L’Oreal Micellar Water- The Review

I love a micellar water, I really do. I love the feeling of sweeping a freshly soaked cotton disk over a dirty/made up face and that incredibly satisfying feeling when, finally a few cotton discs later the disc comes up completely white. I love the feeling of getting all the gunk off before I do a proper cleanse (I’m a devout Emma Hardie cleansing balm fanatic) so I know that when I’m massaging my expensive, luxurious and quite frankly heavenly smelling cleanser in that it’s really getting to work on under the skin and not just ridding my face of my Chanel foundation.

I used to be a total Bioderma obsessive, I’d preach it’s many virtues to anyone who would so much as ask for any skincare advice…that was until tragedy struck.

Last year in early November I was incredibly ill- I mean really ill, so ill that I wore no make-up, hardly ate and didn’t leave the house  for over a week, essentially I was housebound and had zero interest in my two favourite things- food and skincare. After sweaty fevers I’d get my mum or boyfriend to hand me a readily soaked cotton disc of Bioderma to rid my face of the yucky ill feeling that accumulates. For the first few days my skin was glowing, literally perfect. I couldn’t believe it, here my body was totally at its lowest ebb and yet my skin looked airbrushed without so much as a hint of tinted moisturiser- maybe this was the answer? maybe wearing zero makeup and not going to town on the skincare was the answer behind perfect skin?….

How very wrong I was about to be proven. 5 days in, and things took a turn for the worse- my skin went really odd. I mean really odd, I broke out in tiny little bumps all over my t-zone and it was excessively oil. If you’d seen me at this point in time you’d have been terrified; I had lost 6lb which made me under 7 and a 1/2 stone, my collarbones were jutting out, my under eyes were the colour of the evening sky and my skin was angry…really angry, not in a hormonal way though, in a kind of stripped and dehydrated way. I was soon better and out of bed and straight into the skincare departments- I vowed to never touch Bioderma again, because of course I blamed it for my outbreak. I started indulging my skin in hydrating and nourishing products, and almost instantly it was transformed back to its usual state (not as perfect as the first few days of illness but not nearly as bad as the end).

Now of course it wasn’t the actual Bioderma’s fault, it was my fault- you can NOT use a micellar water as the be all and end all of your skincare routine, much as they’d like to let you believe that you can. Don’t do it! They only really work if you use them as a very basic make-up removal step, no more and no less- things would have worked out better for me if I’d just used a hot flannel and water, seriously. Something in the ingredients of Bioderma was stripping my skin, and as I wasn’t using anything else after, I had nothing to restore it.

It was with excitement and trepidation that I tried L’Oreal Paris’ new micellar water- it claims to be a 3 in 1 purifying solution that aims to 1.dissolve make-up, 2. unclogs pores and removes impurities and 3. tones and soothes skin. Now I’ve only used this twice so far and my skin feels nicely clean and not too tight after use and there’s no detectable scent (something I’m divided about, good because it wont irritate the skin but bad because I love nice smelling products!) , I do seem to really like it, however I will say that those intending on using this as their main cleanser- just don’t do it! It’s not worth it, it’s a pre-cleanse and that is that. Also, those who have used Bioderma in the past- the L’Oreal one is exactly the same, same consistency (well water..hah), same lack of scent and same very very clean feeling post usage.

Sorry for the length of this post I just felt it was important to relay the information before you get swept up in a craze, I’m all for a trend but sometimes they’re not good for you- Bioderma is still riding a massive wave of publicity and it is a good product but the L’Oreal one is equally as good for what they are!

Tijan xxx

PS. Bioderma is now available in London, something which I believe will dampen its ‘cult must have’ status, but I think it’s available at Zest Pharmacy in Soho.

You can buy the L’oreal Micellar Water for £4.99 for 200ml here