Avene Cleanance Micellar water

Micellar waters are a very fancy name for a mild cleanser with the following characteristics: they have mild surfactants (or cleaning agents); are non-foaming and contain moisturising ingredients. 

You can read about the technical detail on how micellar water or facial cleansers work at this BLOG.

What am I testing and why?

I am road-testing the Avene micellar water, specifically the claim that it removes make-up.

Before photo

After applying a copious mix of waterproof, pigmented and shiny make-up, my forearm looked like this:

make up on forearm

I then pressed down a pre-soaked (in micellar water) cotton pad on the above patch and counted to 5. Finally, I wiped over this area (quite firmly) exactly 4 times.

After photo

photo after make up removed

The results are quite awful: the Pat McGrath lipstick, cream blusher, kajal and Kay beauty eyeliner are all quite prominently visible. Looking at the ingredients label, I am not surprised by the product’s poor performance….

The ingredients…

The primary surfactant is PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric glycerides, that’s commonly used in micellar waters as it’s a gentle cleanser.  The second surfactant maybe Cetrimonium bromide – but I think its an anti-bacterial agent.

The emollients appear to be the Glycols (Butylene and Pentylene) – their primary function is to increase softness and smoothness – which this product does.

A solvent in the form of PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, is also present to help dissolve oily make-up.

To buy, or not to buy?

This is a micellar water for oily skin and it may work perfectly well at removing every day sebum, pollutants, dead skin etc. But I would not buy it if the intent was to use it as a make-up remover.

P.S.  The complete ingredient label is: Aqua, Butylene Glycol, Pentylene Glycol, PEG-6 Caprylic/Capric glycerides, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, Cetrimonium bromide, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance and Glyceryl laurate

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