Out of all of La Roche-Posay’s line of skincare products, I’d say the Effaclar Duo is one of the major bestsellers of the brand next to the Anthelios XL sunscreen. I’ve been hearing and reading so many positive reviews about the Effaclar Duo even before the brand arrived in Australia.
When Paris B was in town last November, we caught up with Norlin for lunch and what do 3 women do after a spot of lunch? Why, shopping at Priceline, of course! When we walked by the La Roche-Posay shelf, they raved about the Effaclar Duo and how it has helped control breakouts on the skin and that I have to try it.
No prizes for guessing what went immediately into my shopping basket. 😛
I’ve been using it for 2 months now and I thought it would be an appropriate time to share my thoughts with you about this highly raved product. Did it work for me? Was it as good as so many people claimed it to be?
To be honest, at this point, I’m on the fence about it.
Description:
Effaclar Duo is a complete skincare product that combines 4 active ingredients to act on the two main symptoms of skin with imperfections: Severe localised imperfections: Niacinamide and Piroctone Olamine to fight against bacterial proliferation and eliminate imperfections. Pores clogged with sebum: the combination of LHA and Linoleic Acid unclogs pores while eliminating the accumulated dead cells responsible for blockage. These active ingredients are combined with soothing, anti-irritant La Roche-Posay thermal spring water to reduce redness. Paraben-free, Alcohol-free formula.
The Effaclar Duo is a lightweight lotion that works like a moisturiser. It goes all over your face after serum but before sunscreen. Paris B suggested that I use this just on areas that prone to breakouts and not the whole face because the cream can be quite drying on the skin. I have combination skin with an oily, congested nose so I was pretty excited to try this out.
I applied the Effaclar Duo primarily on my nose and the area around it as these are the spots that breakouts usually occur. This goes on clean skin before serums and moisturisers to “seal in the good juice” before the rest of the skincare go on top. I can’t really pinpoint the fragrance; it smells like one of those marine-seaweedy scents if that even makes sense. I didn’t find it drying on my skin.
Perhaps I haven’t been using this long enough to see the results but I did experience breakouts around my nose. I’m not sure if it’s the Effaclar Duo that was breaking me out because the pimples only came about after 3-4 weeks of using it. I had the usual breakouts of small pimples and large, angry ones around my nose. But one good thing it does for my oily T-zone is that it controls the oiliness. I don’t get the usual shine as quickly as I did before.
Prior to the Effaclar Duo, I was using my Holy Grail of pimple preventers and that’s bLiv’s Off With Their Heads sebum gel. Now I’ve been using this for over 7 years now and for the first few years, I only broke out (even with trialling new products) about once or twice a YEAR. The efficacy went down as the years went by, which is perfectly normal because my skin changes as I age. It’s hard not to compare the Effaclar Duo with the bLiv gel when they’re supposed to give me similar results but don’t.
I haven’t stopped using the Effaclar Duo yet because I’m still determined to at least see the tube to the very end. Perhaps there’ll be better results within the next few months but to be honest, I doubt it. It just didn’t work as well for me as bLiv’s Off With Those Heads.
La Roche-Posay’s Effaclar Duo Corrective and Unclogging Anti-Imperfection Care retails at AU$25.95 for 40ml and is available at selected Priceline and other pharmacies nationally.
What I like about it: Controls the oil on my shiny T-zone.
What I do not like about it: Did not control breakouts on my skin as I still experienced the occasional pimples.
I am on my second bottle of BLiv’s Off With Their Heads sebum gel and I did not know that you could use this to control pimple breakouts? I only use it for blackheads and it has worked so well that this product is definitely a keeper for me 🙂
It didn’t get rid of my blackheads (which was what I originally bought it for) but it got rid of whiteheads and really controlled my breakouts. There’s a reason why I use it religiously and daily for the last 7 years. 😉
Bummer! It worked (still does) well on my skin or actually break-outs. I use it every day and and night on areas where I’m prone to blemishes and so far it has helped controlled that effectively. Then on areas where I don’t normally get breakouts but suddenly do, it certainly helps to “ripen” the pimple and help pop out the gooey “goodness” and then I keep on applying that even after that to be able to extract any other sebum that might be contained in that one little pimple. I think in your case, why it does break out (your nose) is probably because there’s a lot of sebum trapped that needs to be extracted, hence the breakouts? No idea…I’m just guessing btw. And then once that’s cleared, that’s how it works to maintain it? I’m guessing again here.
Norlin recently posted..Health & Lifestyle: Alternative Choices to Soft Drinks
I know, bummer! I really wanted it to work well for me too. I do have congested skin around my nose and the bLiv sebum gel controlled the oil around the area very well. Sadly, I can’t say the same for the Effaclar Duo. I’m still using it so fingers crossed it will work better for me soon.
I’m with Norlin bummer 🙁 I don’t use this daily as I find it too drying but I use it primarily to declog and control my breakouts and so far, so good. 48 hours brings me calmer less clogged skin and dries out pimples more quickly. Then again I don’t have a blackhead or oily skin problem so I’m not sure about that, but it’s how it is isn’t it? Not everything will work for everyone 😉
Paris B recently posted..Waiter! There’s makeup in my skincare (and I’m not sure what I should do)!
Oh yeah, it was a bummer all right. I use this daily just around the nose and didn’t experience any dryness. You can tell how oily my nose is, eh? 😛
nope, it didn’t work for me. Considering the whole 2 months waiting for shipping from Europe to my country because there are 2 version of these, I’d like to get directly from the source, and a large chunk of money (these are not cheap, right? not high end, but not cheap) for the entire Effaclar line, from cleanser to treatment, it totally broke my heart.
It didn’t clear my acnes, only made my skin worse and in the end, one day under natural light I saw hive, which was like thousand of tiny acnes on my skin, I bin all of them.
The only thing in this line worked, and working for me, are the 2 moisturizer: Effaclar H and M for Matt. They are not helping with oil control or crazily giving nice skin, but they don’t break me out, and that’s the ultimate goal I was looking for.
I switched to Ducray products – Keracnyl, and never look back.
Ouch for it making your skin worse! Gah, that’s just awful. I’ve heard about the Effaclar H; I’m not sure if it’s available here so I’ll need to check.
Words of warning, it will make your face shine, the H. If you use in the day time, the M for will be better.
I love to follow Asian/Asian origin beauty blogger, as I’m one so more chance to find something that works for me. Also make up color would be a better match, most time 🙂
Good luck with your Duo though. MAybe it’s just me it’s not the Duo 😛
Thanks for the tip, Pheobe!