Beauty Review | Avène Micellar Lotion

French beauty brand Avène launched exclusively at Clicks last month, and everyone in the S.A. beauty world was super amped.  I was most excited to try out their micellar cleansing water, so that’s exactly what I did. Here are my thoughts…

HOW DOES IT CLEAN?

It removed my foundation, blush, bronzer and eye shadow really well, but wasn’t as good at removing my mascara. I feel like I have to be a little more aggressive when it comes to removing my mascara (which is not a good thing). As with Bioderma’s micellar water, it won’t leave your skin feeling tacky. Your skin will feel soft, cleansed, refreshed and comfortable. Avène’s micellar water has a scent (which is very light), but I wonder why they added this unnecessary facet? Fragrance has been known to irritate sensitive skin, so why not just leave it out altogether? And now for the not so pleasant part of my experience: for some reason this micellar water burns my skin! I don’t know if this is a good burn or a bad burn, but I’ve checked out the ingredients and I think it’s a bad kind of burn.

HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO BIODERMA’S SENSIBIO H2O?

This product doesn’t have the same feel good squeaky clean feeling as the Bioderma version, but still manages to do a good job at removing most make up. The fact that Bioderma makes it super easy to remove eye makeup, and Avène makes me have to gently pull at my undereye skin, makes Bioderma the hands down winner. Basically, I won’t rush back to buy this once its run out, and will keep on flying the Bioderma flag.

Rating: 4/5 (I had high hopes for this product, but alas)
Product: 4/5
Packaging: 5/5
Quality: 4/5
Price: R200 for 200ml (It’s more expensive than Bioderma)
Would I buy again?: No thanks
Where to buy: Clicks

If you want to read more about micellar cleansing waters, click here.