This $28 French Pharmacy Staple Saved My Parched, Damaged Skin

France is known for many things: love, baguettes, and my personal favorite, skincare. I’ve always wanted to visit Paris, but the closest thing I have at the moment to a stay in the Montmartre are my mutant baguette pillow and my newfound crush: Avene’s Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream. I’m not even mad that I can’t experience the Louvre Museum or the Eiffel Tower, because thanks to the French-girl-beauty-secret moisturizer, my skin is at least moisturized and supple, and I’m practically glowing.

So, how did I hear of this stuff?

I hadn’t seen my esthetician, a skincare specialist, in a hot minute, but when I finally did catch up with her, she had me shook. When she went to extract my pores, my skin was too dry to get anything out. I had never experienced that before, but was thinking it must be from all the highly concentrated products I use regularly. This dryness convinced her that I’m at a big risk for developing early wrinkles, which is obviously not a fun thing to hear. It was a wake-up call that I need to be drinking more water and focusing on my skin hydration—both inside and out. It was her recommendation that introduced me to Avene’s Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream to fix my skin sins. (And, for what it’s worth, she was even endorsing this cream when the clinic didn’t sell it, which was how I knew it must be golden).

What is Avene’s Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream?

This highly protective and emollient moisturizert is the most decadent and nourishing cream I’ve ever used. It’s designed to repair your skin barrier with a protein-rich postbiotic extract to promote a healthy microbiome (aka: the community of bacteria that naturally live on our bodies) and restore your skin (in fact, it’s actually recommended for wound care). Avene claims the cream has the ability to reduce skin discomfort by up to 80% after just 48 hours of use, and I can attest to that. It’s so gentle the product can even be used on infants (which makes sense given my face is now smooth as a baby’s butt).

Key ingredients include a signature C+-Restore complex, a copper-zinc sulfate complex for recovery, and thermal spring water from Avene (the brand is named for the town in France) to soothe, soften, and calm skin. Designed to be non-comodogenic (aka, it won’t clog your pores), Avene’s product is also fragrance-free, paraben-free, and alcohol-free—making it the holy grail for folks with sensitive skin.

This stuff WORKS

As soon as I got the recommendation from my esthetician, I trotted up to Ulta to secure my goods. Since, as we all know, sunscreen is the most important product you can regularly use to protect and preserve your skin, I also threw Avene’s Solaire UV Mineral Multi-Defense Sunscreen Fluid SPF 50+ into my shopping cart and have been loving it so far. I’ve been pairing it with the Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream and my skin has been feeling supremely supple—perfectly moisturized and balanced, with no dryness. I used to have skewed thinking: Dry skin must mean I have non-oily skin, which must be a good thing because that should mean no zits or breakouts! Well, news flash—just because you have no breakouts does not mean your skin is healthy (as I’ve learned). Fortunately, I now have ultra-hydrated and breakout-free skin—thanks in no small part to Avene’s products. After just two days of use, my skin no longer felt tight and itchy, and was flake-free.

Even if my personal success story isn’t enough to sway you, you don’t have to just take my word for it. The Avene’s Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream has a 4.6-star average on Ulta’s website with users being stunned by how good it is. “My skin not feeling like the Sahara and looking like Santa's suit is priceless. I cannot recommend this enough! If you struggle with dry skin or red skin, do yourself a favor and go get this now!”

TL;DR: There is a light at the end of the tunnel if you have skin as dry as Death Valley. Avene quenched my parched skin’s thirst just after an impressive two days. My skin is so sensitive, but this product has my stamp of approval since I’ve had zero breakouts despite its rich, thick formula. The Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream has officially earned my trust. I will be slathering it on forever. At least this round, the French really do rule the skincare game. Tip your esthetician, folks.

The Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream is available at Avene, Ulta, and Amazon.

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