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…