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:
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
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.