Sometimes at the end of a shoot, you will go to take your make-up off (please bear in mind that we are talking industrial amounts of make-up) and the make-up artist will hand you the most ineffective, useless product in the world. Useless things I have been offered to use to remove my (necessarily long-lasting, non-budging) make-up, to date, include:

1. Johnson’s Baby Wipes

2. Some cotton wool pads and an eighth of a bottle of Evian (probably 90% spittle)

3. Bright blue shower gel and a flannel.

Don’t get me wrong – most of the time I have my make-up removed for me in a gentle and caring way, using lovely, scented, moisturising products. But sometimes, just sometimes….GRRRRRR. If you have ever taken your make-up off using “aqua” shower gel and a pink flannel, you will know how I feel.

So my heart sank when at a shoot recently I was given Garnier’s make-up dissolver to take off two very smoky, very smudgy, blacker-than-black eyes; I had just about had my fill of high-street make-up removers that don’t cut the mustard, not naming any names (Simple). But do you know, I was pleasantly surprised! Garnier’s 2-in-1 Dissolver is bi-phase like many of the expensive, premium removers – an oil layer to melt make-up, and a water to cleanse. Both layers together (shaky-shaky) produce a quite powerful formula that shifts eye make-up (I have since tried it many times, and it works well even on waterproof mascaras) yet doesn’t leave an unpleasant, oily residue.

The formula separates very quickly, so you have to get in there quick with the cotton wool, but apart from this minor quibble, I think that this is a great make-up remover that gives the more expensive brands quite a run for their money! (TIP: Soak the cotton wool and press it to the eye for at least ten seconds – you need to give the oily part time to melt the make-up so that you don’t have to scrub).

This is £4.99 in Boots, and £3.19 in Superdrug. So that’s a no-brainer. I hope.