Boots expert skincare 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 Boots’ own brand 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:

forearm photo

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

after photo

The result is not great: there are remnants of most make up including the Dior lipstick, the mineral and Kay beauty eyeshadow…

The ingredient label quandry

This is a bizarre ingredient label and I hope there is an error in printing because there is no surfactant…The first six ingredients are:

  • Butylene Glycol (mainly an emollient)
  • Polysorbate 20 (a mildness additive that is designed to reduce the irritation potential of a surfactant system)
  • PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil (NOT a surfactant)
  • Phenoxyethanol (preservative)
  • Caprylyl glycol (NOT a surfactant)…

To buy, or not to buy?

I genuinely don’t understand what Boot’s is attempting to do with this micellar water. Clearly, I am still learning so if any of you out there know what is happening / or have an epiphany, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

I would not use this as either a make-up remover or a micellar water. I suggest you save your money and do the same.

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Happy Skin Days ©  2021.  © Angeli Sinha 2021. All rights reserved. The contents of this blog, including images are protected by copyright law.  My content cannot be replicated without my consent. You can write to me at email@happyskindays.com

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