BEAUTY CLINIC: Decoding micellar water | Daily Mail Online

 Jo and Sarah answer real questions from readers: to put your query, go to beautybible.com 

Q What are micellar cleansers and do they work?

A Micellar water, aka micellar cleansing water (or variations on that theme), consists of ‘micelles’, tiny balls of cleansing molecules – usually oils – suspended in purified soft water.

These micelles are attracted to oil, the key component of make-up, sebum, grease and grime. So – when you drench a cotton wool pad in micellar water and swipe it over your face, it draws out the day’s grime and removes make-up. The key advantage is that the products cleanse without drying. In fact, some micellar waters claim to moisturise and hydrate skin as well as cleansing and refreshing.

Although it’s a fairly new concept in the UK, micellar water has been a beauty staple in France for many years (some say centuries), apparently because French women disliked washing their faces in the native hard water.

‘Do they work?’ is a tricky question. Some people love them, including a bunch of beauty editors. Others just don’t get what the fuss is about and much prefer to use a regular cleanser, whether that’s a lotion or wash-off product.

On balance, we would say micellar waters are great for a quick fix; for instance, if you’re out camping, at a festival, or travelling – or after a late night when you might otherwise use a cleansing wipe or, shock horror!, not cleanse at all. Micellar water is also handy for an end-of-day office cleanse if you want to refresh your make-up before going out.

Beware, however, that if you wear a lot of make-up, it may take several goes to get it off – not always totally successfully, according to reviews, particularly with eye make-up. By its chemical nature, micellar water really doesn’t cope with waterproof make-up, we’re told. (Plus the fact that some we’ve tried made our touchy eyes sting.)

Some women we talked to use micellar water with other cleansers, which, to us, kind of defeats the purpose. Also, the idea is that you don’t need to rinse after using micellar water but some users said their skin felt tight if they didn’t – which again seems to defeat the whole idea.

Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water, £10.80 for 200ml, was the first to launch in the UK in 2013 in London pharmacy John Bell & Croydon, and is still a firm favourite, especially for combination or oily skins. For a beauty steal, we think you would do very well with Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water for Sensitive Skin, £4.99 for 400 ml, which is really gentle. For normal and dry skin, Lancôme Eau Micellaire Douceur, £38 for 400 ml, has garnered devotees. 

We are fans of the US natural brand Derma E, which offers Vitamin C Micellar Cleansing Water at a reasonable £14 for 175 ml. Just one last thing, we prefer to use organic cotton wool pads for environmental reasons, eg Soil Association-certified Simply Gentle Organic Cotton Wool Pads. 

Do keep an eye on the next round of Beauty Bible Awards, as our diligent tester panels are trialling lots of micellar waters at the moment and the winners will be published then.

Beauty Bible loves… Organic Savanna, from $10. A wee while ago, Beauty Bible met up with a dynamic and impressive young man – Luke Kincaid – who’s doing some incredible things to change the world, in Africa.

Organic Savanna – an exciting, all-natural skincare line powered by East African botanicals – is how he’s doing it.

Organic Savanna is quirkily packaged – in a good way. The Aloe Vera & Avocado Soap ($10) is incredibly painstakingly wrapped in brown paper

On their community farm in Kenya, Organic Savanna produce aloe vera-based products which create jobs for women and fund education at the Karibu Centre, and in the surrounding community. So far, over 75 jobs have been created, 1,000 children are being educated (at daycare, pre-school, coding and tech clubs and drama club), while life skills are being shared with parents, preparing them for employment, training them to keep tidy finances, or get ready for other jobs.

But it’s not enough to have a good heart, in the beauty business. We’ve seen many a well-intentioned brand flounder on those business rocks. So we can report: aloe vera and other native African ingredients like baobab oil and shea butter are transformed into truly beautiful products.

Organic Savanna is quirkily packaged – in a good way. The Aloe Vera & Avocado Soap ($10) is incredibly painstakingly wrapped in brown paper (see above), while the sets of Lip Balms, for instance (which are among the nicest lip balms we’ve ever slicked our lips with, and went STRAIGHT into the handbag when we met up), are wrapped in African fabrics and hand-tied. There’s a Soy & Eucalyptus Candle – and a Hand Wash and Lotion set, coming soon.

It smells fab. It looks good. It DOES good. And it makes us really excited about the future of beauty.

NB Although prices are currently in dollars, Organic Savanna do ship to the UK. 

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk