Name: Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream
Brand: Avène
Rating: 82.0 (5 reviews)

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Dr. Daniel Sugai

716k subs · 23k devotees

✓Approved

"If your skin is feeling very dry and sensitive and actually painful like it stings when you apply CeraVe or Cetaphil, consider two rescue creams. One would be Avène Cicalfate Restorative Protective Cream. I have never had that sting my face and I've been in some rough situations where my retinoid really dried out and irritated the skin around my eyes during the winter time and that came through. It has nice thermal spring water. It has soothing minerals in there and is great for kids and adults."

All 7 takes from Dr. Daniel Sugai

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"Avène has just done a great job with their Cicalfate. That's one of my favorite essentials in my skin care. I will use that to sandwich in my retinol, or I will have in the wintertime more sensitive skin. I'll have more peeling around the eyes, around the mouth. I'm going to use Avène Cicalfate before my tretinoin or my retinol. So, after washing my face, I do a layer of Cicalfate, then my pea-sized amount of my retinoid, and then another layer of Avène Cicalfate. It is an extra step. I know you want to go to bed, you're tired, but that extra step is so important in the winter time."

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"I'm using Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream right now. I'm putting a layer of moisturizer first, and then I apply my retinoid, and then I follow up with another layer of Avène. That's what I'm doing just to tolerate tretinoin this time of year."

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"This restorative protective cream, use it for kids and adults. It has Avène's famous thermal spring water. And it's just so gentle. I've never had it burn my skin even in the most desperate times when I've really messed up my skin barrier by going too hard with a chemical peel or trying it for the first time on my face and causing dryness there. They are thicker, more protective, but just a thin film goes a long way. Just a thin film. Small amount goes a long way. When your skin's feeling raw, irritated, they're not the most elegant or fancy or sexy looking moisturizers. Simple is better many times. And these really are essentials in my household for a reason."

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"Another nice barrier supporting cream you can put on at bedtime would be Avène Cicalfate+. That's just so soothing when my skin is a wreck, it's cold and dry out and I've gone outside and played some football and then I've used too many actives at once. I've had irritation on the cheekbones, and Avène has come through like secoplast, and you can go ahead and apply a thin film over your retinoid to help soothe and buffer that potential irritation you can get from your retinoid."

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"This is such a gentle product. It's meant for kids and adults. It has zinc and copper which does work on the skin's microbiome. It's antimicrobial. It brings down the bad bacteria and it upregulates good bacteria. It's calming. Minimal ingredients and even with the name, it doesn't have secika in it or madacaside or tigerass. It just has nourishing minerals in it and also their famous French thermal spring water. Avène is known to be a gentle skincare company. Best post peel, post laser, especially resurfacing lasers, it's okay to put Cicalfate+ over those spots. If you're having retinoid irritation, especially the first 3 weeks, you can put some Cicalfate+ over it and overexfoliated skin is raw. You can use Cicalfate+ to help repair in those cases. Just use a small amount if you're applying to the face. Don't overdo it. If you overdo it, you could actually clog some pores and cause some milia or white heads and blackheads."

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"Another great one that you can consider would be Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream. It has French thermal spring water and it's also good for kids as well."

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Dr. Aleksandra Brown

105k subs · 4k devotees

✓Approved

"My next recommendation is the Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream. I love this for any sort of irritated barrier. This is my go-to. It's a really rich, somewhat occlusive repair cream that helps soothe irritation, reduce redness, and support skin recovery. It was originally actually formulated for post-procedure care. So it's perfect when your skin barrier needs complete reset. I have recommended it for overexfoliated skin, irritated, flaky skin, retinol irritation. We've even used it on shingles in the family when that became an issue. It's perfect during winter or dry indoor heating. You can use it on your face. It's great on your lips. You can put it on damp lips and put product on top. I can't really think of a place where you can't use this product. My favorite way to use it is at night time on top of a light moisturizer or underneath a moisturizer, or if you want to use it in the morning, you just need to use it sparingly because it can be a little bit thick if you apply too much. But if you apply a really thin layer of it underneath your sunscreen in the morning on irritated skin, it really helps repair your barrier throughout the day under your SPF. The key ingredients here are the copper zinc sulfate complex and the Avène thermal spring water."

All 3 takes from Dr. Aleksandra Brown

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"The Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream is a really rich restorative cream that helps protect and heal irritated or compromised skin. It will soothe the redness and inflammation while supporting skin barrier repair. It is suitable for extremely sensitive skin including rosacea and post-procedure care. The key ingredients are the C+ restore postbiotic restorative ingredient, which is super rich in proteins to help restore the skin barrier. It also contains copper zinc sulfate, which helps promote and maintain a healthy skin environment for optimal recovery, and Avène thermal spring water, which is rich in antioxidants to calm and soothe irritation."

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"I love it. It's a really rich occlusive repair cream to help soothe irritation, reduce redness, and support skin recovery. It was originally formulated as like a post-procedure care. So it's perfect when your skin barrier really needs to be reset. If you've done microneedling or something like that or you've irritated the hell out of your skin and the area around your nose is so irritated, it will fix it. So it's perfect for that really overexfoliated post-procedure irritated flaking skin or during winter or if your heat is just running in the house and you've got dry cracked corners around your mouth, around your nose, it will fix that. I love using this at night on top of the moisturizer. By itself it's okay, but I prefer moisturizer underneath and then this on top. It repairs the barrier but also is a little bit thick so it helps seal in that moisturizer that you applied underneath. The key ingredients in this one are the copper zinc sulfate complex and the Avène thermal spring water."

Dr. Jenny Liu

316k subs · 5k devotees

✓Approved

"This is a great one because it's really like a multifunctional cream in the sense you can use it all over like almost like slugging once in a while to restore your skin barrier. You can also use it regularly if you have super dry, eczema-prone, sensitive skin as your moisturizer or you can even put this on to spot treat additional flaky areas on top of your moisturizer. I use this, I love it post procedure. I love it when I get irritated like from my retinoids or my skin gets really sensitive. I will occasionally use it as just my moisturizer on my rest days if my skin is not happy. It's great for wounds, it's great for shaving, diaper rashes. It is a thicker balm, nourishing and creamy and occlusive. So if you're acne prone, I think that's why you just have to be careful and not use it on a daily basis and just watch what you put on underneath it because that's really the problem. Ingredient wise, it's got C+ Restore, which is this probiotic blend that really helps to support the skin barrier along with copper and zinc that we also know is important for our skin barrier health."

Sincerely Miss Ash

194k subs · 4k devotees

✓Approved

"This really is one of the thickest, richest creams I have ever used. If you are truly looking for something that is thick like toothpaste, something that really repairs the skin and repairs the skin quite quickly when your skin is burning and it has that itchy, dry feel, you are going to really love this. It does have copper and zinc to help replenish your skin's moisture. This one is honestly suited for your nighttime routine. If you're someone that wears foundation and makeup, this is a little rich and thick to be using with makeup and a little bit too rich to use underneath sunscreen. I do like to have this on hand for those days where my skin feels angry, but especially for those winter cold months. My skin can get quite irritated and dry during the winter and this always saves my skin."

All 5 takes from Sincerely Miss Ash

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"I have purchased this over and over for the last several years. I use it more in the fall winter months but I will sometimes use this in the summer especially if my skin is feeling tight from being outside for a long period of time or if you have a little bit of a sunburn to your skin or you're using a lot of active ingredients that are irritating your skin. It's a great recovery repairing moisturizer that does perform and it works really quickly to relieve that irritation. It also helps to reduce the look of facial redness due to irritation. It's a great product to have on hand especially if you're someone that is just starting out with retinol or tretinoin. This will help to condition the skin and it may help to prevent further dryness and irritation from that retinol or tretinoin. This does have copper and zinc in it to help replenish your skin's moisture and it does help to keep your skin barrier nice and strong as well."

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"This has that additional vitamin E ingredient and I love this. This is now a staple in my routine. This is the Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream and this is amazing. I am just so impressed with this formulation. This is hands down way better and performs better than the La Roche Posay Cicaplast Balm B5 in my opinion. This is richer, it's more moisturizing, it's more satisfying to use when your skin is uncomfortable, dry, and flaky and tight. This is more repairing and your skin just looks and feels incredible. If your skin is compromised, this heals your skin a lot quicker than anything else really that I have tried. This is even better than that. This is just way thicker and just more satisfying to use. It has that copper and zinc ingredient in here which helps to replenish your skin's natural barrier, and so even if you don't have a compromised skin barrier, this is still great to use every day twice a day."

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"If you're looking for a cream that repairs the heck out of your skin, this is very thick, almost like toothpaste, but surprisingly once you apply it to your skin it doesn't feel heavy on the skin and you don't have this white look to your skin either. It actually absorbs quite nicely into the skin, but it is a little greasy and you will have this glow to your skin as well. I strictly keep this for my nighttime routine when my skin needs some TLC. I use this a lot actually in the winter months when my skin is super dry and I'm using tretinoin. It does the trick. It has thermal spring water which Avène is known for, but it also has copper and zinc which helps to soothe and repair your skin barrier, and it is exceptional. This is more repairing, more nourishing, and moisturizing."

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"This is the Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream. I have been using this for years and this always needs to be in my collection, especially during the winter months. If you've been struggling to find an everyday cream that actually helps to repair dryness and to repair that compromised skin barrier, then you need to try the Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream. If they ever discontinued this, I truly don't know what I would do. This has copper and zinc to help repair the skin. It's thick like toothpaste and very emollient. I only use this at night time because this is a little bit too rich to use in the morning alongside sunscreen and makeup, but if your skin is just super red and inflamed, this will calm everything down. I really really love this and this is a non-negotiable, this is a must have. This just always needs to be in my collection. If you haven't tried this and you're prone to sensitivities, dryness, and irritation, you need to try this 100%."

Dr Dray

2.66M subs · 30k devotees

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"I have been going through a lot of the restorative protective cream. Went through a whole tube of it. I love using it as a hand cream, but one phenomenon that happens to some people with theirs is they get it in the mail or they order it or whatever and when they go to open up it's like completely separated and it's almost like a flood of thermal spring water shoots out of the tube then there's like this bluish blob. Some people are able to get the product to mix back together and be fine, but others are not. That's like a really frustrating thing to encounter. This is not an inexpensive product, especially here."

Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream.

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