REVIEW: Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water

I apologize in advance if this is one of the many Garnier Micellar Water blog posts you’ve seen this month.  When a great new product hits S.A drugstore (Clicks/Dischem) shelves the beauty blogging community goes crazy and each blog post is a duplicate of the last.  I promise that I’ve tried my best to make this concise and not much like the other blog posts you may have already read.

You would have seen this one in my September favourites video (watch it here if you haven’t) where I had a good little chat about it but the blog post is where the in depth review happens.  My plan however is not make you read until you doze off but just give you the pros and cons of this product.

Quick overview: Micellar waters have been around for a little while, but good drugstore versions are hard to come by, until this one, hence the hype.  In short this is a makeup remover and cleanser which has micelles (tiny little cleansing agents) that act like magnets to lift dirt and makeup from your face.  Almost odourless and very gentle on the skin as the basis of this product is water combined with minimal other ingredients.

Positives:

•  Perfect for late (read: drunk) nights, when sleeping is the only thing on your mind.
• Simple morning cleanse: I like to use this on rushed mornings to take off my evening skincare products.
• Non/Minimal makeup wearers: if you’re one that doesn’t wear makeup on the daily and you also a tidbit lazy you’ll love this.
• Quick makeup remover:  I use this to remove my makeup before washing my face, which means often I don’t need to do a second cleanse.
• Almost odourless:  Because the base of this product is water the smell is not offensive at all.
• Gentle: I’ve used many products that are great at removing my face makeup and when it comes to my eyes I want to cry and they’re all red, puffy and agitated – not fun! This doesn’t do that.

Negatives:

• You have to use cotton pads:  This can be a bit of a pain when you’re using this product daily to remove makeup.  I could definitely get through two packs of the large oval face cotton pads.
• Sensitive eyes:  If your eyes are sensitive to things like cotton pads then this may not be fun for you.  Especially if you wear waterproof mascara, the eye shadow comes off just fine but you have to give the lashes a good few swipes before there’s no trace of mascara.

Just remember that you can’t use this to replace your normal cleanser, you do still need to wash your face with your regular cleanser that rinses off your face.  This is a no rinse formula but just like water-less hand cleaners you still have traces of bacteria on your skin after using it.

To wrap this up, I think it’s a great alternative to oil based cleansers, much cheaper than Bioderma & great for us lazy ladies.

You can buy this at most Clicks stores for R79.00 and just a heads up they’re running a 3 for 2 sale until 11 October so now would be the time to stock up!

Have you used this yet? Do you love it?