re.view: La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo

One day popping into Boots after work (nothing to buy, no intention to buy...typical) I spotted this in stock and decided to try it out after hearing a number of bloggers, most notably Ruth at amodelrecommends giving this a 'highly recommended' seal of approval.
Although my skin has been fairly well behaved of late due to a few changes that I've made to my skincare and diet, I always feel that, on the skin front, it's a case of keeping things under control on a daily basis that makes a real difference. This gel-like cream is suitable to apply all over your face as a spot-fighting moisturiser. This is true if you buy it in Europe but apparently the US formula is stronger designed as a spot-treatment - applying this all over your face might be a little too much for sensitive skin!


As I said, it comes out as a lightweight gel, translucent white in colour. Notable ingredients: it contains salicylic acid that helps unclog pores, niacinamide that is an anti-inflammatory, zinc that can also soothe the skin, linoleic acid and glycerin that can moisturise, pirictone olamine which is an anti-sceptic used at higher concentrations to treat fungal infections, and silica to keep the skin at a matte texture. Interestingly I also notice sodium hydroxide amongst the ingredients that at higer concentrations can be a sort of caustic substance used to dissolve things - I'm not entirely sure what this does in this product, but I imagine acts gently as a cleanser.

I have been using this for a couple of weeks now and haven't noticed any noticeable improvement in my skin, but then it has as I said been rather well-behaved. What I did find though is that the one under-the-skin spot that I did have come through disappeared far quicker than normal with this applied to it in the early stages, and even somehow prevented it from properly coming through to the surface.

I think that will be continuing to use my Clean and clear dual action moisturiser as my daily salicylic spot-defense, as it's slightly more cheap and cheerful. I will continue to use this, but keep this as more of a targeted spot treatment, and for all over in case my skin goes a little haywire!

I also have a re.commendation of the Effaclar AI on my blog - check it out! 

Available here for £13