty products in modern time.
Recently making the unfortunate discovery that my skin is allergic to some ingredient in my go-to Fancl cleansing oil – which I have been faithful to for the past couple of years – I’m now in search of a new makeup remover. I currently use the Bifesta brightup cleansing sheet wipes as an alternative makeup remover; it does get the job done but I often feel that wipes tend to tug a little too much at my skin, and doesn’t feel as thorough in cleansing power.
Last week, chancing upon a shelf with Muji’s little bottles of cleansing oils, and noticing how they had one labelled ‘sensitive skin cleansing oil’, I decided on a whim to give it a go.
The Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil
Muji says that this cleansing oil is 100% plant based, made with mainly olive oil. Gentle on the skin, it’s fragrance free, coloration free, mineral oil-free, paraben free, alcohol free, and has also been allergy tested (though the brand also highlights that this isn’t exhaustive of ‘ALL’ allergies).
According to Muji, here’s how to use its Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil: Take an appropriate amount onto your palm, apply on face with a massage to remove makeup or dirt, and rinse off thoroughly with water or warm water.
The experience
I bought the 50ml tiny-bottle version to test if my skin would react to it. It comes in a plastic bottle, similar/identical to the empty travel-sized ones that Muji sells on its own. The cleansing oil also comes in a much larger pump bottle, which I thought was humongous.
Muji’s sensitive skin cleansing oil has quite a thick consistency and a faint ‘au naturale’ smell – that gladly convinces and assures me it isn’t pumped with chemicals. It does mildly remind one of olive oil indeed.
Muji’s instructions do not hold true
On my first try, I used it the way Muji instructed. Sadly it didn’t really work. I squeezed some onto my palm and applied it to my face, finding it impossible to massage the oil because it was far too thick in consistency for that. This is opposite to the Fancl cleansing oil, for comparison, which has a much more fluid consistency and glides onto the skin smoothly.
What I found helpful was to add a little water when doing the massage, and you’ll start to see the cleansing oil working its magic.
Another method for using the Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil
I also figured another way of application which is using the Muji cleansing oil with cotton pads to remove my makeup. You may find this works particularly better for eye makeup. Simply soak up a cotton pad with cleansing oil (you’ll notice because of the oil’s thickness, you tend to need quite a bit of product) and hold it over your eye for a bit. I then add a little water to the cotton pad, and gently swipe the makeup off.
So… Does it work?
On my first try, the Muji cleansing oil managed to remove most of my makeup, except taking a while for my eye makeup to budge (Take note, I use waterproof mascara and eyeliner and often face this problem). But on my second try onwards, with the help of some water to dilute the oil, I find the oil actually works superbly well for removing all of my makeup.
I encourage you to test out both the massage technique and the cotton pad technique to figure which works better for you. This is totally based on personal preference, though I think both methods do require quite a lot of product nonetheless. (Now I see why the regular sized bottle is so large!)
How to identify Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil
FYI: There may be some confusion as Muji has multiple versions of cleansing oils. And for non-Japanese people, you can’t really tell from the bottle unless you can read Japanese. Be sure to identify the words above (as circled) for the SENSITIVE SKIN version.
The verdict
Sensitive-skin rating: 5/5
Happy to declare, I’ve had no allergy reactions to the Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil so far. It did not irritate my skin, nor did it sting my eyes! *Fingers crossed*
Would-I-use-this rating: 4/5
I use this on a daily basis to remove light or basic makeup and sunscreen, because it does feel gentle enough for that. I highly recommend adding a little water when massaging it into your skin though, and perhaps soaking it on a cotton pad for when removing eye makeup. It truly makes the thick oil so much easier to work with.
Overall, I think it is a great product for what it is; it gets the job done and doesn’t annoy my super sensitive skin. And considering my poor experience with makeup removers that famously claim to be great for sensitive skin but have inflamed my skin or stung my eyes, I’ll be sticking with the Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil for regular use unless I find something revolutionarily better.
Now, I just gotta get the humongous 400ml-bottle version of it when I’m in Tokyo!
The Muji sensitive skin cleansing oil is available in various sizes at the following places:
50ml travel size bottle at YesStyle
200ml medium size bottle at Amazon
400ml large size bottle at YesStyle and Amazon
And of course, you can find them all at a nearby Muji store.
These are all my personal thoughts and experience with using the product. This is not a sponsored review and I am not in any way affiliated with the Muji brand at this time.