I first bought Nivea Visage Daily Essentials Extra Gentle Eye Makeup Remover (try saying that three times fast) a few months back after I’d finished a mini-sized bottle of Lancome Bi-Facils which came in a gift pack. Now Bi-Facils is a seriously good product but just too expensive for my budget, so I grabbed a bottle of this off the shelf of a local department store mostly because it said “Extra Gentle” on the bottle and it was well priced.

That impulse purchase turned out to be a good thing – I’m onto my second bottle and this is now my holy grail eye makeup remover. As far as I’m concerned it’s even better than Bi-Facils.

Here’s what Nivea say about their product:

“NIVEA VISAGE DAILY ESSENTIALS EXTRA GENTLE EYE MAKE-UP REMOVER is a light, oil free formulation that gently removes make-up around the delicate eye area, leaving no greasy residue.

HOW IT WORKS

NIVEA VISAGE DAILY ESSENTIALS EXTRA GENTLE EYE MAKE-UP REMOVER enriched with Pro-Vitamin B5 to soothe the skin:

• Gently removes make-up and mascara with no greasy residue
• Prevents stinging or irritation of the delicate skin around the eye
• Dermatologically and opthamologically tested

Your sensitive eye area is gently cleansed and looking beautiful with cared for eye-lashes.”

I don’t know about the ‘cared for eyelashes’ bit, but I can tell you that it does a really good job of melting away even heavy eye makeup so that it can be wiped away without the need for rubbing; it doesn’t sting my eyes (this is important – my eye area is very sensitive) and it doesn’t leave any oily residue. One cotton pad well dampened with remover is enough for one eye, although I wear non-waterproof mascara so I can’t vouch for how well it would cope with the waterproof stuff.

The water-based formula dries quickly on the skin without needing to be wiped off afterwards and doesn’t leave any residue behind, oily or otherwise. I can apply eye makeup once it has dried without it affecting the application, and I often use this on a cotton bud to fix up over-zealous or just plain bad makeup application.

The product is very subtly and pleasantly scented with what seems to me to be a “beachy” scent – but then I’m crap at scent descriptions so I wouldn’t pay any attention to that!

At around $12.00 for a generous-sized 125ml bottle, Nivea Daily Essential Extra Gentle Eye Makeup Remover is widely available throughout New Zealand in department stores, pharmacies and supermarkets.

Ingredients: Aqua, Poloxamer 124, PEG-8, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Glycerin, Panthenol, Isosteareth-20,

Steareth-20, Dipotassium Phosphate, Potassium Phosphate, Trisodium EDTA, Polyaminopropyl Biguanide, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Benzyl Alcohol, Geraniol, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Limonene, Linalool, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Hydroxy-citronellal, Benzyl Salicylate, Parfum. (Note: I couldn’t find an ingredients list online so I typed this up from the back of the bottle. Apologies if there are any mistakes. Also, congratulations on your super reading skills if you did spot any mistakes!)