Is First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream The Best Head-To-Toe Cream For Sensitive Skin?

I can’t believe it took me this long to try First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream. With 4 units sold every minute, it’s the brand’s best-seller in the US. On the surface, it seems the kind of product I’d be dying to try.

Yet, I panicked this would be too rich for my skin and turn my face into a pimple fest. Because that’s happened in the past and I’m tired of hyped up products that give me pimples before a romantic first date. This girl could live without that and I’m sure you could, too.

Luckily, that never happened. This cream didn’t give any zits. Instead, here’s what it did to my complexion (hint: it’s all good):

About The Brand: First Aid Beauty

Lily Gordon founded First Aid Beauty in 2009 on a mission to create a skincare brand that merged the medical effectiveness of pharmacy skincare with luxury. While everyone else focused on anti-aging, Gordon saw a gap for a brand that took care of your skin’s health and offered solutions to sensitive skin plagued with eczema, dry skin, dermatitis, and other common skin complaints. If you’re looking for skincare products for your unhappy, sensitive skin, this brand is definitely one to indulge in.

Key Ingredients In First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream: What Makes It Work?

COLLOIDAL OATMEAL TO SOOTHE IRRITATED SKIN

Colloidal oatmeal is a very fine powder derived from whole oat grains. Here, it’s present at a 0.5% concentration. Not much, but enough to do its job. What is that?

Colloidal Oatmeal soothes redness and irritations and strengthens your skin’s protective barrier so your skin doesn’t get easily upset by cold weather, germs and other triggers. This makes colloidal oatmeal a skin saviour for anyone with psoriasis, eczema and atopic dermatitis.

A 2012 study confirms that “the daily use of moisturizers and/or cleansers containing colloidal oatmeal significantly improved many clinical outcomes of atopic dermatitis” and was “well tolerated in babies, children, and adults with AD.”

FYI, you can also use colloidal oatmeal to soothe sunburn, rashes (including diaper rashes), hives, insect bites, and other pruritic conditions.

P.S. Colloidal oatmeal isn’t the only soothing ingredient here. This cream also has allantoin and green tea to help calm down irritations and redness.

Related: Everything You Need To Know About Colloidal Oatmeal In Skincare

GLYCERIN TO HYDRATE SKIN

Let’s start with the basics. Glycerin is in pretty much ALL skincare products for a reason. It’s a wonderful humectant: that’s a fancy way of saying it draws moisture from the air and locks it into your skin. Once there, this extra moisture softens, plumps, and brightens your skin. That’s the base you want to build the rest of your skincare routine on.

Related: The Complete Guide To Glycerin In Skincare

SHEA BUTTER TO MOISTURISE SKIN

Shea butter is a godsend for dry skin. Derived from the nut of the Shea tree, this fat is rich in moisturising fatty acids and antioxidants. Fatty acids are what makes it work so well: they create a protective barrier on the skin that slows down water loss. Moisture is now forced to stay into the skin, hydrating it from within.

FYI, shea butter is even more moisturising than mineral oil (what derms consider the gold standard for moisturisation). Its effects lasts for up to 8 hours, if not more!

P.S. Ceramides and Squalane are here to do the same job: strengthen the skin’s barrier and make skin softer and smoother.

Related: Why Shea Butter Is The Best Moisturiser For Dry Skin

Struggling to put together a skincare routine for dry skin that banishes redness, dryness, and flakiness? Download your FREE “Best Skincare Routine For Dry Skin” to get started (it features product recommendations + right application order):

The Rest Of The Formula & Ingredients

• Water/Aqua/Eau: The main solvent, it dissolve other ingredients in the formula.
• Stearic Acid: An emollient that makes skin softer and smoother.
• C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate: And emollient with a light and silky feel that makes skin softer and smoother.
• Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride: Derived from coconut oil and glycerin, it’s rich in fatty acids that strengthen the skin’s protective barrier to prevent water loss and safeguard it from harsh environmental factors. The result is softer, smoother, healthier skin.
• Glyceryl Stearate Se: The SE in the name stands for “self-emulsifying” because it’s an oily ingredient that can blend with water by itself. It’s an emollient that makes skin softer and smoother. And it prevents the oily and watery parts of a product from separating.
• Glyceryl Stearate: It makes skin softer and smoother. It gives body to rich creams. And it prevents the oily and watery parts of a product from separating.
• Cetearyl Alcohol: It keeps the oily and watery parts of a formula from separating, resulting in a pleasant-to-use texture.
• Dimethicone: A silicone that fills in fine lines and wrinkles, so they look smaller. It also imparts a velvety feel to skin. Its molecular structure is made of big molecules with wide gaps in between, so skin can still perspire through them. It’s non-comedogenic, too.
• Squalane: A derivative of Squalene, this natural oil strengthens the protective barrier and moisturising skin without being comedogenic. It also doesn’t irritate skin.
• Allantoin: It has powerful anti-inflammatory properties that reduce redness and irritation.
• Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract: A.k.a. green tea, it’s rich in polyphenols, a group of antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties. It fights free radicals, prevents wrinkles, and soothes down inflammation and redness, including that caused by UV rays.
• Caprylyl Glycol: It hydrates skin and has preservative-like properties that keeps the formula from going bad.
• Ceramide 3: One of the skin’s main building blocks, this natural wax strengthens the skin’s protective barrier to keep it safe from environmental aggressors. It also slows down water loss, keeping skin hydrated.
• Chrysanthemum Parthenium Extract: A.k.a. feverfew, it has soothing properties that reduce redness and irritation.
• Disodium Edta: It attaches to the neutral ions in the water that would otherwise make the cream go bad faster and neutralises them.
• Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil: It has antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties that kill bacteria, fight free radicals, and soothe irritations. But, it can also irritate sensitive skin.
• Glycyrrhiza Glabra Root Extract: It has powerful anti-inflammatory properties that treat several inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis, rosacea and eczema. 
• Sodium Hydroxide: It helps adjust the pH of a product.
• Xanthan Gum: It thickens the texture of skincare products.
• Phenoxyethanol: A gentle preservative that kills a wide range of bacteria to extend the shelf life of your cream.

Texture

First Aid Beauty describes the texture as whipped, but I disagree. It’s thick, but not greasy. It leaves behind a slight sheen that disappears quickly, but no oily residue that hangs around for ages. For drier, sensitive skin types it’s just perfect and a pleasure to use. If you have oily skin, though, it’ll be a bit too emollient for you.

Fragrance

Technically, it’s fragrance-free. It has no artificial scent added to it. That’s a plus. Fragrances smell good – but they’re the most irritating ingredient used in skincare, especially for sensitive skin. First Aid Beauty is a range for sensitive skin, so leaving out any potential sensitisers is definitely the right call. The catch? First Aid Beauty has added a drop of eucalyptus oil that gives it a slight minty scent. Eucalyptus can be irritating for sensitive skin. If you know it bothers your skin, stay away from this cream.

How To Use It

In the morning, use it after serum and before sunscreen. At night, it’s the last step of your skincare routine. You can also use it on your body after a shower. Don’t you love how versatile it is? Plus, you only need a tiny amount, it goes a long way.

Packaging

A blue and white jar. I’m usually not a fan of jars because they’re not hygienic. You don’t want bacteria to contaminate your cream. Of course, you can get around that by washing your hands before dipping your fingers in the jar. And the preservative system in here is good enough to kill the odd bacteria that should enter the jar.

The cream also comes in a tube version that has 57g of product, so if a jar is a deal-breaker, you could pick that one instead. Even though I don’t like jars, it’s a practical choice for such a rich texture. Plus, it’s HUGE. Instead of the usual 50ml, First Aid Beauty gives you a whopping 170g. This stuff will last you for MONTHS.

Performance & Personal Opinion

I have combination skin that gets a little oilier in the summer and drier in winter. Would First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream work for me?

In this cold November month, yes. It’s doing wonders for my skin. The thick texture takes a minute or two to sink in, but when it does, there’s no sticky feeling on my skin.

I prefer to use it at night anyway. But I tried it in the morning a few times as well and it makes an excellent base for makeup.

The cream does a wonderful job at moisturising skin. When I wake up in the morning, my skin is as softer as a baby’s. My fines lines look a little smaller. I swear my dark circles don’t look as bad, either.

This’ll probably be too rich for me in the summer. For now, it’s not giving me any issue. After a month of daily (sometimes twice daily) use, it hasn’t given me a single pimple. Phew!

But in the hotter summer months, when my sebum production goes up a notch again, I won’t take the risk. I’ll keep using it on my body only. The skin there is super dry, no matter what time of the year it is.

On my body, the rich texture absorbs immediately, too. It helps soothe the itchiness and tightness that I always feel there without the help of a rich cream like this.

How Does First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream Compare To Other First Aid Beauty Moisturisers?

First Aid Beauty offers different moisturisers for different skin types and needs. Let’s see how they compare to Ultra Repair Cream, so you can make the right choice for your skin:

• First Aid Beauty Hello Fab Coconut Water Cream ($36.00): A lightweight, hydrating moisturiser that draws moisture to the skin without adding more oil to it. It also has a few skin-soothers to reduce irritations. It’s best suitable for oily, sensitive skin. Available at First Aid Beauty, Selfridges, Sephora, and Ulta.
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream ($38.00): This review is for the fragrance-free version of the cream. But, the formula is so popular, the brand has released multiple versions, each one with a different distinctive scent:
  • Cranberry Pomegranate: It has a juicy and tarty pomegranate and cranberry scent that’s fairly gentle. Available at First Aid Beauty.
  • Fresh Pear: It starts with juicy pears notes that transition to sparkling citrusy accents and finishes on a sweet vanilla base. It’s beautiful but anything with citrus scents can be irritating. Available at First Aid Beauty.
  • White Tea And Apricot: The bright, fruity smell of apricot mixed with the herbal scent of tea. But the citrus notes can irritate sensitive skin. Available at First Aid Beauty.
  • Grapefruit: The sparkling, juicy scent of grapefruit. It can be irritating for sensitive skin. Available at First Aid Beauty.
  • Sugar Plum: It smells like sweet vanilla accented with hints of sugar coated plum, fig and dark berry notes. Sweet and, for some skin types, irritating. Available at First Aid Beauty.
  • Sweet Vanilla Peach: Juicy peach and sweet vanilla with a sprinkle of ocean notes. Lovely, but again, it can irritate sensitive skin. Available at First Aid Beauty.
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Face Moisturiser ($28.00): Ideal for very dry or dehydrated skin, this cream uses urea to attract and binds water to your skin and a bunch of natural oils to prevent it from evaporating out again. It’s gentle and suitable for sensitive skin, too. Available at Dermstore, First Aid Beauty, Selfridges, Sephora, and Ulta.
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Firming Collagen Cream ($42.00): There’s nothing here that can firm skin. The cream has a dollop of collagen, but that’s too big to penetrate skin. When it stays on the surface, collagen only moisturises skin. This is a lovely moisturising cream packaged with skin-soothers – it’s just not anti-aging. Available at Dermstore, First Aid Beauty, Nordstrom, Selfridges, Sephora and Ulta.
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Hydra-Firm Night Cream ($42.00): There’s nothing here that can firm skin. But it’s moisturising, soothes irritations, and has a bunch of antioxidants that help prevent premature aging. The richer texture is more suitable for dry skin. Available at First Aid Beauty, Nordstrom, Sephora, Selfridges, and Ulta.
• First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Oil-Control Moisturiser ($32.00): There’s nothing here that can absorb excess oil. But it’s a lightweight moisturiser that packs a lot of hydration and makes skin softer and smoother without adding oil to it. All in all, a good choice for oily skin. Available at First Aid Beauty, Selfridges, and Sephora.

What I Like About First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream

• Thick, emollient, non-greasy texture.
• It’s technically fragrant-free.
• Multi-tasking, can be used on face and body.
• Very moisturising, makes skin softer and smoother.
• It makes my fine lines and wrinkles look smaller.
• Soothing, reduces irritations.
• Non-comedogenic.

What I DON’T Like About First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream

• Take a minute to absorb.
• Too emollient for oily skin.
• It contains eucalyptus oil, which can irritate sensitive skin.

Who Should You Use This?

This rich, soothing cream is best suitable for dry and sensitive skin types. Oily and/or acne-prone skin will find it too rich for them.

Does First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream Live Up To Its Claims?

Is First Aid Beauty Cruelty-Free?

Yes, First Aid Beauty is certified by PETA and cruelty-free.

Price & Availability

$34.00/£27.90 at Asos, Dermstore, Feel Unique, Sephora, and Ulta

The Verdict: Should You Buy It?

If you have dry skin that’s also sensitive, this is a great option for you (unless you’re allergic to eucalyptus).

Dupes & Alternatives

• Aveeno Baby Eczema Therapy Nighttime Balm ($17.99): A rich cream with ceramides and colloidal oatmeal to moisturise skin, soothe irritations, and treat eczema. Available at Target.

About Gio

Hi, I'm Gio. I'm a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is skin coach and writer on a mission to help you achieve your best skin day ever - every day. I bust skincare myths and debunk marketing jargon to help you figure out what's worth the splurge and what's best left on the shelf - using science, not hype. I also offer skincare consultations to help you create the best skincare routine for your unique needs.