Stephie Estie

Simple Cleansing Micellar Water Review!

Simple Micellar Water

Hi everyone!  How was your weekend?  I have some quick news to share in case you missed it. The lovely Aimee from The Peachy Queen Blog has reserved a spot for me every Saturday on her blog so if you have any questions or concerns about anything beauty related, please feel free to leave a comment there or contact me here.  If you love fashion, you’ll love her blog and boutique.  That’s all the updates for now, so let’s get started with the review. 🙂

Micellar water is one skincare item that has been trending lately and being a skincare geek, I had to see what all the rave reviews were about. Yes, I know I’m a little late but I’ve been asked by a few people what my opinion on this is so I decided to pick up the Simple Cleansing Micellar Water at my local CVS.

What is Micellar Water?

Micellar water is basically a type of surfactant formulated to be attracted to oil, allowing it to grab oil, dirt and debris while rinsing away clean.  A surfactant is an acronym for surface active agent that “reduces surface tension between the skin and the product to increase product spreadability.” Surfactants can be found in facial cleansers, soaps, body washes and shampoos and are what allow oil and water to mix, or emulsify.  Surfactant molecules have oil loving tails (lipophilic) and water loving heads (hydrophilic) that make it easy to trap oil, dirt and makeup and allow easy removal.

Below is an image taken from my notes in my UCLA Cosmetic Chemistry class that gives you a visual of what it looks like. (Please forgive my messy handwriting.)

Chemistry

What’s the Appeal?

Since micellar water has a higher water content, it can wiped away with a tissue or cotton pad with little to no residue left behind.  It’s also why it’s popular for sensitive skin types as it does not require water to be rinsed off.

Pros

Economic price point, $7.99

No added fragrance

Includes niacinamide which soothes inflammation and panthenol which is used as an emollient/moisturizer.

Good light eye-makeup remover

Cons

May not be enough for oily skin types

Doesn’t remove heavy makeup easily

Can leave a little bit of residue feeling behind

Overall: I do really like this micellar water as a first cleanse when I am wearing minimal makeup.  Unless I’m having a lazy skincare day (yes, I do have those days though they aren’t often), I find I need to follow up with my normal cleanser as it seems to leave a little bit of a residue feeling behind.  This is excellent for removing light eye makeup and doesn’t irritate my eyes at all.  If I’m wearing more makeup, I use an oil based cleanser instead as it breaks down makeup faster and easier versus the micellar water.  My skin doesn’t feel stripped but it doesn’t feel very hydrated either-I still have to follow up with my moisturizer.  I think this would be a good addition to your skincare routine but I would recommend that you follow up with the serums/moisturizers that work best  for your skin type as I feel using only this product alone isn’t enough.

I know the first part is a like a mini chemistry lesson and a bit difficult to take in at first read but hopefully you were able to get a visual picture of how it works. 🙂

Have you tried micellar water or have any questions regarding it?  Leave a comment below!

Stephanie

 

 

 

Comments

  2. I love it! I’m on my third bottle! I actually got some the other day at HEB (it’s a Texas grocery store) and they had store coupons for $4 off, which made the price $1.26!!! I bought all of them 🙂

    • Thanks Cos! I think it would make a nice light makeup remover for you and it didn’t cause breakouts for me so it might be nice to try. Let me know if you decide to test one out. Like I said, it’s not a necessity but it’s nice to have around. 🙂

  4. Love the chemical information of what micellar water is! Whenever I use the word hydrophilic, I am met with blank stares back, lol! 😛
    I use micellar water as my 2nd step cleanse, after I’ve used cleansing oil and rinsed that off. I find it removes any residue from the 1st cleanse really effectively. My favourite is from Yves Rocher. 🙂

    • Thanks! Yes, it’s mostly an industry/profession specific term so I can understand the blank stares, lol. Thanks for sharing how you use it. Haven’t tried the Yves Rocher but I will keep it in mind. 🙂

  7. I have this and I really like it! Sometimes I use it after I wash my face to pick up any traces of makeup left behind. I have only tried the Simple one so far but would like to try some other ones eventually.

  9. Great post! I wrote about micellar water in my column too so it’s kind of embarrassing to ask, but have other cleansing waters been just mixture of oil and surfactant and water? Please teach me! (>_<)

    • Well they do have other ingredients in them but these are the main ones. Depending which one you have, an O/W or W/O (Oil in Water or Water in Oil) is how it will function. Cleansing waters have higher water content while oil based are higher in oil but both are designed to mix with the oil in your skin and rinse off clean. Make sense? 🙂

  10. Oh I just remembered what I’ve learned..! So they are like more single layer but micellar is double just like human cell membrane, right? Thank you so much Stephanie! You connected dots in my brain, you always educated me 🙂