Review: Nivea Sensitive Daily Essentials
It made me really happy to see that Nivea launched a line especially for sensitive skin. Not only Nivea, but more and more drugstore companies started to realized the importance of developing this kind of products. We no longer have to pay huge amounts of money to find a product that suits our skin, now we can just go to drugstore and find a quality product for a very affordable price.
This Nivea line intrugued me and I decided to give it a try. Here are some information about the products:
The line contains a micellar water, a cleansing milk, a day cream, a night cream and cleansing wipes. I tried micellar water and the day cream.
The micellar cleansing water costs only about 2.50 euros (depends where you live). They claim it "cleanses deeply, removes make-up from face and eyes and moisturises in one step". It is supposed to help with redness, tightness and dryness. The micellar water contains dexpanthenol and grape seed oil and no alcohol or perfume. Let´s take a closer look at the ingredients. What are dexpanthenol and grape seed oil good for?
Based on my research, dexpanthenol is a medication used as a moisturizer to prevent dry, itchy, scaly, rough skin and minor irritations. Grape seed oil is known as a great antioxidans that help us fight free radical damage. It also has some antibacterial propreties. According to the holistic skin care expert Cecilia Wong, it can also help regulate your natural oil production.
After trying it out, I have to say that I was really impressed by this product! I´m fighting with dehydrated skin ever since I turned 25 and this product diminished my dehydration lines - they were almost gone. And it made my skin look more healthy, moisturized and radiant. I haven´t noticed any irritation, quite the opposite actually. It soothed my skin. I would definately recommend this product!
The Daily Essentials Sensitive Day Cream contains Licorice extract alongside grape seed oil for their inflammatory properties, and SPF 15. It should help calm the skin, instantly relieve the skin of feelings of tightness, provide intensive moisture and support the skin's natural barrier of resistance against irritants, the formula with SPF 15 helps protect from sun-induced premature ageing." It also contains no perfume or alcohol.
Based on my research I found that Licorice Extract is indeed used for its inflammatory properties and is efficiant against acne-causing bacteria and reddened skin.
Unfortunately, my skin didn´t really like this moisturizer. It was irritated and I got some weird blemishes on my cheeks. As this moisturizer doesn´t contain any irritating ingredients, I guess the irritation is due to the chemical sunscreen - octocrylene. Octocrylene is a safe product and is allowed to be used up to 10% in the formula. But, recent research suggest that "octocrylene can be a strong allergen leading to contact dermatitis in children and mostly photoallergic contact dermatitis in adults". Most people though have no problem with this ingredient, but if your skin is very sensitive, you should probably avoid this moisturizer and instead look for one with physical sunscreens such as Zinc Oxide or Titanium Dioxide.
Yours truly :)
Una
References: WebMD, Maryland University, TotalBeauty.com, Nivea.com, Personalcaretruth.com, PaulasChoice.com, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20644036
