Garnier Clean Sensitive gentle cleansing milk review

    Ok so as far as I can tell, this product isn’t for sale anymore, however I think the new Garnier cleansing milks have a similar formula, and this could serve as a rough guide to whether you’ll like cleansing milks overall (that’s what I did anyway). I really should have dumped this bottle like 2 years ago but since I barely used it in the beginning, I had an almost full bottle and I just couldn’t dump it. (hello, it says hoarder in the blog title).

    First off, my understanding of the cleansing milk concept is that they’re sorta like a pre-mixed dual-layer makeup remover, containing both watery and oily ingredients emulsified together. You apply it to your face or a cotton pad and wipe the makeup off, no need to rinse after. This cleansing milk isn’t the consistency of milk but more like a cream moisturiser. It’s not runny and I feel the need to rub it into my face when I’m using it, to help break down the makeup. The bottle is sturdy but squeezeable, and the lid is great for keeping the product air-tight and making sure thers minimal mess. The only annoying thing is that since the lid is curved, I can’t stand the bottle upside down to get at the product at the bottom.

    My original perception was that it didn’t take off makeup well and felt greasy, so I stopped using it. When I tried the product the second time round it was less greasy than I remembered but it still left a slightly greasy feeling after wiping the makeup off and my face was definitely shiny. Surprisingly when I tested it on my hand it did take off almost all the makeup, but I did rub a bit harder than I might on my face, especially the eye area.

    Eye makeup was also my problem with this product initially, it takes makeup off best if you can soak the skin in it which is hard to do on the lashline. Also this makeup remover stings when it gets in my eyes so I always have to use a separate makeup remover for my eyes. It says on the bottle that it’s safe for use around eyes, which annoys me since it’s not at all comfortable, for me at least. It also claims to take off waterproof makeup, which I wanted to test. 

    For the makeup remover test, I used several eyeliners and eyeshadows, 3 lip products and a brow mascara. In hindsight I should have tested a normal mascara and a black liquid liner but oh well. I knew for a fact that the brow mascara totally came off with water, and most lip products come off with a tissue anyway. I chose a normal Revlon lipstick (chocolicious from the super lustrous range), a maxfactor colour elixir giant pen stick (they seriously ran out of ideas for names) in intense plum 45, and the Australis velourlips matte liquid lipstick in NY–CEE (bright bad-ass red), the latter 2 being product I know to stick well, particularly the velourlips which I think are waterproof (tho certainly not oil-proof). I also used Maybelline’s colour tattoo in electric blue from the metals range (which are more or less waterproof), a gold Savvy by db eyeliner that dries down and doesn’t crease (so I think of it as waterproof), NYX jumbo eyeshadow pencil in milk, a blue Topshop liquid liner and a smear of Australis mousse foundation.

 

swatches of makeup (I added some more eyeshadows and liner later)

    After waiting for some of the products to dry down, I applied a copious amount (I’m trying to get rid of it here) of the cleansing milk to the back of my hand and sorta distributed it evenly rather than rubbed it in. Then I took a cotton pad and wiped my hand once at about medium strength i.e. a bit harder than you’d rub your face but much harsher than you would your eye area. You can see that it does (surprisingly) take off almost all the makeup, but it also reminds me of another thing I didn’t like when I first used it and still don’t, it tends to smear. This is particularly annoying with colour makeup; you can clearly see a red trail behind the velourlips swatch (which is mostly still there), now imagine that on your face, all over your mouth.

first swipe

cleansing milk over swatches

And if you are more gentle around your mouth area than I am, you’d have a lot more red around your mouth. Basically the cotton pad picks up more makeup the harder you press and wipe it off, which is fine on your cheek bone, but on your eyelid? Nuh uh, ain’t happening.

    The next couple of swipes near my thumb were a bit softer and as you can see not all the makeup came off. Not only has about half the colour tattoo stuck around, most of the eyeliners aren’t completely gone either.

 

2nd and 3rd swipes

    When I scrub my hand as hard as I can all over, you can see that some small patches still remain, and the shine left behind is pretty obvious. You can also feel the product on your skin for a while afterwards. 

scrubbed hard

    I don't recognise any of these ingredients except for sodium laureth sulfate and this product doesn't foam up so it's obviously not in as a foaming agent. I'm just putting this up for the sake of it.

ingredients list

    Overall I’d call this a makeup remover of light to medium strength, i.e. you’ll probably need a non-irritating makeup remover to clean your eyes (and if you’re paranoid like me, you’ll go over your entire face anyway thus making this product useless unless you have only light makeup on).

This product would probably be best suited to those with dry skin and don’t tend to wear eye makeup, but honestly I wouldn’t really recommend this product to anyone when there are better makeup removers out there, at around the same price (I can’t remember how much this was but it was probably around $10).

Effectiveness: 6/10

Feel: 5/10

Packaging: 7/10