French Pharmacy Part 3

Avene

Avene is one of my top picks from the French pharmacy (now stocked pretty widely in the UK). Like La Roche-Posay, their products target quite specific skin types to make your skincare personally tailored to your needs. It's mid-range in terms of price and you can guarantee their products are only packed full of seriously good stuff.

For moisturiser I always turn to Avene. I particularly love this light hydrating cream with SPF 20 for day time as it sinks in really quickly, works well under make up and most importantly has a decent amount of sun protection. It also comes in a rich hydrating version which is good for those with drier skin. It's a simple product that does a very good job at what it claims to do.

Bioderma

Another no nonsense skincare brand is Bioderma. You're likely to have heard of Bioderma's micellar water which caused a storm in the online beauty world. Micellar waters have been around in France for a long time now but have only really picked up the pace in the UK within the last two years. However, it's not their micellar water that I want to rave about today, I think the internet is saturated enough on that front.

Bioderma's hydrabio range is seriously good stuff for anyone with dehydrated skin. I love this hydrabio serum which can be used alone as moisturiser or can be used under your regular moisturiser for times when you need that extra boost of hydration. I use this pretty much every night and my skin drinks this stuff up. As it's a serum it feels weightless on the skin but packs a real punch.

Filorga

Filorga is a brand I had actually never tried before wandering into a French pharmacy. It is a lot more on the pricey side than the other brands I've featured but I think you can really tell when you use their products. The brand as a whole is certainly marketed as a kind of fresh from the dermatologist's lab kind of products.

Filorga's Sleep and Peel resurfacing night cream is an overnight treatment that contains six hydroxy acids (AHA and BHA) that help cell renewal and smooth the skin's surface. It's basically a very gentle way of exfoliating dead skin on your face and means you can wake up and your face looks brighter, smoother and healthier. The main thing I have noticed with this cream is that my make up applies really nicely on mornings when I've used this so, it must be doing something right. Don't let the scary name put you off and the fact that the phrase 'peeling effect' is plastered all over the packaging. In fact, it's not really as intense a product as it's marketed as and even on my sensitive skin I only felt the slightest tingle for a few minutes after applying and that was it.

Mixa

From the highest end of the price spectrum to the lowest, Mixa is a great affordable skincare brand that can be easily found in pharmacies and supermarkets across France.

I wear waterproof mascara most of the time so I need a really heavy duty eye make up remover which can be quite difficult to come across. This one from Mixa does a really good job of removing all traces of waterproof mascara and it's a really decent price as well. It is one of those duo phase make up removers, part water, part oil based, so it effectively removes make up but in the most gentle way possible.

Avene and Bioderma are now stocked in Boots, Filorga can be found at Marks & Spencer and Mixa can be shipped from beautyspin.co.uk.