La Roche Posay Nutritic Intense moisturizer review

In today’s review we are having a closer look at one of my favorite skincare brands: La Roche Posay. They were one of the first skincare brands I tried and that I felt worked for my dry, dehydrated, sensitive skin. I have tried several products in the past, my favorites being their Toleriane Ultra night cream and Hydraphase UV Intense Riche moisturizer. However, not everything I try by the brand is successful. I have documented my original quest for starting a skincare routine in the early years of this blog and trying the Toleriane Ultra moisturizer. I had struggled with setting up a good skincare routine for years but my sensitive skin made it hard to try things out. This was the first cream that I tried that worked, or so I thought, but after a month or so, it started to make my face red and causing an allergic reaction. I ended up being able to make it work and we are now almost a decade along the line from that stage and my skin has been much better (it’s just a lot more used to skincare). So now that my skin is more experienced will it like the La Roche Posay Nutritic Intense cream?

Skincare review: La Roche Posay Nutritic Intense In-depth Nutri-Reconstituting cream

It’s so funny to me because in that original Toleriane review, I mentioned trying several of their moisturizers as samples and not liking the others. One of those samples I tried? Yes it was for this product that I am reviewing for you today. The critique I had then was that my skin didn’t absorb the product and it just lay there (this was an issue I had for a long time), ultimately just slipping of my skin as I was sweating it off (yum!). However, I wanted to try this because I was curious whether after so many years and trying so much more skincare whether I could make it work. This retails for €17 online here in The Netherlands, but I am sure you can get it for cheaper from other retailers.

What does this moisturizing cream have to offer?

Let me tell you why I still wanted to try this: I thought the cream really sounded like something I might like for the winter time. It is suppose to soothe, relief dryness, increase suppleness and just make your dry skin feel so much better. It sounded like a cream too intense for the warmer months, so I mainly used this in February/ March time. I just hadn’t gotten around to writing the review. Now that I have used this up completely, I feel rather confused. The cream feels nice on the skin at first, but I have found that this cream just isn’t quite right for my skin.

What are the ingredients like?

Whenever I review a skincare product, I like to include an ingredient list. Not because I’m an expert and know all the ins and outs, but I have found that being able to understand roughly what is in a product can help you to discern whether you might like it or not. Not because I actively avoid certain ingredients, even though I have sensitive skin, I have never been able to figure out what sets off any reactions, but because I like to figure out whether something might work out or not.

Ingredient list:

Aqua/ water, paraffinum liquidum/ mineral oil, dimethicone, glycerin, Bis-Peg-18 methyl ether dimethyl silane, synthetic wax, ethylhexyl palmitate, butyrospermum parkii butter/ shea butter, glyceryl stearate, behenyl alcohol, aluminum starch octenylsuccinate, hexyldecanol, hexyldecyl laurate, cera microcristallina/ microcrystalline wax, niacinamide, paraffin, glyceryl stearate citrate, dimethiconol, myristyl malate phosphonic acid, ammonium polyacryldimethyltauramide/ ammonium polyacryloyldimethyl taurate, disodium edta, disodium etyhlene dicocamide peg-15 disulfate, caprylyl glycol, xanthan gum, acrylates copolymer, tocopherol, phenoxyethanol, parfum/fragrance.

And now that I am scrutinizing this ingredient list more closely, I am able to figure out why I am not a huge fan of this. Yes this feels like a lovely thick and creamy formula and it is absorbed quickly. However, the insanely moisturizing properties this boasts about in its claims I feel it doesn’t make good on. I didn’t find this improved the texture of my skin and it did nothing to help with any dehydration or dryness either. The reason? It’s got mineral oil as its main ingredient, following by water and silicones. Meaning: will this actually do a whole lot? The actual ingredients that I know my skin likes such as glycerin, shea butter and niacinamid are further down the list. Not only that, the product also contains several waxes which I feel makes this product sit on the skin for longer and not necessarily do what it claims to do: reconstitute layers of the epidermis. Oh and this is quite heavily fragranced too which I didn’t enjoy. I don’t mind fragrance in my skincare, but this just smelt badly and too strongly.

How did this product apply?

So while I enjoyed this product for the first few applications, having gone through the full tube has taught me that this isn’t the product for me. I feel I need a lot for this to work on my skin and I feel it does less for my skin than the much more lightweight Toleriane Ultra Nuit. This may be great for people with such dry skins that you end up with flakes as you may need something to sit there and just work more on the outside layer of your skin, but I need is something that goes more deeply into the skin to fight milia and that tight feeling that I have come to associate with my skin not doing its best. This was okay for a trial, but not something I would want to go back to.

My final thoughts

The La Roche Posay Nutritic Intense cream was a product that on paper sounded like something my skin loves. Usually for my skin goes: the richer the cream the better, especially for the night time which is when I used this most. However, with this cream I felt it just didn’t do enough for my skin. Where it promises to work on your skins texture by restoring those top layers of your skin, I felt this just sat there and did nothing. The product contains ingredients that rather than have it be more easily absorbed by the skin, it means it stays more on top of it and for me that is just not what my skin needs.

Would I recommend the La Roche Posay Nutritic Intense cream?

I really wanted to love this, but the fragrance, combined with the fact that in the end I felt this made my skin look worse instead of better, makes me not recommend this. I think that if you have more sensitive skin the fragrance in this product may already set off a reaction, depending on how sensitive you are. So to me, this product wasn’t the best and that’s why I wouldn’t recommend purchasing this product blindly. Look into it, get a tester if possible and try it out first to see if this might be right for you.

What was an unsuccessful skincare product for you?