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 Vichy’s micellar water -sensitive skin, 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 results are pretty rubbish and there is a shed load of make-up that remains, from the Kay beauty eyeshadow, kajal, primer, blusher and to the Pat McGrath lipstick.
The ingredient label.
Garnier and Vichy use exactly the same surfactants: Disodium Cocoamphoacetate and Poloxamer 184. In fact the first 4 ingredients on both labels is the same: Water, Hexylene Glycol, Glycerin, Disodium Cocoamphoacetate….So in both products, the 3rd ingredient is Glycerin, a humecant.
However the results are very different: Garnier removes make-up and Vichy simply doesn’t. I can tell you why Vichy performs poorly – Disodium Cocoamphoacetate is a mild cleansing agent etc etc, BUT I can’t explain the difference between Garnier and Vichy….
Note: Disodium Cocoamphoacetate is frequently used in micellar waters because it works well with other surfactants, and has low eye and skin irritation potential….)
To buy, or not to buy?
This is a terrible make up remover and I am not persuaded that its any decent as a micellar water. Its possibly just TOO mild for my liking and that’s what makes it perfect for sensitive skin.