I’ve tried my hardest to slow down on my Etat Pur raves, but I do think the Actives deserve their own list, so here are my five favourites. I have combination skin that is severely prone to dryness in areas, as well as spot-prone in others. Therefore, these are a mixed bag of actives that all perform beautifully on my skin.
I’ve been thinking about putting this list together for a while and I couldn’t work out how to go about describing this, but I think the best way to give you an idea of what it’s like is to say it’s like Spanx for your skin! It’s a quick and effective way to tighten, tone and brighten your skin overnight. For me, it refines my skin, removes any dullness and dramatically decreases the size of any spots I have. My full review can be found here.
Etat Pur do two variants of Salicylic Acid, a gentler one for more sensitive skin and this one. This Active changed the way I felt about about Salicylic Acid as it was never something that had much of an impact on my skin. Whilst there are certainly more powerful spot-fighters in the Active range, sometimes I don’t want to be pummelling my skin with hardcore treatments and instead want something that’s gentle but still effective. This is perfect for the days when I want to be a bit kinder to my skin, but still want to treat and whilst this is a great spot-fighter, it’s also very good for days when my skin is undecided about what type it wants to be and is generally playing up. If I’ve got a few spots coming up (usually around the hormonal time) then I use this religiously throughout the day to keep them at bay. My full review of this can be found here.
3. Zinc Gluconate
This was a product I was really excited to try as before this I’d never actually tried a Zinc based spot treatment. I’d say that if the Citric Acid is the powerful, hard-hitter and the Salicylic Acid is the cotton-soft treatment, this one is bang in the middle. It’s definitely packs more of a punch than the Salicylic Acid but it doesn’t refine and tighten in the same way as the Citric Acid. It’s great for generally reducing the size and angriness of spots and is gentle enough for an all over the face treatment. If you’re prone to moderate acne and want something that will work at reducing spots generally over time then this is a great product to start with.
This is a slightly different Active to the others as it’s less of a gel and more of a runny cream. It’s aimed at desensitising severely reactive skin and it works beautifully at that.
My cheeks are really prone to dryness and sensitivity, so whenever that’s happening I use some of this to stop my skin feeling so tight and dry. It doesn’t give me spots and works well under my moisturiser.
It feels very soothing and calming on the skin and if you suffer from spots and sensitive skin (I really feel your pain) then this is a wonderful product to try.
When I first started using these Actives, I dabbled a bit with this but didn’t really pursue it past the occasional play-around until recently, where it’s become a staple in my daily skincare routine. I’ve long since known the benefits of Hyaluronic Acid (which holds I believe 100X its weight in water, thus making it an extremely good moisture builder) but it’s only over the past couple of years that I’ve really needed to start replacing moisture loss. This Active is amazing for that and if you’re dry-skin prone then I’d use this all over the face, but what I’m actually doing is using it after whichever spot Active I’m using. Etat Pur stress the importance of not mixing Actives, but it’s been working really well for me and I’m tending to add it to things like my day cream and my night treatment serum. I’m also using this as an eye cream mixed in with a serum and man alive is it making a big difference to my dry eye area! For such a cheap yet multi-purpose product, I highly recommend investing in it.
There are literally loads of Etat Pur Actives worth exploring and I haven’t even scratched the surface, but I am such a huge fan of the brand that I will continue to try out new ones and adding more to my Active library.
Disclosure: all products mentioned were supplied either at events or for review purposes. Doesn’t make me love them any less.
