If you follow me on any kind of social media, mainly Snapchat though (username gemmalondonlife) then you will have seen that last week I went on a trip to the South of France with the natural French skincare brand Avene. Along with the brand I was also joined with some incredible bloggers (Ellie and Lex) and hilarious journalists which made up just the most amazing group of women ever but I’ll gush more about that later. I’d been a fan of Avene for years as it’s a brand that is perfect for dry and sensitive skin which is how I would probably describe my skin type. During the 4 days we spent two days in the actual village of beautiful Avene which is located at the top of the mountains in the South of France and then two days in Montpellier which in contrast to Avene was a super buzzing busy city.
During our time in Avene we essentially learnt all there is to know about Avene from discovering their entire extensive range of products to actually visiting the factory where the products are made and packaged (which as a science geek, I absolutely loved). During our stay we also visited the Hydrotherapy Center which is a relaxing retreat where people with extreme skin conditions go and stay to have a 3 week course of treatments to target specific skin concerns. As part of our tour we actually had one of the treatments the centre offer to their patients where you have a relaxing bath which has been filled with the Avene spring water whilst jets massage your legs to remove and soften any dead skin cells in an effort to speed up the skin regeneration process. You then take a strange kind of shower the fires jets of water onto your body which remove all the dead skin cells that were softened during the bath. I have to say, I liked the bath but being such a short person I found the jet experience almost hilarious as they were essentially being fired into my face.
For the rest of the trip we learnt about their extensive list of products and all they ranges from the brand, and let me tell you, there are a lot. As you can see from the pictures above there are so many different ranges, some of which we don’t actually get in the UK which is heartbreaking but we do have access to a huge amount of their products. I’ve spoken a lot about how amazing Avene is for people with dry skin but almost all of their products also work really well on normal skin. From their products I would say that my favourites ranges are the Cold Cream and Tolerance Extreme. The Cold Cream body moisturiser is a product that has completely transformed the dry skin on my arms in literally 5 days of using it, it’s kind of crazy. The Tolerance Extreme range is the newest range from Avene and only contains a maximum of 7 ingredients in the whole line. Now if you’re thinking that 7 ingredients is quite a lot just have a look at the back of one of your moisturisers… it contains a lot more than 7 right?! The range is made in completely sterile conditions, contains no preservatives and is made from 70% Avene water, which makes the products absolutely perfect for eczema sufferers, people with dry skin but also if you have normal skin and just like to know what you’re putting on your face.
Along with all the face creams, masks and cleansers we also learnt a bit more about the Avene Thermal Spring Water, which is one of their cult products. It’s essentially super high quality spring water in a can that is super multi-tasking as it can be used on sunburn, nappy rash, after shaving, after exercise and post make up removing before applying your skincare. I like to think of it as a spray that can be used to cool down the skin, which means it’s so perfect if you suffer for itchy dry skin.
All in all as you can probably tell by the tone of this post I had the most amazing time with my Avene Squad (that’s what we’re called now) and couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls to spent the time with.
You can also probably tell that I’m now a little bit in love with the brand and have been recommending it to every man and their dog. If you’re in the UK you can get your hands on a lot of the Avene ranges from Boots and there will definitely be a line for any skin concern you have or if you’re just in the market for products that don’t contain any nasties! I’ve popped a few of my favourite items below:
Finally (stay with me) I’m going to do a separate post on the outfits I wore during the trip as I got quite a few questions on Instagram so I thought it would be better to put them all into one big post!
