Review: Garnier micellar cleansing water (Bioderma dupe?)

                When I was in France, one of the things I really wanted was to buy some of the Bioderma cleansing water. I had heard great things about this product; that is was a favorite of makeup artists and models; that it cleansed gently but thoroughly etc. but, as you might know if you read my rant post about Paris, I was unable to buy some. It is cheaper in France in case you were wondering and is also available at some very select retailers in the UK (not boots or Superdrug) for a high price; the same with ebay. It is not available in store in the US.  There are no cleansing waters available in the US that I know of even.

So, since I couldn’t get bioderma I went on a search for a similar product and found this; the garnier version. The bottle I got has 400 ml (a big bottle of bioderma is 500 ml) and is supposed to last 200 washes. The purpose of this solution is to clean your face of all face, eye, and lip makeup products without having to rinse afterwards.  It is both clean and scentless, but tastes bad.

To use this, you simply pour some onto a cotton pad (it doesn’t say how much really, I just went with enough to thoroughly dampen a good 80% of the cotton pad) and then swipe the pad across your face.  This product does its job. It removed all of my make up with ease; including my sometimes tricky eyeliner and waterproof mascara, and I was able to do all of this with one pad that I used both sides of. As the water evaporated on my face there was a nice cooling sensation.

Overall, I really like this product and wished this, bioderma, and other similar products were more readily available in the US. I can definitely see myself using this technique to remove my makeup instead of makeup wipes. In fact, I’m already addicted! The price also isn’t bad at 3.32 pounds (it was on sale 33% off) for a big bottle plus a few pounds for cotton pads.