Best Micellar Water: Garnier vs Botanics vs Nivea

I know I promised a comparison post of the Botanics Micellar Water and the Garnier Micellar Water ages ago, but it seemed worth waiting to add the Nivea one into the mix after I got it in last month’s Glossybox. (See my post about that incredible box here). So here it is at last!

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water

This was my first bottle of micellar water. It’s a 400ml bottle, which is twice the size of the other two. Its £4.99, but is often on offer. I’ve been using this since the end of July and still have a fair amount left. This cleanser removes my make up really easily, as well as sharpie and hair dye stains. It leaves my skin soft and clean and has helped with breakout problems. It’s formulated for sensitive skin, is hypoallergenic and is fragrance free. I honestly have nothing bad to say about this product and it is no secret that I love it. I wrote a full review about it in August, which you can read here.

Boots Botanics All Bright Micellar Water

I picked this up on an introductory offer at the end of August, it’s RRP is currently £2.99, but it will go up to £4.49. Not a bad price for the size at the introductory rate, but when you consider that it is only a 200ml bottle, the Garnier Micellar Water is better value. So is this a more premium product worth the extra money?

This comes in two varieties, one of which is formulated for sensitive skin, but I decided to get the All Bright as it smelt nicer. This is lightly fragranced with hibiscus and the Calming sensitive one has marshmallow root.

I used this in exactly the same way as I did the Garnier water, but found it to be too harsh around the eyes (it really stings if it gets in your eye – not great for a product developed to remove waterproof make up). After a week of using this, I found I was breaking out and switched back to the Garnier one, which soon calmed things down.

Overall, I don’t think this is a product for me and I won’t be buying it again.

Nivea Daily Essentials Micellar Cleansing Water

I got a full sized 200ml bottle of this in last month’s Glossybox and couldn’t wait to try it out. This is formulated for sensitive skin and retails at £4.07. This is then a middle priced item compared to the Garnier and Botanics ones.

Thanks to the grapeseed oil in it, this smells amazing! And leaves my skin feeling really soft. I really liked using this product. It removed my make up easily and left my skin feeling refreshed, hydrated and clean. However, I had break out problems after using this for a week, so I switched back to the Garnier one once again. However, this time things haven’t improved so well. Although the blackheads have cleared up more, I have got a lot of little, angry, under skin spots across my forehead that don’t seem to want to go anywhere.

The fact that changing to these gave me break outs after a week made me think. Was I not using them long enough for my skin to adapt? But then, when I first start using the Garnier water I didn’t need to, my skin improved within a week. Could it be the ingredients? All three have different main ingredients, which makes it difficult to pinpoint what exactly it could be causing my breakouts. So what else could it be? Maybe they just don’t remove my make up as well.

To see, I devised a little test. I put on the same make up every day and did the same shift at work. I then picked one of the cleansing waters to take my make up off shortly after I got home. Once I was satisfied that they had removed all the make up they could, I used my La Roche-Posay Effaclar Astringent to go back over my skin. This always seems to find extra dirt in my pores and I kept the cotton pads I’d used to see which one was dirtiest. This then showed me which had removed the least of my base make up. The result? The Botanics one has very noticeably foundation coloured and was the definite loser. It was much closer between the Nivea and Garnier ones, but my beloved Garnier came out on top, although only just. I think this helps to explain why switching back to Garnier cleared my skin up after using the Botanics, but it doesn’t help with what’s making my skin break out so badly a few weeks after stopping using the Nivea.

Overall, I am definitely not getting the Botanics one again, which I think is over priced and under performs. However, I would like to give the Nivea another chance once my skin settles back down again, but for now, the Garnier Micellar Water is the clear winner. It is the biggest bottle, the cheapest product, removes my make up best and has really helped with my skin and will definitely be on the repurchase list.

Do you use a micellar water? What do you think of it?