Tag: Cleansing

By Sophie Yeh
AUG 26, 2019

Micellar water solutions have become the norm over the past few years. It is known to be a gentle yet effective makeup remover and no-rinse facial cleanser. These claims sound similar to thousands of other gentle, makeup-removing facial cleansers, so it is difficult to determine how micellar waters are different from traditional facial cleansers in terms of ingredients and use. 

Key Ingredients 

Traditional Cleansers

Gentle face cleansers, which are generally the mildest and least harmful on the skin, consist of 15 or more ingredients, involving multiple surfactants, moisturizers, preservatives, and liquid thickeners. The surfactants system are most commonly known, such as sodium lauryl sulfate, stearic acid, sodium cocoyl isethionate (coconut derived). 

Micellar Water

The most common micellar solutions contain 5 to 10 ingredients, such as Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water, Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Cleanser & Makeup Remover, L’Oreal Micellar Cleaninsing Water, or La Roche-Posay Micellar Cleansing Water and Makeup Remover. These solutions consist of mostly water with 1 to 3 surfactants, lots of moisturizers, and one preservative ingredient. The surfactants provide the cleansing ability while emollients and moisturizers leave the skin feeling silky.

What’s the Difference?

Simply, micellar solutions are very diluted concentrations of surfactants while traditional cleansers are much more concentrated. Can you add water to the cleansers you have at home and call it micelle water? Close, but not exactly. Micelle solutions have a different surfactant system with capric glycerides, hexylene glycol, or propylene glycol that have high emollient factors and do not foam as much as traditional surfactant systems. On the other hand, facial cleansers can achieve the same level of cleansing, if not more, if it is applied in a very diluted concentration, then rinsed away. 

Who Should Use Micellar Water?

Micellar water is an excellent cleanser for dry or sensitive skin types who require minimal cleansing and struggle with facial cleansers being too dry. Micellar solutions are very emollient while stripping away dirt and oil, so do not compromise the skin barrier as much as facial cleansers.

Although some use micellar solutions as toners, it is not recommended that you use both. In doing so, you are essentially cleansing your skin twice and risk destroying the lipid-protein barrier of your skin. Economically, it also does not make sense to buy both and use both products when one bottle of cleanser is enough to cleanse effectively. 

Top Recommendation

My top recommendation is the Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Cleanser & Makeup Remover. It consists of a simple list of 7 ingredients with hexylene glycol as the main surfactant. This surfactant is very mild and is very safe according to EWG. A study found that hexylene glycol is less irritating and had the lease transepidermal water loss compared to propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is another common surfactant found in micellar solutions such as Bioderma Sensibio H2O, and is categorized as a contact allergen, along with sodium lauryl sulfate. 

 It is also affordable at $6.59. Interestingly, L’Oreal Micellar Cleansing water has the exact same ingredients, but sold at a higher price ($9.99). Garnier is a brand owned by L’Oreal as well, so I would choose Garnier’s micellar water over L’Oreal’s due to the lower price.

References