Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Waterproof Makeup Remover & Cleanser Review

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Waterproof Makeup Remover & Cleanser ($8.99) is now available in US drugstores. You might recall a few months ago when I originally reviewed Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water which I had purchased from Asia but finally we are getting both the regular formula and the waterproof formula here in the US at drugstores.

Since I had already tried, reviewed, and loved the original formula I decided to check out the Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Waterproof Makeup Remover & Cleanser formula instead since it wasn’t one I had tried and the waterproof option intrigued me since I wear harder to remove mascara and other eye makeup.

Micellar waters are slowly creeping into the US market but it’s a slow process. Last year, Simple Cleansing Micellar Water launched but I think for the most part as big as the trend is, it has quite been as popular here as it has a broad in my opinion. If you aren’t in the “know” about micellar waters check out my “What is Micellar Water?” post to get you up to date!

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Waterproof Makeup Remover & Cleanser is a little confusing to me but let me tell you all I love about it before I explain some of the confusion I felt about it.

First off, this is $8.99 at Walgreens and comes in a 13.5 oz bottle. I purchased two immediately because I noticed it was a bi-phase formula and I instantly loved how HUGE it was so I thought, “Hey, this is great! Removes waterproof mascara and a big bottle too!” Personally, I go through a lot of eye makeup remover and I always feel like the smaller 4 oz sizes are just too small. For something we use so often why is eye makeup remover only available in 4 and 6 oz sizes? SOMETIMES if you’re lucky an 8 oz….! I’d buy a 16 oz bottle if they made it because it is one of my skincare staples.

So yeah, I loved that Garnier puts this in a big old 13 oz bottle!

On the bottle it reads that this is great for face, lips, and eyes and it also says dermatologist and opthamologist tested. However, it also says “Do not get into eyes” and if you do get it into your eyes rinse with water. This isn’t the only confusing thing about this formula but it was one that kinda made me puzzled. I will say I used it on my eyes and I didn’t experience any stinging nor did I have any other issues but I thought it was a bit concerning they said do not get into eyes. As in directly? Or as in don’t put it near your eyes? So yeah, that was a little weird. On the back of the bottle they say to saturate a cotton pad with the micellar water, hold it on your eye, do not rub, and remove after a few minutes. Personally I did the old swiping method to remove. It worked like a charm and it removed all my eye makeup remover. I didn’t doubt it wouldn’t work as the bi-phase formula had me all kinds of excited.

On that note, the other thing that confused me was in fact that bi-phase formula. I wasn’t particularly keen on swiping this all over my face and the cause for my concern was that my face would be left feeling oily greasy and weird. It just seemed like I was taking my favorite eye makeup remover and using it to remove my makeup. And that’s actually how it felt. It was pretty weird and although it is marketed as being oil-free my face still kinda felt oily and shiny after I removed my makeup with it.

Technically micellar water is exactly that, water. But this is a bi-phase formula and to me it just feels like I’m using eye makeup remover all over my face. On that note, I will say it removed makeup quite well but I wasn’t too keen on the way it left my skin feeling weirdly oily.

Micellar waters are great when you’re feeling a bit lazy and simply don’t want to go through the many steps to remove all your makeup. We’ve all had nights where we come home and can’t really think about removing our eye makeup with one product, using another product to remove our face makeup, and maybe some of us even embrace the double cleanse routine which means even more work…so yeah, micellar water are def a lazy and quick way to remove makeup in one go.

For me, I’m actually one of those people that doesn’t feel truly clean using micellar water alone so I’m pretty happy using Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Waterproof Makeup Remover & Cleanser for removing my eye makeup only at the end of the day! I’m not terribly comfortable using this one all over my face but good news as they do have the original version that released in Japan now available in the US as well! This is a more traditional micellar water formula and works fabulously (check the archives for my review on it) without the oily residue that this version leaves behind on.

I’m so on board with Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water All-in-1 Waterproof Makeup Remover & Cleanser as an eye makeup remover though! That alone makes it well worth checking out! But not sure how many people are actually going to like this formula on their face.

I look forward to hearing about your experience with it.

Available now at drugstores.