AVEENO DOES FACIAL SKINCARE

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I've been using the Aveeno Calm and Restore Face products for a few months now, so it seemed time to review this line: everything comes in under £15 for Affordable Beauty Month but it's also great for sensitive winter skin. Let's dive in...

All of the products in the range are under £15 and often on offer at Boots - they've been around in the US for a while but only reached the UK towards the end of last year. If you didn't know from Aveeno's body care, or even their name: the entire line is built around oat extracts, which can be calming for sensitive skin and are especially great when paired alongside moisturising base formulas. The facial skincare is pretty simple, but in a really good way; there's no fragrance or other common irritants, and I think it's relatively good for most skin types and I'm sure most sensitive-skinned people would get on with these products (though it's always important to check a formula doesn't contain any irritants specific to your skin).

Let's run through this in the order you'd apply them, so we're starting with the Nourishing Oat Cleanser* | £7.99. I love the texture of this cleanser, particularly for my skin type and for this time of year, because it's almost like a creamy jelly, so you get that feeling of a water-based cleanser but this is very gentle and doesn't take away too much of those good oils you want on your skin. It's non-foaming, too - I know a lot of people say that foaming doesn't = stripping, but ultimately, I don't particularly like that feeling and can't try every foaming cleanser in the world to see if it's stripping or not. It's just a bit of a shorthand for me to get to a product less likely to strip my skin, though if you're using a foaming cleanser you love and it's not stripping your skin: crack on! This contains your oat extract, of course, along with humectants like glycerin and emollients that leave my skin feeling nice and soft after cleansing. There's honestly not a lot to this outside of that; the majority of the other ingredients are gentle surfactants, stabilising ingredients, additions to give this the right sort of consistency and preservatives. However, I really don't think that's a bad thing! Sometimes we can over-complicate cleansers when ultimately: you just need something that leaves your skin feeling clean but not dried-out and this absolutely does that. I can use it when my skin is dry and also when it feels quite sensitive.

The next product is possibly my favourite from the range: the Soothing Oat Toning Lotion* | £7.99. You can see really from how it looks in this bottle that it's more of a weightly, almost essence-like toner and I personally like to just apply this with my hands rather than mess around with unnecessary cotton pads. For me, this is a nice, moisturising, soothing layer of hydration. I personally tend to use quite strong actives in my routine and don't necessarily want to layer multiple serums into a routine. This allows me to get in that bit of calming goodness before using something quite strong, or if I'm feeling lazy or my skin just wants a break, I use this then a nice rich, fatty moisturiser to replenish things. It's another simple formula with your oat extract, glycerin to act as a humectant and also Vitamin E to bring calm and moisture to the skin but for its antioxidant benefits too.

Next we have the Triple Oat Serum* | £14.99 | which was honestly was the most disappointing product from the line for me. It contains similar ingredients to the toner: you have oat extract and glycerin, but here there's actually also oat oil and flour. For me, it's not that this doesn't work, it's just that it seems to disappear into nothingness on my skin. It's like my face is so desperate for moisture that it gobbles this up within minutes of application! Weirdly, I do find the toner provides much more substantial and lasting hydration and moisture to my skin, so I'd pick that over this (as the most expensive product here) for my skin any day. This does calm the skin so if you're very oily and struggle to find skin barrier supportive products that aren't too heavy: give it a go, or if you really like layering different products: you might like this. It's just not for me or my routine, as it brings very little to the party.

Last but not least: let's talk about the Oat Gel Moisturiser* | £10.99. This isn't actually a true water-based gel moisturiser, it's more like a gel-cream formula. It's oil-free insofar as I can see but does contain some silicone to trap hydration into the skin alongside the usual suspects: oat flour, oat extract, glycerin and Vitamin E. This has a really nice texture and is a very lightweight way to get nice, calming ingredients into your skin with a very low chance of getting clogged pores or suffocating things. For me, I do prefer a richer, more buttery quality from a winter moisturiser but I think this will be a really nice option for me during the summer when I want something that's light but calming and restorative.

Due to the repetition of similar ingredients across the different leave-on products, I don't think most people need all three of them. Which you go for really depends on your routine and texture preferences. The serum was a bit of a nothing product for me, the moisturiser was nice for me but not quite right for my skin right now. The cleanser and toner therefore come out as my must-haves from the line!

Have you tried this line from Aveeno?

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