I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with waterproof mascara. On one hand, it’s the only kind of mascara that will hold a curl in my pin-straight, East Asian eyelashes. On the other hand, it’s such a hassle to remove that I’ve resorted to only putting it on for special occasions. Putting it on is hardly a cake-walk either—not only do I have to extensively curl my eyelashes, but the mascara I use better be so waterproof it could withstand the entirety of the movie Coco without budging.
But mascara being that tough and long-lasting also makes it nearly impossible to remove. If you’ve never struggled to take off waterproof mascara, consider yourself extremely lucky. I’ve tried just about every makeup wipe and every natural remedy out there, and the only thing that worked for me in the past was the Neutrogena brand makeup wipes. The problem was that they made my eyes burn, but since they were the only thing that fully took off my makeup without losing half of my eyelashes in the process, I was stuck with them.
I’d seen the term micellar water floating around the Internet before, but hadn’t given it much thought. Honestly, I assumed it was another trendy but ineffective product and only good for non-waterproof makeup. Then, as I browsed through my local Target last week, I came across this bottle of micellar water from Garnier that claimed it could take off even the most stubborn waterproof mascara. Despite the 13,935 positive reviews, I thought to myself it still sounded too good to be true… but since it was only $7, I picked it up to try anyway.
Let me tell you, I am never using makeup wipes on my eyes again. I put some micellar water on a cotton pad and let it sit on my eye for about 30 seconds. Within one swipe, most of my mascara was gone. I remember just staring at the cotton pad for a full minute because I couldn’t believe how well it had worked. I did have to rub my eye a couple more times to get all of it off, but it was about the same effort as a Neutrogena makeup wipe would take—minus the eye irritation.
Although micellar water worked wonders for my eyes, I’m not sure I would rely on it to remove a full face of makeup. For one thing, micellar water is basically just special oils in water (hence the term micelles, which is a spherical molecule formed by hydrophobic lipids to reduce the surface area contact with water). As someone with oily skin, I generally try to avoid products that might clog my pores even more, including those with excess oils. So for all other makeup removal needs, I’ll probably still look at using makeup wipes.
But as far as waterproof mascara goes, micellar water is definitely a new staple in my makeup removal routine. For all my girls out there who need waterproof mascara but hate the burn of the (harsh but effective) Neutrogena makeup wipes, give micellar water a shot and see what you think!