Phase behaviors in water/poly(oxyethylene) dodecyl ether (C₁₂EO(n), n = 4, 6, 8)/cetyl isooctanoate (CIO) systems were studied. In the C₁₂EO₆ and C₁₂EO₈ systems, self-assembled structures with positive curvatures, such as O/W microemulsions, and micellar cubic and hexagonal phases, were observed. A wider region of a lamellar liquid-crystalline phase, which included a narrow microemulsion region joined by a miscibility gap, was observed in the C₁₂EO₄ system. The structure of the microemulsion phase in the C₁₂EO₄ system was characterized by pulsed-field-gradient NMR (PFG-NMR) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques. PFG-NMR measurements indicated that the structure of the microemulsion was bicontinuous; both water and oil phases were continuous within the microemulsion. Pair-distance distribution function, p (r), and structure factors obtained by Generalized Indirect Fourier Transformation (GIFT) analysis of the SAXS data showed that the microemulsion domain sizes decreased with an increase in the oil content. The structure of the bicontinuous microemulsion was consistent with the results of a detergency test, in which the microemulsion samples were applied to lipstick dirt on an artificial skin plate. Detergency was observed to be better for the microemulsion at lower oil contents because of the larger oil domain size at these low concentrations.