One of my favourite posts to write was about the Muji Thin Cotton Buds. They are necessity if you are a make up addict or MUA. An equally overlooked necessity for any self respecting beauty addict is cotton wool hence today’s post – the Cotton Wool Edit. Not what you pick up at your local supermarket or Superdrug. This cotton wool edit revolves around Asian and Asian inspired cotton wool. Cotton wool like wipes is a one use product. It is rarely recycled and often bleached to get the Dulux white colour. It can clog sewers if disposed of incorrectly and they take a long time to break down. I am a flannel obsessive but for some toners and nail varnish removers I still need cotton wool pads.
The Asian influence on skincare cannot be denied. We will continue to see brands jumping on this bandwagon. For me as a skincare junkie it is interesting to see how similar (or different) the use of cotton wool is.
DHC- the accessible one
DHC came to my attention via their cleansing oil (which is fab). I am a fan of their firming skincare range and their liquid eyeliner is in my top three of all time. The DHC cotton wool can be purchased online or picked up from Selfridges (which is where I got mine). When I opened the box I had no idea what to expect… but I didn’t anticipate the thing that I was going to wipe across my face looking like a sanitary pad.
The DHC Cotton wool is encased in a cotton pillow case which makes it quite thick and also quite robust. This pad is great for nail varnish removal (especially glitter). I don’t like it so much for toner and skincare as I feel like it absorbs quite a lot of product so I ended up having too much on my face and I got through my product quicker. At six pounds it is the cheapest of the edit and probably the one that I would repurchase the most.
Koh Gen Doh – the green one
Koh Gen Doh is readily available in the states but sadly not here. He has a full cosmetics line but again sadly has discontinued his darker shades of foundation. I am gutted about this as apparently there were fabulous. These cotton pads have not been chemically treated. Now, in the same way that recycled loo role does not look as ‘pretty’ neither does this and for that reason I went to it less.
Also housed in a box, this is a good all round cotton wool pad. It is the largest of the three so they are good for removing a cleansing cream or a face mask.
Shiseido – the blogger favourite
Shiseido like DHC are a Japanese brand but their facial cotton is a completely different specimen. They are not the easiest product to get hold of – I picked them up from Sephora. At $9.50 (approximately £6.50 when I bought them now £7.37 due to the fall in the pound) they are not significantly more expensive than the DHC. They are packaged in an interesting plastic wrap and were the pads that I went for the most.
The surface of these pads are softer than the Koh Gen Doh. The size was perfect for both nails and skincare and was slightly less absorbent that the Koh Gen Do. They are great for both face and nail and don’t disintegrate or pill with heavy use.
Conclusion
All of the pads do a sterling job in both nail care and skincare, They are all expensive compared to the cotton wool you can pick up in the supermarket. Having said that, they are softer and I much prefer the square shape the oval or round pads that we get here.
If I had to choose one to use for the rest of my days it would be the Shiseido. The size is perfect and they are the softest.