A True BB Cream: Dr Jart’s Cicapair Re-Cover Cream SPF 40 🍃💖💚🚑

I was recommended Dr Jart’s Cicapair range when my skin was uber sensitive thanks to hydroquinone (prescribed by my Dermatologist – I’ll do a post on this subject soon!). I heard great things about the Re-Cover Cream, which I thought was a great product to begin with (from the large Cicapair range, and it was) because my skin is sometimes very red and blotchy in the mornings. The green tint is thanks to the hero ingredient in the cream: ‘tiger grass‘  or sometimes as it’s called gotu kola (it’s official scientific name is Centella Asiatica – an Asian ‘herb’ often used in Chinese Medicine) soothing skin but also masking redness. This tinted cream however, is much more than a regular moisturiser or tinting moisturiser, so I couldn’t wait to share my review with you 🌿🧡💚

I call the Cicapair Re-Cover Cream a true Beauty Balm, because beauty balms were designed to firstly soothe skin and to help it repair itself after dermatological treatments or help & repair serious skin conditions. The ‘beauty’ bit is what we know and associate ‘BB creams’ with: tinted properties. However, I don’t find that most marketed ‘BB creams’ are actual Beauty Balms, because the soothing and healing properties of the creams are generally very minimal and ‘second rate’. They are essentially tinted moisturises just ‘re-branded’. Dr Jart’s cream however, is different. The healing and skin ‘friendly’ ingredients as well as sunscreen take centre stage; the ‘cover’ part of the cream (the tint) is the bonus 🌟 And that is why this cream is so great and true to what a BB cream was supposed to be…. so let me tell you more about what makes this cream great, what you need to keep in mind when using it, what skin types will benefit from it and some of it’s disadvantages (there’s just a few small ones 😉). So let’s get into the review! 💛💚🍃

DR. Jart+ CICAPAIR RE-COVER The DR. JART+ Cicapair Re-Cover Cream is a green-to-beige colour correcting treatment that helps conceal redness while treating and protecting sensitive or stressed out skin. Formulated with skin soothing centella asiatica to strengthen the skin barrier and sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium to help improve the skin’s moisture levels and restore fatigued skin for a healthy appearance. Cicapair™ Collection is inspired by the true legend of Asian Tigers, rolling in Centella Asiatica to heal their battle wounds. Also known as tiger grass, its medicinal use has been recognized for centuries. For generations, this active ingredient has also been recognized as a recovery system to help support wounded skin exhibiting inflammation, redness or blemishes. size: 55 ml DIRECTIONS

After cleansing, apply a moderate amount onto skin. The cream will change from green-to-beige to correct any redness.

MADE IN KOREA About the Cicapair range: Dr. Jart+’s Cicapair™ collection is the ultimate cica skin care. It soothes and calms sensitive skin and rids the complexion of redness by using tiger grass from the Asian wetlands, plus lab-tested cica skin care products you won’t get anywhere else. Dr. Jart+’s Cicapair™ uses new technology to further fortify skin with our advanced proprietary ingredients—Jartbiome (A blend of 4 probiotic ferments essential for skin microbiome balance), Centella Rx (a natural blend that intensely soothes with Tiger Grass, Houttuyniae Extract, Yarrow Oil and Ilex Coarnuta), and Cicabond, which repairs skin damage with Arabinogalactan (Ivy derivative) and Minerals (Calcium, Magnesium). Just as special as our cica skin care product ingredients are the exclusive blend of serums, creams, and drops created to deliver the power of cica skin care straight to your complexion: Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Cream, a soft cream that moisturizes and soothes dry, sensitive skin while helping calm redness and irritation. This innovative cica skin care product Formulated helps strengthen skin’s defenses against dryness, and repair dry skin caused by external stressors. Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment SPF 40, a cica skin care best-seller that corrects redness and helps protect skin from environmental aggressors. Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Serum, a potent cica skin care product that soothes irritated, sensitive skin. Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Color Correcting Drops, an ultra-lightweight serum and color corrector that neutralizes redness and turns on skin’s glow. Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Calming Mist, a cica skin care spray that instantly soothes sensitive skin and delivers lasting relief from redness and irritation. Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Calming Gel Cream, with an ultra-light texture and a gel formulation that hydrates and soothes sensitive skin. (This cica skin care product is also great on mild sunburns). *Note from me (Beauty Bee): ‘Cica’ appears to be a nickname given to Centella Asiatica by the K-beauty skin care community.

Benefits of ‘tiger grass’/Centella Asiatica

So first of all, how is ‘tiger grass‘ beneficial for the skin? Thanks to its active compounds, including madecassoside, it’s a powerful antioxidant. Centella asiatica has been shown to be a rich source of amino acids. Amino acids are naturally present in the skin, as part of what’s called our ‘natural moisturising factors’ or NMFs for short. Within skin’s uppermost layers, amino acids work as conductors, orchestrating an incredibly complex “concert” that allows our skin to thrive and to stay hydrated. There’s also additional research showing that ‘tiger grass’ is a good hydrating ingredient to soothe upset or compromised skin including burns (so any skin that is red, ‘angry’, sore and sensitive).

As it’s an ingredient native to Asia, the K Beauty community has jumped all over it, hence it’s popularity at the moment. Through my research, it seems that Korean women in particular are finding that living in cities with high levels of smog, is making their skin more sensitised (‘reactive’). I wrote up a post a while ago on how smog effects our skin, because it’s effects can result in various skin conditions and problems (including sensitised skin!). Whether it’s pollution you are dealing with, UV rays or general skin sensitivity and redness, it sounds like tiger grass can benefit most of us however ☺️

What is sensitised or hyper-sensitive skin?

First of all, how do you define sensitised or hyper-sensitised skin? Answering this question will help you decide whether or not the Cicapair range of prouducts and in particular, the Re-Cover Cream is for you 🍀

Sensitised skin is generally when your skin is sore, irritated and can even hurt. It can also appear red and very dry. What causes hyper-sensitivity or sensitised skin? Generally your skin will become sensitised when the lipid barrier has been compromised and your skin is reacting because it’s trying to protect itself; either from a foreign substance (so it could be an allergic reaction) or harsh environmental factors which have broken down your lipid barrier (sunburn or other weather related stress, or sometime beauty ‘treatments’ which your skin wasn’t prepared or right for).

Sensitised skin can also happen due to medications, especially if you are treating acne (either topically or with medication). We all generally suffer from skin hyper-sensitivity at some point in our lives, but it is true that some skin types suffer from it more often than others (sensitive and acne prone skin in particular). If it’s something that happens to you very often and if you’re not sure why it’s happening to you – seek medical help. Seeing a Dermatologist will work wonders and save your skin from unnecessary speculation and experiments…. however, if you know why your skin in hypersensitive and it’s a temporary ‘issue’, using skincare products and in this case, a blend of skincare and makeup to help soothe and protect skin so it can heal (and be helped in recovering faster) is a wonderful idea and where the Dr Jart+ Cicapair Re-Cover Cream comes in 🥰🥰💚

My Thoughts, Texture

With very sensitive or sensitive skin, you want to ‘protect’ your skin and reform your lipid barrier so your skin can concentrate on healing and rebalancing. Your lipid or moisture barrier is the outermost layer of your skin – made up of skin cells, moisture and ‘fats’ (lipids). I think this is why the Cicapair Re-Cover Cream is such a thick textured moisturiser, it covers your face so it feels ‘protected’, keeping all possible irritants out!

Maybe it’s the colour of the cream (a pale muted green) but it’s texture and consistency reminds me of a clay mask – thick, yet spreads easily. Its texture must also be on the thicker side of the spectrum because of the mineral sunscreen in it’s formula – giving it an awesome SPF protection factor of 40 (yay! but only 30 in the US for some reason 🤷🏼‍♀️). The sun protection comes from zinc oxide, a mineral based UV blocker which is thick but very soothing and non-irritating for sensitive skin. The UV protection in this moisturiser is very important – sensitised skin is very prone to photo-sensitivity (when your skin is super sensitive to UV rays).

As you apply and blend the cream into your skin, it definitely leaves a protective layer on top of your skin. It won’t disappear into ‘nothing’ or sink into the skin so you can’t feel it. As long as you don’t apply too much (I use a ‘chickpea’ amount to cover my entire face) the green tint of the cream will disappear and the cream should not feel heavy or makeup like at all!

Tint/Colour

The pale green colour of the Re-Cover cream fades upon application of the cream to your skin. It fades to a light beige colour. It does keep it’s green undertone which counter-acts any redness in your skin nicely. It’s important to note that the beige tone is a little ‘pale’. I think this is also due to the zinc oxide in the formula – it has a white-ish cast to it. For this reason, I don’t think the beige colour of the cream would work on darker skin tones. Very pale to medium skin tones maybe, but not any darker I’m afraid. See how it works on my skin tone and redness from breakouts below:

Above: no makeup and freshly cleansed skin.

Above: Wearing Dr Jart’s Cicapair Re-Cover Cream SPF 40

What about coverage? The coverage of the tint in the Cicapair Re-Cover Cream is light plus. I say ‘light plus’ because it’s like a tinted moisturiser but, it takes the redness out of your skin very, very well. You generally won’t get that effect using an ordinary tinted moisturiser. Because of the green undertone of the Re-Cover Cream, you get some light and ‘natural’ looking coverage, but with more ability to cover redness. You could certainly still apply makeup on top of the Re-Cover Cream but to be honest I haven’t. I wear it when I want a little coverage and ‘help’ in healing my skin, including giving it a break from my usual makeup routine.

Irritation/Sensitivity

So does the cream help quell sensitivity? Well first of all, even with my hyper-sensitive or sensitised skin, it doesn’t cause irritation – no burning, no additional redness or tingling, and that’s very important! The cream feels soothing and protective upon application. Maybe it also has a psychological effect connected to the texture of the cream – it feels comforting as you apply it 💚

I have no doubt the Re-Cover Cream creates a barrier between your skin and the environment so it won’t be ‘disturbed’ (and can heal) 🚑 My skin never feels like it is ‘burning up’ during the day when wearing the Re-Cover Cream – a very good sign. Most importantly however, my skin feels very comfortable. If you can get your sensitised and sore skin to feel comfortable (and this isn’t an easy feat) you are doing something right!  🥳🥳🥳 The Cicapair Re-Cover Cream contains wonderfully soothing ingredients like; tiger grass, panthenol, niacinamide and yarrow root oil. Soothing ingredients also carry a bonus of working against skin inflammation in the long term – this means that any redness or swelling in the skin should dissipate over time. This is why acne prone skin is often so red and almost swollen, because of inflammation. I find the Re-Cover Cream helps heal any current breakouts I may be dealing with (including covering the redness immediately 😉).

Above: Dr Jart’s Cicapair Re-Cover Cream SPF 40 blended out on the back of my hand.

Hydration

Now onto hydration and I bring this topic up because the Re-Cover Cream is a moisturiser after all! But here is also the creams biggest ‘negative’…. because of the creams texture and purpose I think (to ‘protect’ skin by forming a barrier on top of the skins surface whilst also soothing it) I don’t find the cream to be very moisturising or hydrating. I don’t think this is a huge issue because of how the cream was designed and how it works, but it’s something to take note of. The cream does contain hydrating ingredients don’t get me wrong (like glycerin and niacinamide) but most of the ingredients however, do provide an occlusive barrier to the skin (these work by trapping whatever moisture is in the skin, so it doesn’t evaporate). This means that if your skin is very dry (lacking in oils) or dehydrated (lacking in water) the cream may not be hydrating enough for you. I would suggest using either a hydrating serum underneath it or a light moisturiser underneath it. By using another hydrating product underneath it, you will make sure you aren’t letting your skin get dehydrated which can make sensitivity worse. The Re-Cover Cream will still be soothing and strengthen skin thanks to it’s great formula, but it will also act as your sunscreen and ‘makeup base’. On days you are rushed however, you can of course use the Re-Cover cream as your moisturiser. My recommendation however, is that long term, your skin may get dry or dehydrated if it’s your only moisturiser or ‘cream’ product. Remember that all skin needs hydration – even acne and oily prone skin!

Would I recommend Dr Jart’s Cicapair Re-Cover Cream as your daily BB cream for when your skin is sensitive or particularly red and blotchy? Yes! Besides the skin loving and soothing ingredients, the cream also contains a high level of SPF (non-irritating), counteracts redness AND provides you with some coverage 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾💛💚 That’s pretty awesome I think ☺️ The texture of the cream may take some getting used to, but once you work it out you can apply it very quickly in the morning and go!

I bought my Dr Jart Cicapair Re-Cover Cream from Nudie Glow, an Australian based K-Beauty online retailer for $65 AUD. Nudie Glow offers free shipping for orders above $65 and they have great customer service. I know you can also pick it up at Sephora worldwide, but I like to support smaller local businesses where I can (and Nudie Glow’s prices are super competitive!).

If you ever suffer from sensitised skin or serious skin irritation, let us Beauties know in the comments below. Let us also know if you’ve tried the Dr Jart Cicapair line or what your tips are for soothing stressed skin. Agggges ago I also wrote a post on how to quickly calm stressed and sensitised skin. Let me know if you find it helpful 😘😘🌸🐝

Catch ya next time,

Beauty Bee~

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