How to Remove Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay in Place Foundation

If you’re reading this blog post, you’re probably like me and are a fan of Estée Lauder’s double wear stay in place foundation. The coverage is great and I love the consistency. When I wear my double wear, I put it on in sections. So essentially I do the bottom left of my face, top left, top right, bottom right, and a quick overall sponging with my beauty blender. To actually apply the foundation, I use either the expert face brush or a stippling brush,  both from real techniques.

But, as many of you who use this makeup may have experienced…when Estée Lauder said double wear and stay in place…they were NOT lying. Trying to break through that foundation is like trying to break through Fort Knox! I’ll wash and wash and use my toner afterwards and the face pad I use to apply the toner is covered in foundation…it’s almost as if I didn’t wash my face at all! My skin is sensitive. I don’t want to scrub the shit out of it to remove my makeup. On top of that, after a few weeks of using this makeup, I began to develop bumps, pimples on my forehead.

Like many other women, I do experience the occasional pimple here and there around the time my period is about to come. But I might get one or two on my cheek or chin…never on my forehead. Ever since I’ve started using Paula’s choice products, my pimples are few and far between. That said, I can only, of course, equate this to my foundation and the fact that it isn’t being removed sufficiently.

I got on google and searched for ways to remove double wear foundation, as I knew that I couldn’t be the only one with this problem. I came across many natural methods, including coconut oil, olive oil, etc. I didn’t try the olive oil, but I did try coconut oil. It worked well and did get a lot of the foundation off. But..it just wasn’t to my satisfaction. I used the coconut oil on my dry face, rubbed it around, washed it off, then used my regular face wash. It still wasn’t enough!

I later found out that Estée Lauder has its own makeup remover. I mean, they created it so they must know the secret to removing it! But as I continued to search, I found another option that many people were using and having success with. It was Clinique’s take the day off makeup remover.  It was kinda pricey-$30 something bucks. But since this product is available at Sephora, I figured I’d just try it…and if it didn’t work for me I could return it and look at trying the Estée Lauder makeup remover.

Well…I won’t be returning it.

The Clinique take the day off remover worked amazingly well. I used it in a similar fashion as I used he coconut oil. But this time I ran my hands under water so that my hands were wet, then used a pump (and a bit) of the Clinique makeup remover and rubbed it on my face. I could see the makeup coming off of my face and on my hands. I washed my face off and followed up with my Paula’s choice face wash. I then did the “toner test”. Aside for a little bit of makeup by my hairline that I had missed…my face was spotless! I’m pretty impressed by this makeup remover.

Admittedly, I still needed a little bit more of help removing my mascara for which I used an eye makeup remover. Other than that, I highly recommend it.

So if you’re looking for a product to remove your Estée Lauder (or other hard to remove foundation), I recommend Clinique take the day off makeup remover. I believe there is more than one kind of remover from Clinique, so I’ll put a picture of the one I’m talking about below. The makeup remover can be purchased at Sephora and also on Clinique’s website. It works so well that I bought the mini version and left it at my boyfriend’s house.

My face, fully made up with Estee Lauder Foundation

My face with the Clinique “Take the Day Off” makeup remover on my face

My clean face after washing off the remover and completing my regular skin care routine

This is what the bottle looks like

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Also, this is an honest review. All products were purchased by me and I was not asked to do a review of the product by any companies (or anybody for that matter)

🙂