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Use Toilet Seat Covers to Blot Your Oily Skin


If you’re the type to use blotting paper to sop up the sweat or oil on your face, you’ve perhaps wondered which ones are best. Are the most expensive ones better? Should you get the sheets that smell like flowers? Or should you just pass on oil blotting sheets altogether, opting instead for a hanky or a perpetually dewy glow?

Celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker use toilet seat covers to blot instead of spending money on fancy papers at Sephora. They’re a free alternative, but how do they compare?

People on Makeup Alley love the hack, which has gotten a 4.6 rating from 84 reviewers. One person wrote:

I’m a convert! The air-conditioning went out in my building, and my freakishly oily skin went into overload. I remembered reading about this, and thought ‘What the heck!’ Using the matte side against my face, my oil was soaked right up—my makeup remained in place, and I was ecstatic! I looked awesome again! (Relatively speaking ) It took a whole one to blot up everything, but it saved me from using up all my powder in one day. Now I grab a few on occasional mornings, cut them into large squares, and keep them in my purse/bag/desk/whatever. It’s saving my expensive blotting powder! Luv it!!

Some negative reviews are concerned about germs from the bathroom spreading to the toilet seat covers, but people don’t really touch the toilet seat covers they’re not using and most of the surface of the covers is protected from germs by the container holding them. Some reviewers recommend using the second or third cover just to be safe.

Other popular alternatives for absorbing oil include coffee filters and Starbucks napkins. The Starbucks napkin works pretty well, while the coffee filter picks up the most oil, but also removed a lot of my makeup. The toilet seat cover, however, absorbed the most oil from my face while leaving my makeup intact. Plus, if you have them in your office bathroom, seat covers are a lot more accessible than Starbucks napkins

To quote a reviewer on Makeup Alley, “BEST BLOTTING PAPERS OUT THERE!!!”