The Escentual Micellar Water Blind Trial

A few weeks ago now I received a very exciting email (shortly followed by an equally as exciting parcel) informing me that I had been chosen to do the Escentual Micellar Water Blind trial, as well as 99 others from the beauty blogging world. The nearly exploding jiffy bag arrived, containing 7 droplet glass bottles... as well as some miniature perfume samples to add to the phrase that the best things in life are free. Each bottle was labelled with which sample it was. I had only tried one of the seven received so I was eager to test out the others:

• Avene Micellar Lotion Cleanser and Make-Up Remover
• Bioderma Sensibio H20 Micelle Solution 
• Caudalie Make-Up Remover Cleanser Water
• Dior Instant Cleansing Water
• La Roche-Posay Physiological Micellar Solution
• Nuxe Micellar Cleansing Water with Rose Petals
• Vichy Purete Thermale Calming Cleansing Micellar Solution

After having a little play and sniff of the bottles, I got down to how I was going to organise the two weeks allocated for the trial. After having a sneak peak at the survey I found that each sample needed to be rated on the; cleansing power, pleasure of use, moisture balance and reactivity. I got out the notebook and drew a little table for the results so that I wouldn't lose track of my thoughts. Can you tell how I made out this was a fun beauty science experiment? I trialled the Micellar waters twice a day (morning and night), for two days, noted the results and moved on to the next. Cotton pads at the ready!

The results

Sample A - The first impression that I got from this was the scent, I found it quite strong and violet based which didn't win me over. I found that my makeup easily came off and didn't leave me with any mascara under the eyes, the texture of my skin was pleasantly silky, moisturised and fresh. The killer of this one for me was the fact that it aggravated my skin, I found it broke me out quite quickly, with no colour change of my skin tone. Enter the Origins Super Spot Remover and Sample B...

Sample B - As I look over my notes I am reminded of how unpleasant this way to take my makeup off with, let's just say it took a lot of work and a morning of panda eyes. The texture of this on my skin was calming and smooth but it didn't leave my skin any softer, nor did it moisturise. If that wasn't enough to put me off, the smell was the worst of them all, an off-putting lavender smell.

Sample C - Finally! A scent which could linger all it liked, a cool cucumber smell which made me feel fresh. Unfortunately I found this one to also be quite tough removing makeup and didn't leave me feeling clean or moisturised. On the plus side I found it was soothing on the skin and redness and blemishes were quickly reducing. With a tug on the eyes and a lashing of moisturiser then I could pass it through for another use.

Sample D - Is it my makeup or were the majority of these tough to take makeup off with? Sample D wasn't much more powerful. The scent was nice, with a hint of smelling like a perfume. My skin tone was more even after some uses of this, but still not a lot of change for suppleness and moisture. D for Dior?

Sample E - Oh how happy I was to take off makeup with ease. The formula was smooth and strong to take off face and eye makeup with no aggravation. To top it all off my skin felt plump and full of goodness! There was a very faint scent which I couldn't pinpoint- I'm not complaining. There wasn't much change to the skin colour but I was still pleased with what it had done.

Sample F - My favourite. I shall take a guess that this is Bioderma, and if it's not I shall be quick to snap this up. It removed makeup like a dream, smoothly and with nearly no scent. My skin felt fresh after using it at morning and night, squeaky clean! It wasn't drying nor moisturising, it just left my skin normal and not tight at all. The queen of the Micellar Waters so far.

Sample G - After Sample F I found it considerably harder to remove my makeup and cleanse, it may have something to do with the texture of the water that I found to be quite dry as opposed to not much oil to it. There isn't too much bad to say about this one, nor a lot of goodness either. It did the job with a bit of work without much effect on the skin. A faint scent to end on a high.

Who knew Micellar waters could be so different? From the results I found that the second half of the batch worked best for me, luckily I didn't give up from Sample A. Out of all of them there is only one in which I would purchase which is Sample F, with Sample A being the worst simply because it broke me out. I found it rather exciting that I was going to be doing my own experiment at home, but after trialling 7 different Micellar waters it's safe to say my skin didn't love being a guinea pig.

Once Escentual.com have announced the results from the Blind Trial I shall be back with a small post of which sample was which and a little summary of my review against the brand's Micellar Water. I'm looking forward to reading some other bloggers thoughts of samples A-G, did you take part in the Escentual Micellar Water Blind Trial?