June 29, 2011

Review: Vichy Normaderm Pro Mat & Vichy Normaderm Refining Pore Essence

Pro Mat on Left and Refining Essence on Right
I am nursing a couple of injuries from an accident with a door so this week's post is going to be short and sweet. Let's take a look at two products I have been trying out for the past two months: Vichy Normaderm Pro Mat Non-Stop Matte Effect Hydrating Care and Vichy Normaderm Refine Total Pore Resurfacing Essence.

Isn't that a mouthful? Vichy needs to think of shorter names for their products.

Vichy Normaderm Pro Mat Non-Stop Matte Effect Hydrating Care with SPF 15

The very lovely Lisa Eldridge influenced my purchase of this particular product. She had recommended it in a few of her videos so my daytime moisturiser stopped working for me, I thought, "Why not?" As I mentioned last week, really hot weather encourages the oilies. A new mattfying product had to be found. The fact that this comes with SPF made it all the better.

After 2 months of use, I have to say that I really do like this daytime moisturiser. An issue i have with most oil control products is that they often go overboard with the oil control, to the point where my skin dries out. No such problem with Vichy Pro Mat as it strikes a nice balance between being mattifying and moisturising. On its own, oil peeks in at around lunchtime but it's nothing a bunch of oil blotters can't handle. Paired with a sample of Dr. Brandt's Pores No More though, I found that my face was oil free until evening.

Lisa Eldridge was right by the way: Pro Mat is great as primer. I can skip an extra step in my skincare routine now.

The only ouch factor? The Price. Vichy Normaderm Pro Mat retails at RM 89 for 30ml. A tube lasts for about 2 months, give or take a week. Vichy does go on sale quite frequently though so I have taken to picking up tubes whenever the prices drops to around RM 70+.

Vichy Normaderm Refine Total Pore Resurfacing Essence

I bought this instead of Pro Mat the first time I went out to get it. I was in a rush and the packaging is very similar. It doesn't take a genius to guess what happened next.

Learn a lesson from this, girls: Always check the label before you get to the counter.

The Pore Essence is, in a word, mehh. Nothing to wow about, doesn't help with oil control and i don't think it actually does anything for your skin other than to make you think that you are doing something extra.

I have forgotten how much the Pore Essence retails for but it is cheaper than Pro Mat and the price is around RM80. I would give this a miss if I were you>

3 comments:

Steph said...

They drill this in pharmacy school all the time: check the label. Again.

hope the pain is mostly gone! x

theotherworldly said...

You could try The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil moisturiser! It's what I find to be a lovely balance between mattifying and moisturising ...

Anonymous said...

normaderm pro-mat is sebum controller with hydrating effect whereas normaderm refine is pore skin refiner intended to even out the skin surface that not to conceal but to treat. therefore the both products although look the same and share similar ingredients, have completely different purposes. In Canada, the pro mat range is similar to complete mat moisturizer (bigger bottle & cheaper). If one intends to use as primer to give longer lasting effect to their makeups, defintely pro-mat is the one. Refine really does what it promises in longer term use which is great.