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6 Women Review Glossier’s New Milky Oil Cleanser

Photo: Courtesy of Glossier

Prior to last month, if you’d told me you just gotten a bottle of Milky Oil, I would probably have replied, “Don’t put it on your salad.” But then Glossier announced that they were launching a makeup remover by the name Milky Oil. A combination of micellar water and oil, it comes in a cute squeegee bottle and actually does look like a desirable condiment. Six Cut staffers tested it out. Here are their reviews.

Sarah Spellings, Fashion Writer

The Milky Jelly from Glossier is my all-time favorite affordable skin-care product. I adore it! So I was fully prepared to love this but I do not. I tried this two different ways. At first, I put a light amount of product on a cotton pad (after seeing an influencer say that “a little goes a long way” for the oil) and I wasn’t blown away. It didn’t take off all my eyeliner or mascara and it left me looking kind of gray.

But then Kathleen suggested I saturate a pad with the oil and leave it on high-makeup areas like my eyes, to give it time to break down, and then wipe it off. It worked! I don’t wear enough makeup to feel like it adds much value to my routine, but for heavier days, I can see using this. I still prefer the Milky Jelly as a makeup remover, though.

Diana Tsui, Senior Market Editor

I recently got eyelash extensions. While you can technically skip eyeliner with them, I prefer to draw in my usual cat eye, but I have to be super careful when I remove it at night so that I don’t accidentally dissolve the eyelash glue. I was wary of Milky Oil’s oil content — would I be losing precious lashes each time I used it?

Surprisingly, it was the best makeup remover I’ve used so far. The squeeze bottle meant that I could drip an exact amount onto a Q-tip. A few swipes later, my eyes were clean without any greasy residue and my extensions remained pristine. I didn’t have to scrub too intensely around the delicate area, either.

When I dissolved the Milky Oil on a cotton pad to remove my foundation and lipstick, though, I had a different reaction. It took at least three pads to really feel like my face my was clean, and since I used so much product, it left a slightly oily residue on my face. I didn’t hate that! Using a retinol has dried out my face, so it felt like a gentle protective layer that washed off easily. But given how much I was using, I wished it came in a larger size — I’m running through this bottle pretty quickly!

Izzy Grinspan, Senior Editor

Glossier promises that its Milky Oil is incredibly gentle. It even looks gentle, with a soothing white cloud of oil suspended in crystal-clear micellar water. (You shake the bottle to mix the two.) Gentleness is important to me because I have sensitive eyes — so sensitive that once in high school, an eye doctor tried to touch my eye without warning and I spontaneously slapped him. This remains one of my most embarrassing memories, although I suppose being smacked by a teenage girl was probably pretty embarrassing to him too.

Point is, I need a gentle makeup remover. And I think Glossier delivered! I dripped a bunch of drops onto a cotton round and swiped it once across my eyelashes, and it took off nearly all of my waterproof mascara. My eye did sting a bit afterward, but my face didn’t feel greasy or otherwise product-y (although to be fair, I washed it right away.)

After several nights of use, I found that you get better results if you use a lot of the product, which is minorly annoying. I also find the bottle dropper unsatisfying because you can’t control it very well. But these are not big complaints! In all, Milky Oil is a very competent makeup remover that works for my very finicky eyeballs.

Kelly Conaboy, Writer-at-Large

The Glossier Milky Oil bottle is very cute, and that is maybe my favorite thing about it. Pink and smooshy. I don’t usually use makeup remover as part of my routine (just opting to double wash my face instead), so the extra step felt very indulgent, which I also liked.

The oil took off my makeup fairly easily — my concealer came off immediately, but I had to go around my mascara a few times to make sure it came off clean. It didn’t bring any sort of harsh chemical feeling along with it. The oil left my skin feeling smooth, not raw or stripped of anything essential. Plus, like I said, the bottle is cute. I’ll keep using it.

Erica Smith, Beauty Writer

I don’t wear any face makeup, but I do wear black liquid liner, very black mascara, and dark lip colors often. A remover that doesn’t smear all of that all over my face at the end of the day nor burn my sensitive eyes in the process is ideal. I liked Glossier’s remover — it gently removed everything I put it up against (including the matte liquid lip from last week), I only had one mildly eye-stinging incident, and I never needed multiple cotton pads, vigorous rubbing, or a bunch of product to get a clean face.

I don’t really have any complaints, but I wasn’t completely blown away either. The few makeup removers I’ve truly loved (Lancome’s Bi-Facil, Marcelle’s Gentle Eye one) have all been dual-phase formulas like Glossier’s, so this didn’t change my life or anything, but it’s nice to have another option that’s carry-on friendly.

Hayley Schueneman, Beauty Writer

My go-to makeup removers are either Bioderma or the Tatcha Camellia Cleansing Oil, because they both do a great job with minimal effort on my part. I was intrigued by the Milky Oil since it seemed to combine the best parts of Bioderma (micellar water) and the Tatcha Cleanser (oil) into one product.

But in the end, I was slightly disappointed. I really had to pull and wipe my eyes several times to remove my makeup — including Glossier’s own Lash Slick mascara. I thought that maybe I hadn’t used enough of the cleanser, so the second time I tried it I really soaked up the cotton pad with the product. That helped, but the overall process was a lot messier and took longer than my trusty Bioderma. The bottle is compact and perfect for traveling, though, so I’ve relegated it to my gym bag instead of my top shelf.

Photo: Courtesy of Glossier

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6 Women Review Glossier’s New Milky Oil Cleanser