Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water in Oil

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. (Read this BLOG for more details)

What am I testing and why?

I am road-testing Garnier’s micellar cleansing water in oil 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

This product removes EVERYTHING except a small trace of the pigmented lipstick. Clearly, its doing something right….It was easy to use and by far, is the best micellar water at removing make-up.

If this product is that great, why do I hate it?

Undoubtedly this is the best make-up removing micellar water that I’ve tested. But it comes at a price: there are a shed load of ingredients in this product that other micellar waters do not have.

This has 23 ingredients vs 7 ingredients of the normal Garnier SkinActive micellar water. Most of these ingredients are performing an ancillary function to cleaning:

  • there are more emulsifiers because when you shake the bottle the product becomes nearly one emulsion – this is not possible without emulsifiers
  • the product has 3 sunscreen ingredients, so that it can essentially suggest, look I am moisturising facial skin more than other products. Its just not necessary to these additional ingredients
  • Bunch of allergens, which must be listed per EU regulation on the label (Benzyl salicylate, Benzyl alcohol).

I get that this product really does deliver – it removes make-up (excellently, if I may so), but its not for me because of the additional ingredients present. This defeats the simplicity of having a micellar water to begin with…

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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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