French Pharmacie Skin Care: Bioderma, Vichy, Avène

I’m not even kidding when I say that I’ve been trying to write this post for nearly a year. Every time I plan to, it completely overwhelms me. The last time I thought I’d do it, is when I took this group picture of everything that’s to be mentioned in this post. Yes, those are Christmas lights, and yes, I took it while decorating the Christmas tree in December. Or rather, while taking a break from decorating the tree. If there was a Procrastinators Anonymous support group, I’m long overdue a visit. So, here goes nothing.

The purpose of this post is to give a bit of an overview of some French pharmacy products, brands that have stirred quite a bit of buzz on blogs and youtube, and have intrigued many, myself included. I’ve seen these brands at the pharmacy here in Northern Europe but had never given them a second glance until noticing them mentioned more and more in Lisa Eldridge’s videos. Some of these products have a cult following, so I decided to investigate. I’ve been testing these products over the course of nearly three years, so right from around the time I started treating my skin with prescription acne medication, until, well, today really. My skin has been both dry as well as its usual dehydrated, oily/combination self while using these products, so hopefully I’ll be able to give a well rounded opinion that’s useful for people with different skin types.

I don’t even know where to start, but I’m going to try. I suppose the number one, most talked about product by far of the ones I’ve tried, is the Bioderma Sensibio H20 Solution Micellaire. People go gaga over this stuff, so I expected miracles. I’ll be completely honest, I think this cleansing water doesn’t remove makeup well at all. People’s claims of what this is supposed to do vary, but what the product itself claims to do and what a micellaire water is supposed to do, is remove base makeup, not eye makeup. It may remove eye makeup, that really depends on what you're wearing, but in my experience the only way it was even sort of effective was if you really soaked the cotton pad, a lot, in the solution and spent a long time, I mean easily three times longer than I would with a dual phase oil makeup remover, resting it on your eye and gently wiggling, and even then I would still wake up with dark smudges under my eyes (grr, I thought I’d gotten it all!).

It’s a hell of a lot more effort that I’m used to making when removing my makeup, and while the unit price even where I live is less than say Lancome’s Bi-Facil, if you were to use the amount of product that’s actually effective, the cost would work out to be not much different. Having said that, I’m on my third bottle of the stuff, and that’s because I do like it in some instances. I’ll quickly check another product off the list, the H2O Solution from Bioderma’s Hydrabio line. Same product, but in a blue bottle as far as I’m concerned. It claims to be a line formulated for sensitive, dehydrated skin, which I have, and so I thought it would be more beneficial for me. I experienced no difference at all neither while using the product nor long term in general. The only difference is that if you don’t want a girly pink bottle on display in your bathroom, the blue one is more neutral, other than that, to me, they were the same.

One difference that I did notice is that while both were completely non irritating on my skin (as long as you rinse it off with water as the product does contain soap, and if you leave it on, it will dry out your skin), the Hydrabio stung my eyes, which I didn’t recall the original Sensibio doing. Based on that observation, when the blue bottle was gone, I bought another pink one, and lo and behold, it stung my eyes too. I don’t know if the overall formula has changed, or I’ve changed, but as of now both of these do sting my eyes if I get really close to the eyeball and waterline (which, you’ve got to do what you’ve go to do), and I really need to rinse it off and put plenty of soothing eyedrops in to be able to see / keep my eyes open again.

I’m making this product out to sound really bad. It’s not. While my preferred way of removing makeup is definitely an oil based makeup remover and I don’t see the need for a separate product for my eyes and face, what I do like this type of cleansing water for is removing makeup when I’m not wearing a typical mascara or any eyeliner. When I wear my Kanebo tubing mascara, that I remove with hot water, and all that’s left to remove is eyebrow pencil, light eyeshadow and base makeup, this does the job just fine. In this situation an oil based makeup remover almost feels too heavy duty and, while effective, not worth the greasy film on the skin. Because of that I do like having a micellaire water around. Emphasis on the “a”.

While I like this type of product, I sincerely don’t think it needs to be of French origin. French pharmacy brands, where I live, are pretty expensive, they are uncomfortably close in price to department store skin care brands like Clinique etc. I would gladly re-purchase or stock up on my favourite products if and when I found myself in Paris, where all of these things are priced reasonably, but I would not go through the ludicrous trouble and extra cost of obtaining this or any of the products in this post, if I lived in a part of the world where these brands were very difficult to get (I’m looking at you USA).

To Bioderma’s credit, the hype over this product has prompted other companies to come up with similar formulations, so I highly suggest looking for cleansing waters from your local drugstore. I’m currently using the Garnier one, going back and forth between it and the Bioderma, and I can’t say I prefer one to the other. I do however prefer the price of the Garnier, which I just got a backup of because the huge bottle was on sale for, wait for it… 4€ at my local supermarket. So those are my two cents on micellaire solutions.

Two Bioderma products I have minimal opinions on are the Sensibio Eye cream, which came with my original bottle of the cleansing water, and a sample of the Photoderm AR Crème Solaire Teintée spf 50+, which my dermatologist gave me. I don’t use an eye cream, but I figured I’d give it a go as part of my night time routine. The 15 ml of product lasted well over a year and it’s now been many months since I finally ran out, and I honestly can’t see a difference. It was just an extra thing to do. I still have bags under my eyes and my skin didn’t miraculously become less translucent so there’s still some purple-blue that shines through. It was a light, non irritating gel-cream like formula, which did nothing for me. Well, nothing bad, which is slightly better. As for the tinted moisturizer, I love the high spf, but I found the formula too uncomfortably heavy and the tint much, much too dark for my skin tone. This may be completely irrelevant, since I didn’t find this exact product on Bioderma’s website, so it may have been discontinued anyway.

The final two products from Bioderma that I tried were the Sérum and Légère cream from the Hydrabio line. Based on descriptions - light formulas, suitable for normal to combination, dehydrated skin, I thought these would be perfect for me. The packaging is nearly identical on these two products, and very nice - slim plastic bottle with a pump that locks as well as a cap. Excellent for both travel and small bathrooms. The pump on the cream didn’t work as reliably as the one on the serum for some reason, it would often shoot out product in odd directions.

I didn’t like the cream. While the formula was very light and runny, the way I like it, it did what most moisturizers do on my skin and just sat there. It stayed a tacky film on my skin that was simultaneously suffocating and not hydrating. It felt uncomfortable and unpleasant. Would not re-purchase.

The serum I really enjoyed. It’s a gel consistency, which my skin drank up and actually felt nicer after application and overall. I would re-purchase it, however, I liked the Vichy Aqualia Thermal Serum ever so slightly better. It’s runnier, the single pump is a tad more product and all of this makes for an easier spreading and application. I should mention that I started using the Hydrabio line when my skin was the driest on acne medication, and I stopped when the products were close to gone, but not really, and switched to Vichy for comparison reasons. While using Vichy, my treatment stopped and when I reached the near end of these products in turn, I wanted to go back to the last bits of the Bioderma ones and see how my skin liked them now when my skin was combination oily again. I still didn’t like the cream and I still did like the serum, but for some reason, after using both of them together and separately, I got a few breakouts. I don’t know if it’s because my skin changed or because the products were pretty old by that time, but it wouldn’t deter me from re-purchasing the serum, even though I like the Vichy better, the result is quite similar, and the plastic bottle is better if you’re someone who travels frequently and doesn’t want to skip the serum step while on the road. I don’t think I’d risk traveling with the glass bottle of the Vichy.

Somtheing I used with both above mentioned serums were thermal water sprays. I mentioned spritzing water on my face prior to application of richer creams (or any creams) in a yearly favourites, so I wanted to try actual, special purpose waters to treat my skin. Many companies make these, I tried the thermal spring waters by Avène and Vichy. I was secretly hoping to like the Avène more since it comes in a large 300ml bottle, which is great value if you like the product. To most people, this is just water in a can. Overpriced water in a can. And it is. It’s an extra step and if you have no purpose for it, then this isn’t for you. I wouldn’t use a serum without spraying my face with water first to help glide it over the skin, so I do have a purpose for this kind of product, but it is really just spring water.

Having said that, I do have a favourite. The Vichy. And I’ve re-purchased it twice. It’s not even the water itself, it and the Avène are equally nice, but it’s the sprayer. It is so fine it’s ridiculous! It feels like cool vapor. It’s an incredibly pleasant sensation and I’m happy to own it in my skin care rotation. The only downside is there is no value sized option with the Vichy thermal water, and the mist doesn’t remain as magically delicate forever. Closer to the end of the bottle it sprays out product more robustly where you can feel actual drops of it and so forth. But for me this one is worth it.

The final Vichy product I tried is also from their Aqualia Thermal line, the Crème Légère. I’ve actually re-purchased this product. The first one I tried was in jar packaging, and the other in a tube. I thought there was a difference, but other than the tube having less product, all the writing and branding seems to be identical. I figured this would be similar to Bioderma’s Légère cream, but it’s not really. I wasn’t going to buy it again after my first jar, because I detest jar packaging and have nowhere to set it down in my bathroom, plus I was having trouble applying it. It’s light but much thicker than the Bioderma, with a similar, suffocating sensation that sits on the skin (for me). I constantly felt like I was using too much but at the same time, there was no way for me to apply a lighter layer as it didn’t really move well on my skin.

Then I came across a video of Claire Courtin-Clarins demonstrating the Clarins way of applying moisturizer, and it blew my mind. I tried using this technique for almost everything for a while, but have since calmed down and reserved it for thicker textures. Rubbing the cream in on my fingers and then pressing it into the skin, completely changed how I felt about it. I was able to apply it lightly enough where it feels hydrating and not uncomfortable, without stretching and dragging my skin.

I would definitely re-purchase the Vichy Légère cream in the tube. This has been my night time cream for over a year, and when I used it with the serum from the same line, my skin was very, very supple and soft. For me it didn’t work for daytime under makeup, it’s too rich for that and would just ball up when I put on foundation. I only use it every couple of days at night now since I’m testing other products to possibly use with this in rotation, while keeping the routine effective.

Oh, I also tried Vichy’s Purete Thermale Lotion Apaisante Douceur, their pink toner, but I never kept the bottle. It was just okay, nice, not irritating but not groundbreaking either.

The final French pharmacy product I tried was the Avène Antirougeurs Jour Redness Relief Mousturising Protective Emulsion spf 20. Not the cream, the emulsion. I was kindly given samples of both by a pharmacist to try before choosing which if either to get. The cream was much too thick and rich for me, but I did like the emulsion and ended up buying it.

It’s supposed to combat redness so is often recommended to people with acne, hyperpigmentation and rosacea. It does have a green tint but I honestly don’t find it does anything to correct redness, at least not for me. I like the light texture and apply it too using the Clarins technique. It has a light botanical scent, which I find pleasant, for the most part.

I tried it mainly because I was looking for a daytime cream, so something with spf and that would be light enough to play well with makeup. For the most part, it suits me well. I wear it if it’s a really sunny day out as its spf is higher than that of my Shiseido Ibuki moisturizer, which is still my preferred daytime formula. I use the Avène if I’m going on a trip or just grabbing something to use after a day at the pool or a workout, because its tube is so compact and practical compared to the Ibuki. I do wish this were a bit cheaper for what it is, and that the fragrance wasn’t so strong, because even though I like it, if I use it every day like on vacation, it does get annoying. Overall, I’m almost certain I would repurchase it.

So there you have it. Three years of testing and trying some amazing, and some less than amazing cult favourites from France. Hope this helps you narrow down your wish list of things to try. It’s certainly helped me draft my list of what to re-purchase, and soon!