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 YourGoodSkin’s micellar water, specifically the claim that it removes make-up. This product is quite widely available in ONLY Boot’s pharmacies because it is made for Boots.
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 only real “immovable” make-up is the pigmented lipstick. That’s OK as it pretty much is in line with the bulk of micellar waters I have tested.
Are the ingredients exciting?
Only I could claim an ingredient label is genuinely exciting and mean it.
Well, the product has 16 ingredients – about 6 more than a decent French pharmacy brand. However, of these 16 ingredients, you have about 5-6 that are beneficial to the skin, including green tea extract, a Vitamin C derivative, a Vitamin B precusor and a hyaluronic acid derivative. All good stuff and worth spending money on EXCEPT how long is the micellar water on your face for? A few seconds? Will it really penetrate into the epidermis and benefit the skin?? I am not sure.
To buy or not to buy?
This is the best micellar water to remove make-up that you can buy from Boot’s own range.
Is it otherwise the best? No, but its also not too shabby. I can live with its inability to remove the pigmented lipstick because it actually feels light to use and is moisturising. I prefer it over Garnier’s Skin Active micellar water but not Bioderma’s Sensibio H2O.