Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water Review

NOTE: I first reviewed the Garnier Micellar Water in 2014, after using it for two weeks. I then switched to another makeup remover, giving this one to a friend. After all of the hype this year, I repurchased and used for two weeks before having a terrible breakout. At this point, I decided to rewrite my review. When I first used the product in 2014 I had acne, so would not have attributed this product to it.

I have used the ZA cleansing oil to remove makeup for years. It is quick, easy and effective. When my ZA cleansing oil ran out recently (believe me, I usually have backups) I didn’t want to go into town especially for it, so I picked up the Garnier Micellar water at the supermarket. The Garnier Micellar water is used by soaking cotton pads and then wiping these over the face. This totally pulls the makeup off my face, foundation, mascara, eyeliner and all. No scratching or scrubbing, no cleanser splashed into my eyes, and no sticky residue. It does take five or six cotton pads to remove my full face of makeup, so it isn’t an environmentally friendly way to remove makeup. I then follow up with a double cleanse using my Lancome cleanser.

The Garnier Micellar water didn’t irritate my eyes and I was under the impression that it was virtually just water, so I wasn’t concerned about the ingredients affecting my skin. My skin is usually very clear, with no more than two small blemishes at a time. Within a week of using this product, I had a major break out. I had at least six large blemishes around my chin, as well as small bumps over the rest of my face. I was guttered, as my skin scars for a long time and I had invested a lot of time, care and money into getting my skin to a blemish and acne scarring free state. I had introduced other products into my routine at the same time, including a foundation, so the Garnier Micellar water didn’t ring alarm bells and I continued to use it for another week. After seeing a post on Instagram regarding the Garnier Micellar water and break outs, I immediately stopped using it. From that point I had no further blemishes, however the ones that it caused are taking very long time to heal. Due to the high number of girls that have broken out from this product, I do not recommend it to anyone, and have returned to my ZA cleansing oil.

When I read all the hype surrounding this product I guess I was expecting a miracle. My expectations were pretty high. I soaked a cotton pad with Micellar water and wiped it across my made up face. When I looked at the pad after wiping I expected to see a lot of my makeup there, however there was only the faintest residue of it. I wiped again, this time quite firmly, still very little came away. The next day I decided to experiment. On half my face I used Micellar water and on the other half, tap water. After wiping, the two pads looked identical. In short, this doesn't seem to offer me anything that good old tap water doesn't already offer in abundance.

I was so determined to get my hands on this after all the hype about it on the makeup obsessives page. But It hadn't been released in Nz (it was due to release about a week after I purchased it). I found it on the hikosencara website and without any hesitation I put it in my cart. It was roughly $20, it could have been a wee bit more but I didn't know any better and didn't think any thing of it untill I told my friends about it. They then went on to tell me that when it releases in Nz it would roughly be $13 so understandably I was a little disappointed. Anyway....

I had been using it to remove my makeup (as you do) and I was loving how quick and easy it was. It removed all of my makeup with ease, I even used an oil cleanser afterwards to see if there was still any makeup that the micellar water had missed but the cotton pad was clear. No yucky left over makeup, just clean skin and a white cotton pad. I had used it roughly 6 times and it had barely used any product. I was so impressed that I actually went out and bought another one (never hurts to have a backup right).

Well a couple of days later, I noticed my skin had broken out, really badly. My forehead was the worst. I had huge red bumps all over it :( It was the worst breakout I had ever had. They slowly started to appear on my cheeks and onto my chin aswell. I carried on using my micellar water and they just continued to get worse. I immediately stopped using it and tried to let my skin breathe for the next few days so I didn't make my breakouts worse.

It took weeks for them to heal and settle down. I haven't touched the micellar water since and have just started using my skinfood cleans all again and it has made a huge difference.

I'm really sad that my skin didn't agree with this product. I loved how easy it was to remove my makeup at the end of the day. I will definitely give the micellar water another go, it just wont be the garnier one.

This was one of those products that got ALL the hype, it was talked about everywhere I went. On Social Media everyone was uploading photos of this new creation, it was nearly as crazy as a new Whittaker's Chocolate being bought out. So with all the hype I decided to try it out.

At first I loved it, this product was brilliant. It removed all my makeup without any struggle, it even took of my mascara which was usually a problem with most cleansers.

However, after a couple of weeks my skin started to change, my foundation wouldn't stay on anymore. It got worse, I couldn't blend foundation into my skin, it would just sit on the surface of my skin & wouldn't blend into my pores. My skin became oily, never in my life had I had oily skin. I stopped using the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water immediately as this was the only new product I had started using, 2 months later my skin is still getting back to normal, it's not as oily as it was but I HIGHLY recommend you research this product before you start using it - I guess it depends on the type of skin you have, but for myself with normal to dry skin - it was a nightmare.

I feel like I'm one of the only ones who do not rave about this stuff. I'm actually going to struggle to finish the bottle - might have to give it away :(

Firstly, the product is a very generous size, I think it's claim of 200 uses is pretty spot on. I like that it doesn't irritate my skin or eye area at all but what I don't like is that it just doesn't budge double wear foundation or mascara.

I lose interest when you have to keep working at removing make-up and granted double wear can be hard to get off but the amount of make-up this doesn't remove is just too much for my liking. After using 4 cotton swabs the foundation and mascara is still visible on my face and my face feels slightly dry and tight.

I've found I achieve a better result with this if I only have BB cream of a foundation that doesn't have much staying power on, that seems to come off much more easily.

Perhaps it's the makeup I use but I definitely will not repurchase. I find oil cleansing much more suitable for me.

After hearing all the hype about this 'magic water' i was super keen to try it. I purchased the smaller bottle, just as a tester so see if i liked it, and im glad i only purchased the small one. What a disappointment! It definitely didnt remove any of my make up and i dont even wear anything heavy. It left my skin feeling very dry. The consistency is exactly how you think; watery so make sure you squirt it onto a make up pad when using it. The worse part of this product was that it stung my eyes so bad! I would not recommend this to anyone and definitely wont be purchasing it for myself again.

Wow this was a bad mistake on my part.

It burned my eyes, even when I kept the product away from my eye area. It felt like it stripped my skin of essential oils as my dry areas became very parched and flaky. Caused a rash to appear on my chin.

After purchasing it for full price of $12 from reading so many excellent reviews I felt like crying. A week of aloe vera only as skincare saw my skin recover but that bottle of evil water was going no where near my face ever again.

Heard it can be used to clean brushes but after what it did to my skin the bottle went into the bin

I have oily skin and I thought I'll buy the micellar for oily skin. As a result the first Garnier micellar product I used was the one for oily skin. But it ended up drying out my skin so bad my skin became even oilier.

So I thought ..hey I'd try this one. It is for sensitive skin so it must be gentle. Boy was I wrong or what. The one for oily skin only dried my skin out. This one did that and on top of that irritated my skin so bad, I couldn't use my regular cream afterwards without my skin burning. I had to use 100% pure aloevera on my skin to get it back to its normal state.

Thinking that the irritant must be the combination of this and my face wash, the next time I didn't cleanse my face and used this again after a week only to end up in the same situation. Since then I decided to stay far far away from it.

I must be sensitive to some ingredient in it. Good thing I only bought a small bottle.