Back in the 19th century the French woman in Paris were famed throughout the
globe for their amazing skin. However its industrialization occurred the water
became not so great, it led to impurities the skin suffered and it became dull. Out
of this mess came micellar water! the greatest invention for skincare possibly
of all time, and I'm here today ladies and gentlemen to talk to you about the
great invention that is micellar water!
Hello I hope you enjoyed my snazzy intro there welcome to my new series Dr Debunks.
In this series we're going to be talking about beauty myths and
misconceptions and exploring whether or not things are always what they seem. If
you don't know my name is dr. Sarah Tonks I work in medical esthetics
and I'm a genuine bonified ER doctor you'll find me on the medical register
should you wish to do so I also have a diploma in cosmetic science from the
Society of cosmetic scientists and one in dermatology as well. So I guess you
could say that most of the time I know what I'm talking about.
Usually Micellar water is basically micelles which are this, its a bit sciencey
so sorry, It's something which has got a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail
which kind of aggregate round in like a globule like this. So they'll have all
their hydrophobic tails pointing inwards and all the hydrophilic heads around the
outside we will do a graphic about this because it's a little bit complicated
but they look basically look like these little spheres and these micelles they
act as surfactants. Surfactants are things which lower the surface tension
between two surfaces which means that you need to use less energy basically to
transfer something from one place to another. Let's not get too
technical with the micellar water but that's essentially what they do. And it's
a mixture of oil in water. Now normally if you traditionally try to mix those
two things together they'll end up separating so you'll have your oil at
the top and then your water at the bottom, but these micelles with the fancy
way that they have the bit that loves oil in the center and the bit that loves
water around the outside means that they can cohabit and exist peacefully
together for the benefit of your skincare. First thing, is micellar water
good or bad for your skin? I think speaking very very generally
it's good for your skin and here's why. So if we're using products which contain
a lot of alcohol or we're destroying our skin's barrier function by using a lot
of water and maybe soap for example, if you're someone like me who used to have
acne or sometimes I get dermatitis. So I do suffer with perioral dermatitis when
you use something like in micellar water because you're not having these
negative impacts on the barrier function. I found that I've had a lot fewer
flare-ups, so from that point of view I think definitely good. From a practical
point of view with micellar water you have to put it onto a cotton pad so it
is a bit of a pain if you're traveling and you know maybe you're one of these
people who likes to just use wipes and go because with this you'll need to take
separate pads with you. I have tried it with tissue it doesn't seem to work as
well all the tissue kind of gets filled up and bunched up and it kind of just
destroys the whole sheet so it really does have to be a cotton wool pad. Do you
have to wash your face after you've used micellar water? Well I think the jury is
definitely still out on this one I think it depends on how sensitive you are to
the surfactants inside the micellar water so, if you're somebody who gets
very irritated skin extremely easily you may
well still need to rinse off the micellar water once you've applied it on the
cotton pad. But let me tell you this it's really really cool to use so you just
get yourself a cotton pad you whack that micellar water on and even if you've got
makeup on it we'll take that right off. It's amazing so maybe you're traveling
you're going to a festival or something there isn't enough water around for you
to actually wash properly this could be the solution for you.
Makeup wise, if you've got a lot of heavy eye makeup on or you're wearing
waterproof makeup it's probably not going to come off with micellar water, so
you'll probably still have to use a separate makeup remover for those two
places. But everything else, foundation just comes straight off. Can you use
micellar water as a toner? Great question Sarah let me answer that for you so I
would say depends what you like to have in your toner. So I like to have an acid
toner. I've just started using the pixi glow tonic which I am loving right now
so I wouldn't want to replace my toner with a micellar water. I see it more of
something that helps you take your makeup off or something that you use
when you don't have access to water or maybe you're not wearing makeup at all
and you just want to very click quickly clean your face before you then put
makeup on you can also use them to touch up small areas of makeup. So you can just
put a little bit on a cotton bud if you've got a tiny bit of eye makeup
that's out of place and you just want to correct that so it's really really good
for that but, because it doesn't contain the acids that I like to see in a toner
I would have to say no unless you've got a good reason not to be using acids. So
say you've got eczema or psoriasis or they just don't agree with your skin in
which case the answer may be yes. But I'm only / combination so you have to do
much right for you. Which micellar water do I like to use? I
know that's what you're all thinking well Bioderma that Old Faithful
with the pink cap. This one is probably the one which is
the most widely used. It's the most talked about online, a lot of makeup
artists talk about this as well because it's easy for them to change their
clients makeup between sheets. Don't be confused between this one and
the Garnier version which also has a pink top which has got very very
different ingredients. And I haven't actually tried the Garnier version
myself yet but I am told that it's very irritating, so I would definitely go with
the Bioderma. Next up this one I'm trying at the moment it's Avene now as you've
probably seen my French is not great so Eau micellar.
That's French of all micellar water. This one is good if you have got an oily skin
type as it has something in which regulates sebum production.
I found myself out of the two - I preferred the classic Bioderma.
I do think this one might be a little bit too stripping for most people which
then can lead to overproduction of sebum another good one would be the Simple
micellar water if you guys have heard of that one. We've got a premium products
here now which is the RHA micellar solution from TEOXANE. Now if you
didn't know - TEOXANE are a company who also produced dermal fillers
so they make a hyaluronic acid dermal filler called TSL and one of their
ranges is called RHA in an injectable dermal filler and this micellar solution
actually contains the same hyaluronic acid as is in their filler so it's the
same but obviously it's not in a syringe and you can't inject it into your face.
It's just kind of free in the liquid and the idea behind that is that it stops it
from dehydrating and drying your skin out too much. I do use this in the clinic
sometimes as a prep so if somebody comes in with quite a lot of makeup on
obviously we have to take that off first for infection
control reasons. So I'll take it off with Johnson baby white first and
then use a bit of this afterwards to really make sure that the skins very
clean and then I'll do the surgical prep afterwards. So I do really like this I
think it's a really good product but it is quite pricey. I think if you're
looking for something that's kind of sitting in the middle of the road I
definitely go with the Bioderma. So to sum up 'Is micellar water worth the
hype?' I've got to tell you yes it definitely is worth the hype from my
perspective. It's definitely changed how I clean my skin at the end of the day,
how I take my makeup off. You do have to make sure that you get the right one for
you. I think if you're just entering the
market now when you're just looking for an all-rounder I'd probably go with a
Bioderma. Sorry if that's a bit boring but you know it's a good price point, it
does what it says on the tin and it's my pick of the day. Okay so that's it for
today. I hope you enjoyed the episode! Join me again next week were I'm going
to be talking about sheet masks. Are they worth the hype? If you've tried any
micellar water or if there's something that you're dying to get off your chest
about it, let me know in the comment section below and don't forget to Like
comment and subscribe... have a great day!