Friday, March 4, 2011

Vichy Essentielles Range - Back To Basics






























Do these products look very familiar to you? I am sure some of you must have seen them while you are shopping in Guardian or Watsons in the past few months.

The growing trend of "Back to Essentials" consumers has led to the birth of Essentielles under Vichy Laboratoires face and body range.

Essentielles  is a BASIC face and body care range that focuses on skin's essential daily needs, without targeting a particular skin problem, as they hydrate, protect and reveal skin's radiance. These products are tested on sensitve skin under dermatological control.

So can you make a guess what is the key ingredient in Essentielles products?

Hint: The main focus on the packaging!


Yes, that is the rose (known as the French Rose) ..and this is also how one differentiate the Essentielles range from the rest under the Vichy family.. The French Rose ( Rosa Gallica extract) has always been used by pharmacists for its soothing, protecting and hydrating properties. It allows the skin to reveal its glow. Researchers have found out that Rose contains Polyphenols and in nature, these proteins protect against external aggressions and ensure their freshness in the long term. All these products are paraben free and hypoallergenic.


Other active ingredients include:
  • Glycerin- A moisture keeping agent capable of retaining high quantities of water within the stratum corneum, ensuring the hydration of the skin's outer layers.
  • Shea Butter - (in facial emulsion and body cream-milk) soothes and protects against external aggressions.
  • Vichy Thermal Spa Water - a natural active ingredient that soothes and fortifies the skin day after day.

You must be wondering why I mentioned Essentielles is a basic face and body care range??

Because.. there are only 2 products for skin care and 2 products for body care under this range. Can say it is really a fuss-free skincare regime for people who do not have any particular skin problem in concern.


The 2 Essentielles products for the face:

- Essentielles Foaming Cleanser




















Description: A foaming cream to gently cleanses and removes makeup. Hypoallergenic and paraben-free.

Full ingredients list for Essentielles foaming cleanser:


Size: 100ml tube
Price: $11.90
How to use: Apply onto the face every morning and/or evening & rinse off.
My thoughts after trying the product for a week:

This cleanser is one of the foamest cleansers I have ever used. See the amount of foam that I can whip up using the small amount of product and some water.


No joke right! See how foamy the cleanser is when I am it on my face. This product is one of my favourite products in the Essentielles range. I love how creamy and foamy the cleanser lathers up, and how it makes my skin clean and soft after each wash. No tight after-wash feeling too. It is mentioned that i can remove makeup, even eye makeup and I tested it on my eyes, and see if it could remove my mascara and eyeshadow.. (Ok, I have to admit I do not use cleanser on my eye area but for this review, I gave it a try because I was also curious to see if it really can double up as an eye makeup remover as well)

It can remove my eye shadow. However, when I tried using the product on my eyelashes, and used a cotton pad to remove the waterproof mascara on my lashes.. it actually stung my eyes, quite painful when I opened my eyes although I saw some traces of mascara being removed.(not fully) So conclusion is it can be used to remove light eye makeup but not waterproof mascara, it is better to avoid using the product near the lash lines. I will still stick to using a separate eye makeup remover when removing my eye makeup.

Scent wise, it is not really the typical rose scent, it smells more like a nice light flowery scent to me. I am really loving and enjoying using this cleanser! Did I mention that it tone our skin as well? (That is why there is no toner in this range!) Must try this product if you have a chance!



- Essentielles Facial Emulsion

Description: This emulsion for normal to combination skin soothes the skin with Polyphenols, it also contains Allantoin that has repairing, softening, moisturizing and calming properties for damaged or fragile skin.

Full ingredients list for Essentielles facial emulsion:
Size: 50ml tube
Price: $16.90
How to use: Apply onto the face every morning and/or evening after cleansing your skin.

My thoughts after trying the product for a week:

Essentielles Facial Emulsion is a lightweight emulsion (moisturiser) that is quickly absorbed leaving my skin smooth to the touch. It gives a non-sticky finish. This product helps to moisturise and calm my skin as I can feel that my skin is supple even after a few hours upon application. (I guess it must be the effects of the French rose and Vichy Thermal Spa Water used in the product)  Similiarly to its cleanser, I do not smell the typical rose scent in this emulsion. It has a flowery, light and fresh fragrance. No allergy or rashes found on my rather sensitive skin after using both products twice a day for 7 consecutive days.

The 2 Essentielles products for the body:

- Essentielles Softening Shower

Description: This shower gel cleanses, softens and protects the skin with a flowery, light and fresh fragrance. (At first I thought this was the toner for the face, but only yesterday I found out that this is a shower gel. LOL)

Full ingredients list for Essentielles Softening Shower:
Size: 200ml bottle
Price: $12.90
How to use: Lather with water and apply onto the body every morning and/or evening before rinsing off with water.

My thoughts after trying the product for a week:
I love this body shower gel. It makes my skin smells nice and soft after my shower. The nice flowery scent lingers on my skin for a while, because when I am out of my shower I can still smell the subtle nice flowery fragrance on my skin. I also love the packaging of this product; the simple compact transparent bottle with the pink shower gel in it, adds a feminine touch. Definitely one of the prettiest shower gels one can find in Guardian/Watsons.


- Essentielles Body Cream-Milk


Description: This body moisturizer hydrates, protects and reveals skin's glow. It also nourishes and soothes the skin as it contains Shea Butter.

Full ingredients list for Essentielles Body Cream-Milk:
Size: 200ml bottle
Price: $14.90
How to use: Apply onto the body every morning and/or evening. Do not apply product on the face.

My thoughts after trying the products for a week:
I have to say I rarely use body cream as I find it a hassle to use one, plus I do not like the greasy after-feel on my whole body. However, for this review, I started to use this body cream after my evening shower in the past week. Oh boy, I am hooked to this product. The lightweight formula is a joy to use, it get absorbed into my skin upon application, and leaves my skin baby soft without the greasy after feel. (It can get quite irritated if one apply body care product after a nice shower, and still feel greasy all over the body, isn't it?)


Overall, I do like these Vichy Essentielles products because they work for me, without giving me allergy. Although Vichy Essentielles skin care contains 2 products targetted for people without any major skin concerns, I would suggest to add in an eye cream/gel (to hydrate our eye areas) plus a sunblock (to use after face emulsion during the day) to protect against the harmful UV rays, and it would be more or less a complete skin care regime, since the foaming cleanser tones our skin as well.

Vichy Essentielles body care products also work great, the nice light flowery scent certainly calms one's mind after a long day at work, the duo leave my skin feeling soft and moisturised.

The best part these products are paraben free, hypoallergic and infused with Vichy thermal spa water! And they are really very affordable! Do check them out next time you see these lovely looking Essentielles products!

Vichy Essentielles range is available exclusively at Vichy counters in selected Watsons, Guardian, Unity and Nishino pharmacies, and in all major hospital pharmacies.



The good news is Vichy will be rewarding one of my dearest readers with the entire Essentielles set ( 4 products) ...




Here is how you can win this entire Essentielles range for yourself or your family/gf/bf/bff:

1) Join Vichy Facebook  (just click "like" icon on Vichy Singapore Facebook Fanpage)

2) Tag yourselves to any Vichy Essentielles products’ picture on this page & comment why you would like to win a set of Vichy Essentielles products.

3) and remember to include in your comment "referred by Sharon" so that I know you are my reader and I can pick you if you have the best comment!

4) lastly, do not forget to join my facebook if you have not do so, so that I can see the comment you wrote on Vichy's Facebook and I can send you a message if you are the lucky winner.

This contest ends on 11 March 2011.

Good luck everyone!

Now winning a Vichy Essentielles hamper worth over $50 is as easy as using Vichy Essentielles "Back to Basic" products which help to hydrate, protect and soothe skin to reveal healthy and radiant skin!


A BIG Thank you to Vichy Singapore for giving me this chance to try out Vichy's Essentielles range and sponsoring the whole Vichy Essentielles set to one of my readers!



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