Readers share their favorite eye makeup remover tips and tricks

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After running a Your Stylist column about how to take off stubborn eye makeup (with minimal effort), I received a lot of fun and useful product ideas from readers and thought it only fair to share the fun and surprising recommendations.

The lesson learned was that you certainly don’t need a fancy gel or solution from a department store makeup counter. Neutrogena Makeup remover cleansing towelettes came highly recommended as an inexpensive, not to mention portable, product.

But the most popular suggestion came from several readers who seem
to love a cleanser called Albolene. The traditional stage makeup remover is meant to take off heavy makeup and according to fans of the stuff, breaks down eye makeup on contact without hurting the eye area or feeling too greasy.

Something that seems like it would be greasy, but still came recommended as an all-time favorite of another reader who only wears waterproof mascara, is good old Vaseline. She advised buying it in a tube to avoid having to put your fingers in a jar. Swipe a little around the eye area and wipe away with tissue paper.

And perhaps the most odd and unexpected suggestion came from a reader who was advised by a woman working at a cosmetic counter to use contact lens solution. Apparently the contact lens solution worked, taking off all her eye makeup and for those of us who already have containers of it in our medicine cabinets (handbags, desk drawers and suitcases), it’s a double-duty product that’ll come in handy in a pinch.

-- Melissa Magsaysay

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Photos, from top left: Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes, $6.49, at Target. Credit: Neutrogena.

Albolene Moisturizing cleanser, $11.99 for 12 ounces, at www.walgreens.com/Walgreens.

Vaseline, $4.39 for 2.5 ounces, at Target/Target.

Bausch & Lomb ReNu contact lens solution, $2.29 for .17 ounces, at CVS/CVS.