Skin update and Avène skincare review.

Following up on my post about my annoying sensitive and allergic skin I thought I would update y’all about how I've been getting on.

I have now switched all of my skincare to Eau Thermale Avène. I had previously used products from the range in the past and although my skin tolerated them the most out of all the skincare I've tried, I was still having issues. But I have now decided to try their rage for sensitive and intolerant skin and seem to be doing well so far.

Eau Thermale Avène base their skincare around thermal spring water. It is found to hold naturally soothing and anti irritating properties making it suitable for sensitive skin. What I find most intriguing about Avène are that they are the first company to develop a sterile packaging, eliminating the need for preservatives to be added to the product, which can often be a problem for sensitive skin. The packaging, invented and patented by Avène, prevents air, microbes and other contaminants from entering the tube eliminating the need to add harsh preservatives and meaning their products stay pure and gentle for people, like me, who have super sensitive skin.

If you want to find out more about the Avène and their skincare you can find their website here.

So, I begin morning routine by cleansing my skin with the extremely gentle cleanser lotion for hypersensitive and irritable skin. You don't need to wash this off with water which is a bonus as water really dries my skin out, just sweep away any excess with a cotton pad. It is quite cold and gloopy when you apply it but it is so calming and feels really luxurious. Almost soft and silky on my skin. Following this Avène recommend a spritz with their thermal spring water which has soothing and anti irritating properties, I must admit I sometimes miss this step! But I always use the spray after I've shaven and for anything like sunburn or prickly heat or anything that can irritate the skin, it seems hard to believe just a spray of water can help but it really does feel soothing on my skin.

Then I follow with the tolerance extreme emulsion light texture. This comes in the sterile packaging I mentioned above and only contains 8 ingredients in total, two of which are the thermal spring water all Avène products are based on, and water! This says it if for sensitive and hypersensitive skin. Again this feels really soothing on my skin, it has a really silky feeling to it and is extremely light. The redness and burning I felt before has gone, but I am still suffering with small dry patches of flaky skin in a couple of areas I've struggled with for a while. I also find that by mid evening my skin feels tight and irritable again, but I fully believe that this will calm down soon.

At night I use a different cleanser, the micellar lotion for sensitive skin. I feel this gives my skin more of a cleanse than the extremely gentle cleanser lotion which is a good thing to clear away any harshness my skin has picked up during the day. My skin feels completely refreshed after using this. When I do wear make up, which is never at the moment till i get my skin under control, it removes it really easily. I have used the micellar water on and off for quite a while now and it is always something I fall back on when another product lets me down so I thought why the heck don't I just use it?! I dunno what goes on in my head sometimes! 

I then moisturise with the skin recovery cream for hypersensitive and irritable skin to give my skin what it needs to replenish and refresh after facing the day! Again this is in the sterile packaging and  has minimal ingredients. 

So far my skin does seem to be doing better. It looks healthier and even though I still have some areas of concern I know that sorting my silly face isn't going to be a quick or easy task. I think I'm going to try a very mild steroid cream on the couple of patches of flaky skin for a few days to see if that will kick start them to get off my face! I must stress that it is advised not to use steroid cream on the face and there are associated risks of doing so. Only do so following the advice from your GP, which is exactly what I have done. 

I really am hoping I may have finally found some products I can use now that will settle my skin and mean I can soon start exploring make up! I’ve never been able to comfortably wear make up in the past and now I’m getting older it is really starting to bother me that I kind of am clueless about make up, and its not something I can play with like everyone else. Maybe soon I’ll be posting about new make up I’ve been trying?! Fingers Crossed!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky 

x