Which CICA Barrier Repair cream is right for you?

every French pharmacy brand makes one of these cica creams and today I'm gonna compare five of them so that you know which one is right for you cica creams are wound healing cream so anytime you see a product from a French pharmacy brand and it's got the word cica on it that's what that means and really all these creams do the same thing they're designed to repair the skin whether that's after cuts burns using them to heal the skin post procedure if you've got irritation redness maybe you got sensitive skin you've damaged your skin barrier whatever it might be even though they all do the same thing the textures and the ingredients between each one do vary slightly let's start with La Roche Posay Cicaplast B5 Balm this is probably one of the more popular ones out of this line up ingredients wise for the soothing aspect of this cream we've got panthenol a cica side which is Centella asiatica extract and we've got zinc in there and then for a hydrating aspect you've got dimethicone glycerin shea butter and you got some ferment and probiotics in here for that skin microbiome benefit as well and the texture of this one is on the thicker side even though it does go on quite thick I find that once this sticker plus does dry down it feels almost powdery and like a smoothing effect on the skin the next really popular one here is the Avene Cicaplast Restorative Protective Cream this one does get compared to the Cicaplast a lot but I do think they're quite different firstly ingredients wise they are quite different this one has zinc oxide plus some copper in there as well and that's gonna give you a soothing effect texture wise this one is also quite thick I would say it's thick and this one's not gonna dry down powdery you can see it's quite white on the skin and that would be thanks to our zinc oxide this one doesn't dry down to feel matte or powdery on the skin you're gonna feel this one stay quite oily because you got a lot of mineral oil in this one and if your skin is feeling pretty dry it's pretty damaged then you probably are gonna like how that feels to be honest next I have the Bioderma Cicabio cream now this one has Bioderma's like own patented complex in there that's helping with skin healing of course and all that it's not too thick it's got like a nice slippy oiliness to it but it's not too heavy and overwhelming the last two I have from brands that are quite new to Australian chemists first one is the Mixa Cicaplast the balm Cicaplast plus I would say is the most similar to the La Roche Posay Cicaplast I don't wanna specifically call it out as a dupe because they're not identical but they are very similar ingredients wise they share a lot of similarities with glycerin panthenol shea butter dimethicone it's very very close to how the Cicaplast feels on the skin this one doesn't have the madacassoside and the prebiotic ferment complexes that Cicaplast has that's sort of like the minor differences there but other than that they are very very similar finally now I don't know how to pronounce the name of this brand is it uriage maybe but this is their barrier derm insulating repairing cream I do think this one's actually quite unique actually because they've got like a patented blend of polymers in here while all these creams are definitely inclusive this one's literally got film formers in there one of the ingredients in this is Pvp Pvp is something you usually find in setting sprays because that's what it does it creates a film over the skin to keep your makeup in place the texture as we can can see it's quite thick it's quite oily it's got that slipperiness to it it doesn't really dry down powdery or anything like that so that's the breakdown of all five of these they're all the same but they're all different right I guess with the exception of these two they all do kind of really stand out on their own so if you've tried one and you weren't happy with it there is another one you can try that probably is gonna be a better fit for you so I say for like really dry peeling flaky cracking skin then either the Uriage or the Cicaplast is gonna be a good fit for you if you want something similar to your Cicaplast but just maybe like a notch down then that's when your Bioderma Cicabio would come in these if you want something that's not gonna feel oily like all night long you want something that's gonna kind of dry down I think these would be the best option for you if you're a fan of this then you'll probably also be a fan of this as well but if you're a fan of this but you want something kind of lighter and notched down then you'll be a fan of this as well that's sort of how they all connect that's the web of Seca creams from French pharmacy brands there are other French pharmacy brands out there there are other Seca creams out there but these are the ones that we have available here in the Australian pharmacies so these are the ones that I'm talking about today if you have a favourite out of this lineup let me know which one it is and if you need help kind of narrowing down which one's gonna be the best one for you let me know in the comments and I can help you out