General opinion on cleansing waters is divided. There are those that love them, and those that think spending money on ‘what comes out of the tap’ is completely idiotic. Personally, I love them. They are the ultimate in lazy cleansing – I suppose the only improvement would be if you could ‘spray’ them on and they would evaporate along with any dirt and grime. (Hey! That’s an idea!) You don’t need to be near a sink to cleanse with a water, you don’t need to get your hair wet – or any other part of you for that matter – you can cleanse lying in bed, sitting on a plane, riding on a camel through the desert.

I couldn’t have survived without Caudalie’s Cleansing Water in the past week. (I mean that in terms of ‘beauty’ survival, and not the serious type of life-or-death survival; although quite possibly I could have drunk my cleanser had I been desperate.) The formula is very gentle and soothing and suitable for even the most sensitive skin – which mine was! I was – and you will find out all about this in due time – presenting fashion shows for Style Birmingham Live last week, which meant that I was under hot lights, I was nervous, and I was having my makeup retouched quite a considerable number of times a day. At the end of each day, when I wanted to get rid of my makeup, I needed something gentle and refreshing that would also clean effectively.

Caudalie’s cleanser is a ‘micellar’ water – you may have come across this term as there seem to be quite a few new cleansers appearing on the market with this labelling. A micellar solution is basically (I’ll keep this short and sweet as it’s been a long time since A Level Chemistry!) a group of molecules that form a type of tiny ‘ball’, suspended in a water. The ‘tiny balls’ in the cleanser would be oil, and they would get to work at removing makeup, dirt and grime whilst the water is soothing and non-irritating to sensitive skin. There’s actually a bit more to the science behind this, but a) it’s boring, and b) I had enough of a job trying to explain that bit, so I’m afraid you’ll have to Wikipedia it!

Caudalie’s micellar cleanser contains the signature grape extracts that are present in all of their products, so it smells lovely and has the added bonus of the ‘super-powers’ that these grape extracts are rumoured to have (think anti-ageing and anti-oxidant). I found that this cleanser worked well even removing a few layers of no-shift makeup – primer, illuminating fluid, foundation and powder. Admittedly it took a few goes, but to me that is preferable to standing over a sink! I removed my makeup whilst sat on the hotel bed, watching rubbish TV. Delightful!

Cleansing Water by Caudalie, £14.00 from ASOS