La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 review

If you have dry or sensitive skin, you need the La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 in your stash. It’s the one product I’ll never be without because it’s amazing at soothing all kinds of redness and irritations!

Overview

What is it
A rich cream with 5% panthenol (vitamin B5) and madecassoside to help soothe and repair severely irritated skin.

Best suited for
All types of irritated skin, even babies’ skin. Oily skin might find the texture a bit much as a moisturizer.

Things to note
It’s fragrance and alcohol-free, as soothing products should be!

Packaging
A plastic tube that’s easy to squeeze. May need to cut the tube to get the last bits out.

Scent
Has a very faint sour smell due from the ingredients themselves, but it’s not noticeable unless you put your nose right into the cream.

Texture
Rich but very easy to spread. Doesn’t feel heavy or thick at all for my dry skin.

Finish
Lots of initial shine and a slight white cast. I’ll either wait for the product to absorb or powder to minimize the shine. White cast goes away after a bit. Skin feels soft and soothed.

Where to buy
$14.99 for 1.35oz at Amazon, SkinStore (25% off with code JENNY) Dermstore, Escentual (much cheaper and ships worldwide), Target, CVS (wait for their 30% of all beauty sales!)

Cicaplast Baume B5 Ingredients

Panthenol – A humectant that helps attract and retain moisture on the skin, studies have shown that it also exhibits anti-inflammatory and soothing properties when regularly used over a period of time.

Madecassoside – One of the main compounds found in centella asiatica. Its anti-inflammatory properties not only soothe the skin but can help promote the healing process. Studies also suggest that it can reverse the signs of sun damage when used with vitamin C.

Shea butter – An excellent emollient that helps nourish and moisturize our skin, studies also show that certain compounds in shea butter have great anti-inflammatory properties.

Zinc Gluconate – It has antibacterial and sebum regulating properties which makes the Cicaplast Baume B5 a nice option for acne-prone skin dealing with inflammations. It’s also been shown to have nice wound-healing abilities.

Copper Gluconate – Another mineral that’s been shown to have wound healing abilities, especially when paired together with Zinc Gluconate since they work during different phases of the skin repairing process. It can also help with cellular regeneration!

Manganese Gluconate – The third of the mineral trio that’s been studied for its wound healing benefits. There aren’t too many other studies on the topical effect of applying these, but the few available do show that they’re beneficial to our overall skin health.

Other moisturizing ingredients: Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, and Propanediol

Other emollients: Dimethicone

Usage Experience

Remember when I mentioned in my LRP Double Repair Moisturizer review that there were better options for sensitive/irritated skin within the brand? Well this is that better option, because the Cicaplast Baume B5 Soothing Repair Balm is what will actually help with your skin’s healing process.

Unlike the Double Repair, this one contains absolutely no irritants and a good amount of skin-soothing and repairing ingredients to actually do its job. And boy does it get its job done.

I had an unfortunate experience testing out some Origins products a few weeks ago, and something in them made my entire face burn and get all splotchy. I was miserable…until I slathered on this cream.

Not only did it not irritate my skin any further (pretty much everything including water burned at this point), but my skin felt instantly calmed. The next morning the redness had gotten better (though not completely gone) and my skin no longer burned.

Now the Cicaplast Baume B5 is staple in my routine:

Over exfoliated? Use Cicaplast.

Too much tretinoin? Use Cicaplast.

Got a rash on my arm? Use Cicaplast.

Whenever my skin is feeling red, itchy, or just off, nothing soothes my skin and makes it feel better the next morning like Cicaplast.

Even though it’s called a balm, it feels more like a rich cream, yet it’s not thick at all and is very easy to spread. It’s very nourishing and makes my skin feel buttery soft, but it also leaves my skin shiny and with white cast.

Personally I’m ok with it, as the white cast is very minimal, but those who don’t like the finish should use the cream at night.

Curious how other moisturizers compare? I’ve reviewed 38 different ones and here are the best picks for dry and mature skin!

Product Comparisons

There are a lot of products out there that claim to soothe or repair the skin, but then contain ingredients that could potentially irritate the skin further! Let’s take a look at a few of them:

Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream – I loved this before discovering the Cicaplast Baume B5 and in its defense it does have some nice soothing ingredients. But it also features several essential oils, albeit near the end. The Klairs is also not very moisturizing when used alone, though oily skin may prefer the finish.

SKIN&LAB Barrierderm Repair Balm – Now this one is fragrance/essential oil free and it’s quite occlusive, but it doesn’t have the same skin-repairing abilities as the Cicaplast. It’s also a thicker balm and I personally find the texture uncomfortable on my skin.

Rovectin Barrier Repair Cream Concentrate – A thicker cream with some good barrier repair ingredients like ceramides and fatty acids, but unfortunately contains rose essential oil. I found this moisturizing, but not very soothing.

First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Moisturizer – Despite the name it actually has a light almost fluffy texture that feels comfortable on the skin! It features colloidal oatmeal for their skin soothing benefits, but I still find the Cicaplast to be more effective overall.

Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Moisturizing Cream – In terms of function this will be similar to the Rovectin in that it supports a healthier barrier but isn’t great at actually soothing irritated skin. If anything my skin burned when using this one!

Final Verdict