Clear Skin Essentials Set

Clear Skin Essentials Set

Term time means late nights, exam pressure and a face that hands touch all day. This set is barrier-first on purpose: it cleanses, moisturises and protects, and it holds no acne treatment at all, so nothing in the box will fight whatever the skin is already on. That is also what makes it easy to keep running alongside a dermatologist's prescription rather than in place of one.

What is in the box

• La Roche-Posay Effaclar Purifying Foaming Gel 400 ml — washes excess sebum and impurities off oily, acne-prone skin at the skin's own pH without stripping it. Its actives are zinc PCA (zinc pidolate) and La Roche-Posay Thermal Spring Water, with no percentages stated.
• Bioderma Sebium Hydra Moisturising Cream 40 ml — a light moisturiser for oily, acne-prone skin, and specifically the one to reach for when dermatological acne treatment has left the skin dried out. The patented Fluidactiv complex with glycerin and Ceramide NP, plus enoxolone and allantoin, puts water back, limits the sensation of tightness and soothes redness.
• Cosmofarma Cosmo Lip Cream 15 ml — an emollient lip cream with vitamin E, sweet almond oil and shea butter that softens dry or cracked lips and holds moisture in.
• Perlamar Caviar Cosmetics Sun Guard Sun Cream SPF 50+ 75 ml — applied to the face and exposed skin before sun exposure to cut the amount of UV that reaches it.

How to use it

• Step one, cleanse — the Effaclar foaming gel once or twice daily, avoiding the eye area.
• Step two, moisturise — Sebium Hydra once or twice daily on cleansed skin.
• Step three, lips — the Cosmo lip cream applied generously whenever the lips feel dry, at any point in the day.
• Step four, protect — Perlamar Sun Guard SPF 50+ as the last step of the morning, on the face and exposed skin, and reapplied through the day.

Good to know

The Effaclar gel is a cleanser suited to acne-prone skin, not a treatment for acne: it contains no salicylic acid and no benzoyl peroxide, and its active is zinc. Sebium Hydra is the piece that earns its place when a prescribed treatment has dried the skin out, because it puts water back without leaving oily skin greasy.

Please note

Avoid the eye area when using the Effaclar cleanser. The Cosmo lip cream is for external use only, and it carries no SPF, so it does not protect the lips from the sun and must not be used as a lip sunscreen. No sunscreen blocks all UV, so do not stay long in strong sun even while wearing the SPF 50+, reapply regularly, and keep babies and small children out of direct sun.