Review: La Roche Posay Cicaplast B5 Ultra Repair Serum

It’s hard not to mention La Roche Posay’s best-selling product before discussing the newcomer… Before this serum, there was indeed the La Roche Posay Cicaplast B5 balm. It’s one of those cult products, super popular all over the world. This balm is THE repairing product, useful at any age, as soon as your skin is in pain.

It’s a great classic of the French parapharmacy, well known and sold all over the world as an SOS product. Irritations, redness, rough and dry patches, or even to help to heal a slight wound (after it has closed, of course), this balm helps repair and heal the skin faster. A true bathroom staple to always have on hand!

For a few years now, it has also been very popular with skincare addicts as a night moisturizer/ balm, especially for sensitive skin or that has been sensitized by the use of strong anti-aging ingredients such as acids or retinoids. In short, it’s a great multi tasker 😉.

Thanks to its popular status, the brand has since adapted it in a whole range tailored to sensitized skins: there is also a hand moisturizer, lip balm, soothing mist, and even a gel version to use on scars…

And last January, I saw on Instagram that the brand La Roche Posay was expanding its Cicaplast range even more, with a brand new product…

From now on, you can find a concentrated version of Cicaplast, specific to the face: the Cicaplast B5 Ultra Repair Serum! Let me tell you more about it.

Skincare My best of skincare from the French pharmacie If you’re a regular BTY ALY reader, you already know that I have a hard time making choices. That’s why I never do “favorites” posts. And I already have a feeling that this article will look more like a very long products list than a curated selection of my favourite French ‘pharmacie’ beauty products. Oh well, you’ve been warned! Read more

La Roche Posay Cicaplast B5 Ultra Repair Serum, product presentation:

You might have noticed if you follow the news of the brand La Roche Posay, these last few years, they seriously expanded their range of face serums.

There is a moisturizing one, the Hyalu B5 (the blue one), a vitamin C one, the Pure Vitamin C10 (the orange one), a retinol one, the Retinol B3 (the red one), and even a niacinamide one that has just been released in Europe, the Pure Niacinamide 10 (the purple one). I’m probably forgetting others, but really, there are a lot of serums to choose from!

And last January, in Asia, the brand launched a product especially designed for the Covid era: the Cicaplast B5 Ultra Repair Serum, a soothing repair serum, ideal for skin damaged by the friction caused by masks and which allows to rebuild the damaged skin barrier!

Yes, you read that right, for now, this is a product only sold in Asia, but since La Roche Posay is an internationally distributed brand, I hope it will soon be available everywhere, and that way, you’ll already seen my review when it comes out 😉.

When I heard about its existence, I went out of my way to find a place to order it in Asia! They describe this new LRP serum as “the band-aid for irritated skin“. As you can imagine, I was super excited about this, with my skin dehydrated with year-round air conditioning, often irritated because of the anti-aging actives I use and on top of this, as the masks we still need to wear don’t help.

I didn’t know much about its ingredients list when I ordered it, information was scarce. I only knew that its main ingredient was panthenol, or provitamin B5, concentrated here at 10%.

Panthenol is the star of La Roche Posay’s Cicaplast line. This Cicaplast B5 Ultra Repair Serum is the product with the highest percentage of panthenol in this range (the famous Cicaplast superstar balm of the brand contains “only” 5%). Provitamin B5 helps relieve redness, itching and heal skin lesions. It’s also a very effective moisturizing and repairing ingredient. It’s easily tolerated by the skin, and ideal for damaged and irritated skin, especially from wearing the mask.

When I wrote this review, I took a deeper dive into the ingredients list!

And clearly, this is a pretty short formula, with only 16 ingredients. The focus is on soothing and repairing the skin barrier with, in addition to panthenol:
– HEPES. The full name of HEPES is Hydroxyethylpiperazine Ethane Sulfonic Acid. It’s one of L’Oreal’s favorite patented ingredients, used in many of their formulas. Not only does it soften the stratum corneum, gently exfoliating dead skin, but it also promotes the penetration and absorption of active ingredients into the deeper layers of the skin.
– 1% Ferment Vitreoscilla, a probiotic ingredient naturally rich in amino acids, for a healthy skin barrier and microbiome. It’s also an ingredient derived from green chemistry, through bio-fermentation.
– Hydrating hyaluronic acid and glycerin.

The formula also contains dimethicone, which is a silicone, and alcohol (yup, you read that right!).

Oh and also, don’t be fooled by its name “CICAplast”, it’s a name that refers to the word “cicatriser” (which means healing in French), not to Centella Asiatica. It doesn’t contain any Centella in its formula 😉

The serum is sold in Asia around $48 for 30ml, a higher price than the other serums from the brand (they are usually around $35). I confess I’m not sure about the reason for this hefty price tag, and if they will sell it at the same price on other continents.

La Roche Posay Cicaplast B5 Ultra Repair Serum, my experience:

I received the serum in March and started using it right away. It was perfect timing; I had just finished a tube of Paula’s Choice CBD serum (unfortunately it doesn’t exist anymore, RIP), and I wanted something still soothing but lighter in texture, since March in the Emirates is already the beginning of the warmer days.

I confess I didn’t even look at the list of ingredients when I received it. I just used it hoping my skin would like it and that it would be effective considering the price and the hassle it was to order it 😅.

For the past two months, I’ve been traveling around Europe quite a bit but I still packed it in my suitcase (thanks to the travel size!); I figured it wouldn’t be bad to compensate for the effect of sudden climate changes!

And indeed, I’ve been using it for almost 3 months now (I’m at the end of the bottle) and I can confirm that my skin loves it. Its texture is very silky, quite milky, and it forms a soothing veil of comfort on the skin, which is super pleasant and also an immediate relief!

And I have to say that my skin feels more resistant now, it’s less prone to irritations since I used it. In Asia, it’s nicknamed the “bandage serum” and I must say that i’s a perfect name, it fits like a glove 😉.

Diving into the details of the ingredients to prepare this review, I have to say that it surprised me to see alcohol in it. I think if I had known about it beforehand, it probably would have even been a turnoff for me. I would have at least hesitated to try it.

But I was so right to try it, anyway! And from now on, I’ll try to remember that no, definitely, a product is not just about the list of its ingredients, but it’s a whole formula, which is an entire system made to work as such on the skin 😉.

And alcohol isn’t necessarily stripping. It depends a lot on its concentration, and the other ingredients in the formula. Let’s stop demonizing ingredients (unless you are allergic to them, but that’s another story 😉 ). Here, I guess it must allow the formula to feel quite lightweight. And I have to say, I think its texture is really pleasant!

You can use it morning and night if you want, but right now, I apply it in the morning. It’s perfect for soothing and maintaining my skin barrier during the day.
I use it after applying my water-based serum(s), and before my daily moisturizer.

Full disclosure, I’ve already repurchased it, and I’ll probably happily use it all summer long 🙂.

In conclusion:

The latest addition to the Cicaplast range is a great product!

I admit it’s not cheap. And if you don’t live in Asia, it’s complicated to get it at the moment.

For the more adventurous, I purchased mine from Beauty Box Korea (the link is below) and if you use the code BBKLOVEBONNIE, and register in their reward program (it’s free), you’ll get 8% discount on your order.
The site delivers internationally, I often order from them. Until this serum is more easily available everywhere, it’s one way to get it 🙂.

The La Roche Posay Cicaplast B5 Ultra Repair Serum retails for $48 for 30ml.