Review - L'Oréal Revitalift® Cicacream Face Moisturizer

Early last month, I was lucky enough to receive my first Influenster VoxBox! This one contained the new L'Oréal Revitalift® Cicacream Face Moisturizer. 

If you're a fan of Korean beauty (K-beauty) products, you might be familiar with Cica Grass/Tiger Grass/Centella Asiatica. According to L'Oréal's website, you should immediately notice that the skin "feels softer, smoother, and more supple," and over time, the cream will reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, as well as improving the moisture barrier of the skin (retrieved from https://www.lorealparisusa.com/beauty-magazine/skin-care/skin-care-essentials/what-is-cica-cream.aspx). Keeping moisture in the skin is extremely important it having it appear more youthful. My skin is starting to show more fine lines and a few wrinkles, so this was a perfect product for me to try! To best show you the effect of the product, no photos have been touched up or filtered.

So here is a breakdown of my main skin concerns:

• Oily T-zone
• Dark spots
• Dark circles (mild to moderate)
• Fine lines under eyes, on forehead, and around mouth
• Wrinkles on forehead
• Redness (moderate)
• Enlarged pores

Here is my skin at baseline:

This cream claims to tackle the wrinkles, fine lines, and lack of moisture, so I was tasked with testing the product for 4 weeks to see it was effective. The directions on the bottle say to use the cream both morning and night. For the first two weeks, I did exactly that. The first application of the cream was at night. I washed my face as I normally do, using an oil-based cleanser followed up by a water-based one (double-cleansing), followed by a toner. I also use an essence, serum, and eye cream at night. I would then apply the Cicacream as the last step in my skincare routine. It rubbed into the skin easily, and I found that after several minutes the cream was mostly absorbed.

When I woke up, my skin felt very nice and soft, and the cream had completely absorbed. Since I have fairly oily skin, many night creams are too heavy and will sit around all night long, so that was definitely a positive point for me. In the morning, I usually just use a moisturizer after the toner, so that was what I did here as well. It takes quite a while for my skin to fully absorb the cream, so I found that it was harder to use before makeup application. It also made my T-zone more oily throughout the day. I continued this method for two weeks to see if my skin might absorb the cream more quickly over time and rebalance the oil production, but it did not change, so I stopped using it in the morning after the two weeks was complete.

At the two week mark, I assessed the three claims again:

• Wrinkles - no difference noted
• Fine lines - no difference noted
• Moisture barrier - I definitely felt like my skin was holding onto moisture better, and the dry patches that I often get in cold, dry weather have not appeared at all this winter so far.

For the next two weeks, I only used the cream at night as the last step in my routine.

At the 4 week mark, here are how the claims stacked up:

• Wrinkles - no difference noted
• Fine lines - I noticed that they are slightly less prominent. Not life-changing, but better.
• Moisture barrier - Still no dry patches, even after switching to once per day application. My skin looks more plump overall, I think!

After 4 weeks of use, with BB cream and transparent powder applied (no concealer, no editing)

Overall, it didn't do anything for my wrinkles, but it did marginally help my fine lines and definitely made a difference to the moisture barrier of my skin. It is certainly possible that I would see better results if I had stayed with twice per day application, but my oily skin could not tolerate it. I would imagine that someone with drier skin would be able to use this twice per day though. It really is a good winter-time face cream as it keeps the skin from being so harshly affected by the cold, dry air outside.

TL;DR?

L'ORÉAL REVITALIFT® CICACREAM FACE MOISTURIZER

Price: about $18
Pros: absorbed fully by morning, locked in moisture all day, marginally improved fine lines
Cons: too much for oily skin in the daytime, no affect on deeper wrinkles
Will I use it up?: Yes
Will I buy again?: Probably for next winter!

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. All opinions contained within this review are my own honest opinions on the product.