I agree... plain, cool, boiled water is sufficient for newborns. The midwives at the hospital also advised me to use cotton balls but I got sick of them after a while and just used a soft face-washer (then moved onto disposable wipes after a few weeks... but that's because I got lazy...).

Now that Gab is in cloth nappies, I prefer to use cloth wipes so I use chamomile tea (just made up like the packet says). I've also tried a washy wafer which I think you can get from Twins in Cloth and it smelled really nice! I will have to invest in some more of those.
I just use flannel/terry facewashers as the wipes and they do a great job (you can get a pack of 5 cheapy face washers for $2.99 at Safeway/Woolworths). I have heard of really noice wipes tho. I may splash out and get some when I am off my nappy ban, LOL.