QUESTION

New York, NY

When Tisha B’Av falls on Sunday, is a person allowed to remove makeup that she was wearing on Shabbat on Tisha B’Av using a wipe?

ANSWER

If the makeup is smudgy, etc., then it is permissible as per Shulchan Arukh OC 554:9. If she just wants to remove it, it is hard to permit. A permissible way would be to wipe it off as much as possible with a dry tissue, and then the rest looks pretty smudgy and dirty, and that can use a wipe.

Finally, it’s not obvious to me that the small amount of moisture on the wipe constitutes rechitzah. See Shulchan Arukh OC 554:11 and Mishnah Berurah 22. If it is not טופח על מנת להטפיח, meaning that the thing that it gets wet, eg. her cheeks, are not wet enough to get something else wet, then it isn’t rechitzah.

Note that I am not addressing here the permissibility or lack thereof of makeup on Shabbat.